Copy and Paste

The Copy and Paste functions are some of the most important fundamentals to master for manipulating objects on a computer. Once these skills become second nature, tasks like revising documents, managing files, and sharing images will become much less of a hassle. This guide will show you all of the ways you can copy and paste files and text, regardless of your operating system or skill level.

Steps

Select Content to Copy

  1. Highlight text. Text is one of the most common objects that gets copied, and is essential for document editing and other word processing tasks. You can click and drag to select specific sections of text, or press Ctrl+A (PC) or ⌘ Cmd+A (OS X) to select all of the text on a document or page.
  2. Select files on your computer. If you want to copy a file on your computer to move around, simply click on it to select it. You can click and drag a selection box around multiple files to select all of them.
    • Hold the Ctrl (⌘ Cmd) key and click individual files to select multiple files that aren't located next to each other.
    • To select a range of files, click the first one, then hold ⇧ Shift and click the last one. All of the files in between will be selected.
  3. Right-click images on websites. If you are trying to copy an image from a website, you don't need to select it. Instead, right-click it to start the copy process. See the Right-Click section for more details.

Keyboard Shortcuts

  1. Press the “Copy” keyboard shortcut. This will copy everything that you have selected. The original file(s) or text will stay in the original location. You can only copy one selection at a time; if you copy something else before pasting, it will overwrite the first copy. The “Copy” shortcut for each operating system is:
    • Windows and Linux: Ctrl+C
    • Mac OS X: ⌘ Command+C
    • If you don’t want to leave a copy in the original location, use the Cut command instead. This will remove the original file or text when you paste it in a new location. The keyboard shortcuts are:
      • Windows and Linux: Ctrl+X
      • Mac OS X: ⌘ Command+X
      • You cannot cut from locations that you are not allowed to change the content, such as websites or CDs.
  2. Navigate to where you want to paste. If you are pasting text, place the cursor where you want to the text to be pasted. If you are pasting files, open the location of where you want to paste. Make sure that the window you are pasting into has focus.
  3. Press the “Paste” keyboard shortcut. This will paste everything you had previously copied into the location you have active. You can Paste the copied material multiple times. The “Paste” shortcut for each operating system is:
    • Windows and Linux: Ctrl+V
    • Mac OS X: ⌘ Command+V

Right-Clicking

  1. Right-click on something you have selected. If you are using a one-button mouse with Mac OS X, press Control and click to open the right-click menu. If you have multiple files selected, right-click on any of them. If you have a large amount of text selected, right-click on any portion of the highlighted text.
  2. Select Copy from the menu. This will copy whatever you have selected, while leaving the original copy in the original location.
    • If copying an image from a website, select “Copy Image” from the menu.
    • If you don’t want to leave a copy in the original location, select Cut instead. This will remove the original file or text when you paste it in a new location. You cannot cut from locations that you are not allowed to change the content, such as websites or CDs.
  3. Right-click where you want to paste. If you are pasting text, place the cursor where you want to the text to be pasted. If you are pasting files, open the location of where you want to paste.
  4. Select Paste from the menu. This will paste everything you had previously copied to the location of your cursor when you right-clicked. You can Paste the copied material multiple times.

Menu Options

  1. Click the Edit menu. This may not be available in all programs, or may be found under different menus. For example, in Google Chrome, you have to click the Customize button (three horizontal bars) and then select the Edit section. In Microsoft Word 2007 and later, the Copy function is found in the Home tab.
  2. Select Copy. The selected items or text will be copied, and the original files will be left in the location you are copying from.
    • If you don’t want to leave a copy in the original location, select Cut instead. This will remove the original file or text when you paste it in a new location. You cannot cut from locations that you are not allowed to change the content, such as websites or CDs.
  3. Navigate to where you want to paste. If you are pasting text, place the cursor where you want to the text to be pasted. If you are pasting files, open the location of where you want to paste. Make sure that the window you are pasting into has focus.
  4. Click the Edit menu in the window you are pasting into. Select Paste from the menu. The items or text will be pasted to the location of your cursor, or at the bottom of the window.

Dragging and Dropping

  1. Drag your selection. Click and hold somewhere inside your selection. If you are only copying one file, just click and hold the file. Keeping the mouse button held down, drag the selected items or text into its new destination
  2. Drop your selection. Hold the {{keypress|Ctrl key down to force the Copy command. Once you've dragged the objects to their new location, release the mouse button

Office Clipboard

  1. Open the Clipboard. In Microsoft Word 2007 and later, Open the Home tab and click the small arrow in the Clipboard box. This is the same box where the Copy and Paste commands are found.
  2. Copy multiple times. The clipboard can store up to 24 different selection of text. Each time you copy, the selection is added to the choices.
    • You can adjust when the Clipboard becomes active by clicking on the Options button at the bottom of the Clipboard frame.
    • Clipboard items are accessible across all installed Office products.
  3. Paste from the Clipboard. Clicking on any entry will paste it at the location of the cursor in the document. You can also click Paste All to put all of the clips into the document in a row.
    • Selecting Clear All will remove all Clipboard entries from memory. You can remove individual entries by clicking the arrow button next to them and selecting Delete.

iOS Devices

  1. Select the text you want to copy.
  2. Release your finger from the screen, once you have selected it.
  3. Tap the "Copy" selection.
  4. Find the location you'd like to paste the text to and visit it. Open it into editing mode.
  5. Tap the location where you'd like to paste it to. Make sure the location is spot-on, otherwise the spacing could look and act a bit weird on the outcome.
  6. Tap and hold for a second the screen (until the magnifying glass is seen) and is displaying the position of the pasted text. Release your finger from the screen.
  7. Tap the "Paste" button.

Mobile Devices

  1. Select what you want to copy. If you want to copy text, you will need to select it first. Press and hold your finger over a part of the text that you would like to copy. A highlight will appear, and you can adjust the sides by tapping and dragging them to adjust which text you are selecting.
    • This method works for both iOS and Android
  2. Copy the text. After you are done selecting, use the Copy command to copy the text. On iOS, the Copy button will appear directly above the highlighted text. In Android, the Copy button is an images of two identical pages, and is located at the top of the screen.
  3. Paste the text. Open the location that you want to paste, such as an email or notepad app. Press and hold your finger on the open document until the Paste option appears. Select it to paste the copied content into your document.



Tips

  • Once you have clicked on Copy, that copied material will be retained on the "clipboard." You can keep pasting it until you copy new material for the clipboard.
  • Using the mouse saves time, because you do not need to remove your hand from it; as you do when using a keyboard.
  • The contextual menu has the option to Cut to remove highlighted material permanently. You can also Cut and Paste.
  • The contextual menu has the option to Select All to copy an entire page.
  • Use Ctrl+⌤ Ins to copy. Use ⇧ Shift+⌤ Ins to paste.
  • To highlight: At the beginning of material, left click and release. While holding the ⇧ Shift button down on the keyboard, left click and release at the end of the material.
  • Ctrl+A will copy an entire page of editable text(an entire text-box area's text, if inside a text box elsewhere).
  • ⎙ PrtScr will copy the entire screen of a computer.

Related Articles

  • Delete Text on a Computer
  • Copy a URL
  • Stop Letters from Erasing Other Letters While Typing
  • Save Local Copies of Files in Copy on iPad
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