COPY AND PASTING INSTRUCTIONS

 

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PREPARED BY

RICHARD NELSON

 

07/19/07

 

GENERAL

Copy and Pasting or Cut and Pasting are one of the most powerful operations you can learn. This handout is dedicated to just those operations. The concept is quite simple. Just select the text or picture you want of copy or cut, and then paste it to a new document or another part of the existing document. However to execute the rules for doing this is rather complex, but not difficult. Below are the rules. The

 

THE CLIPBOARD

Clipboard is the central intermediate storage area in the copy/cut and paste operation. It is the area reserved in RAM where what you copy/cut are stored. The contents of the clipboard can be viewed by clicking on Edit on the Menu bar and then clicking on Office Clipboard. We will cover some of the tricks you can do from the Office Clipboard when it is opened below under CLIPBOARD MANAGEMENT.

 

DRAGGING

But we must first explain what dragging is. Dragging is holding the left mouse button down and then moving the mouse over the text, and letting up the mouse button when you want of stop the drag.

 

SELECTING TEXT

Before we go much farther we must learn the rules for selecting text. Note: when you select text you also highlights the text.

Actually you have been selecting things already. When you started Microsoft Word you clicked on its icon. That is also called selecting. And when you selected the Word icon it changed color which means you highlighted it.

 

Now we are going to concentrate on selecting text: first words, then lines, then sentences, then paragraphs, and then the entire text document. You can also select pictures (graphics)

 

SELECTING WORDS

The best way to select a word is to put the I-beam on top of it and double click. If you are not good at double clicking then you can just drag across it. By putting the I-beam in front or back of the word and holding the left button down, drag across the entire word.

 

SELECTING A LINE

NOTICE when you take your I-beam outside the text area on the left side of the text screen it turns back into an arrow. If you want to select a line (like a heading) take the arrow directly opposite the line on the left side of the screen until it turns into an arrow, and click; that will highlight the entire line.

 

SELECTING SENTENCES

The best way to select a sentence is to hold down the Ctrl Key and click in the middle to the sentence you want to select (highlight). Another way is to drag across the entire sentence

 

SELECTING A PARAGRAPH

The best way is to drag across the entire paragraph starting in the I-beam in upper left corner of the paragraph, and dragging diagonally across to the lower right

 

SELECTING AN ENTIRE TEXT DOCUMENT

The best way to select an entire document is to hold down the Ctrl key and peck the A key. Another way to do this is to go up to Edit on the Menu bar and click, and then click on Select All. You might have to click on the little down arrows to get the entire menu.

 

SELECTING PICTURES

With the picture on the monitor screen that you want of select, right click in the middle of the picture. That will select it. It will also give you a menu. To copy the picture just left click on Copy

 

CUTTING, COPYING AND PASTING

REMEMBER HIGHLIGHTING IS THE RESULT OF SELECTING

 

CUTTING

Decide what text you want to cut

1. Highlight that text by dragging the I-beam over it.

2. Go up to the Menu bar and click on Edit and then on Cut

 

You have now done what is called a Cut. A cut puts your highlighted text in a special place in memory called “Clip Board” and removes the text from your document

NOTICE: WHEN YOU CUT YOU REMOVE THE TEXT WHERE IT APPEARS FROM YOUR DOCUMENT.

 

PURPOSE OF CUTTING

Cutting is used when you want to move text from one part of a document to another part.

 

COPYING

Decide what text you want to copy

1. Highlight that text by dragging the I-beam over it.

2. Now go up to the Menu bar and click on Edit and then on Copy

 

Note when you copy you have not removed the text from your document..

 

Again a copy puts your text in a special place in memory call “Clip Board”

 

NOTICE: AGAIN WHEN YOU COPY YOU DO NOT REMOVE THE TEXT WHERE IT APPEARS ON YOUR DOCUMENT.

 

PURPOSE OF COPYING

Coping is done when you want to reuse text within a document or on another document

 

PASTING

After doing either a cut or copy you can now do a paste

 

1. Place the I-beam of your mouse where you want to paste the cut or copied text and click. That will place the cursor. Now move the I-beam out of the way.

2. Now click on Edit on the Menu bar, and then click on Paste. That will put the text that is on the clipboard where the cursor is. Notice that the cursor moves over. Performing pasting in this manner always puts the last copy/cut text onto the receiving document.

 

CLIP BOARD MANAGEMENT

You should also know that pasting does not remove the text from the Clip Board, and when you cut or copy another text to the clip board it adds to what is already on the clipboard.

 

HOW TO VIEW THE CONTENTS OF THE CLIPBOARD

It is easy to see what is on your clipboard just click on Edit on the Menu bar and then click on Office Clipboard. If there is any thing on your clipboard it you will see the first few words or an image of a graphics on the right side of you screen.

 

HOW TO DELETE STUFF FROM YOUR CLIPBOARD

Right click on the text/graphics you want to delete; you will get a little menu. Now just left click on Delete

 To delete all the stuff on your clipboard, go up to the top of the clipboard display and click on Clear All.

 

HOW TO PASTE FROM YOUR CLIPBOARD

Pasting from you clipboard has two rules.

1.      If you don’t indicate what item you want to paste, our computer it will always paste the last item you copied/cut to your clipboard.

2.      With your Office Clipboard display open on the right side of your screen, what ever one you click on will be pasted to the text of the document you are working on where the cursor is blinking.

 

 

USING COPY AND PASTE TOGETHER

One of the handiest actions that you can do on a word processor is to do a copy and paste operation together. For example you can copy from one document without disturbing the text and paste to another document. In many cases this will save you lots of typing. We will practice copy and pasting, sometimes called c and p.

 

USING COPY AND PASTE FOR EMAILS

Also it is easy and handy to use the Copy and Paste method by copying from a word processing document and then pasting it to an email message. In this case you will usually copy the entire word processing document, but you don’t have to.

 

First you must prepare your document on your word processor, edit and save it. Then with the document still on the screen go into Edit on the Menu bar a click on "Select All". That will highlight your entire document. (As a short cut you can also use Ctrl and A keys together to highlight your entire document)

 

Then go up to your Menu Bar and click on Edit and then on Copy. That will put a copy of your document on your Clipboard. (As a short cut you can also use Ctrl and the C keys together to copy)

Now go into your email and prepare to send a message. Fill in the To space and the Subject space with the usual information. Now put the cursor in the text area of the email.

Go up to the Menu bar and click on Edit and then click on Paste. That will put the text that you copied from your word processing document into the text area of the email ready to send. It is always wise to check what you pasted before you send the email. (As a short cut you can also use Ctrl and V keys together to paste your copied document)

 

 

MOVING TEXT USING CUT AND PASTE

You can move text by doing a cut and pasted together. We will practice that now

Select (highlight) the text you want to move by dragging over it. Now go up to the Menu Bar and click on Edit, and then on Cut. Now move your cursor using the I-beam to where you want to move (paste) the text on your document. Again go up to the Menu bar and click on Edit and then on paste. That will paste (move) your text where the cursor is.

 

TRANSFERRING TEXT FROM THE INTERNET TO A WORD DOCUMENT

 

TRANSFERRING TEXT USING COPY AND PASTE

You can transfer text from a document on the Internet to a word processing document on your computer by doing a copy and paste together. We will practice that now.

Open your Internet browsing software and go to a web site that has the text you want of copy.

Select (highlight) the text on the Internet site you want to transfer by dragging over it. Now go up to the Menu Bar and click on Edit, and then on Copy.

 

Now start your word processing software move your cursor to where you want to paste the text and again go up to the Menu bar and click on Edit and then click on Paste. That will paste your text where the cursor is.

 

TRANSFERRING A PICTURE FROM THE INTERNET TO A WORD DOCUMENT

You can transfer a picture from a document on the Internet to a word processing document on your computer by doing a copy and paste together. We will practice that now. The way we do it is somewhat different from transferring text as you will notice below.

 

Open your Internet browsing software and go to a web site that has the picture you want of copy.

Put you mouse arrow on top of the picture on the screen and right click. That will give you a menu. RIGHT CLICKING ALWAYS GIVES YOU A MENU

 

On the menu presented find Copy and left click. That will put a copy of the picture on the Clip Board of your computer.

 

GREAT! You have TRANSFERRED an image of that picture from the Internet site to your computer Clip Board.

 

Now start your word processing software, and move your cursor to where you want to paste the picture. And again go up to the Menu bar and click on Edit and then click on Paste. That will paste your picture where the cursor is.

 

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THIS IS POWERFUL STUFF!