Chapter 5: Copying, Moving, and Sharing Information Between Programs | Windows Vista: The Complete Reference (Complete Reference Series)

Windows Vista provides two methods of sharing data between different application programs (although each method has variations): You can cut or copy and then paste using the Windows Clipboard, or you can use Object Linking and Embedding (OLE). In general, cutting-and-pasting (or its variant, dragging-and-dropping ) works well for the simpler tasks -moving text from one application to another, for instance. OLE is useful when you want all the features of one type of program to work with an object in another program. For example, if you want to display an Excel spreadsheet in a Word document, and you want to be able to update a complicated formula and display the correct answer in the Word document, then you need to use OLE.

Sharing Data Through the Windows Clipboard

Copying or moving information from one location to another within a program is easy using the Cut and Paste commands that almost all Windows programs support. Cutting-and-pasting uses the Clipboard to store information temporarily. Moving or copying information between programs is also easy using the Clipboard. Some programs also let you use your mouse to drag information from one location to another.

You can use the Clipboard to move or copy text, a range of spreadsheet cells , a picture, a sound, or almost any other piece of information you can create with a Windows application. The Windows Clipboard can hold only one chunk of information at a time, so you either have to paste it somewhere else right away or not cut or copy anything else until you've pasted the information where you want it. If you cut or copy another chunk of information, it replaces the information already on the Clipboard. To use the Clipboard to move or copy information within or between files, or to share information between programs, you cut or copy the information from one window and paste it in another.

Cutting, Copying, and Pasting

Cut-and-paste is a feature of Windows that enables you to select information from one file and move or copy it to another file (or to another location in the same file). Cut-and-paste works by storing information temporarily on the Clipboard. The following cut-and-paste techniques enable you to copy or move information within or between almost any Windows application:

Cut Removes selected information from its current location and stores it (temporarily) on the Clipboard
Copy Copies selected information and makes a (temporary) duplicate of it on the Clipboard
Paste Copies information from the Clipboard to the location of the cursor in the active application

To move information, you select it, cut it to the Clipboard, and then paste it in the new location. To copy information, you select it, copy it to the Clipboard, and then paste it in the new location.

You can cut, copy, and paste information by using the following methods (some methods might not work in some applications):

Menu Choose the Edit menu's Cut, Copy, and Paste commands.
Keystrokes Press CTRL-X to cut, CTRL-C to copy, and CTRL-V to paste.
Buttons Many applications have toolbars with Cut, Copy, and Paste buttons.
Mousing Many applications provide shortcut menus that include the Cut, Copy, and Paste commands. Right-click an object to see a shortcut menu.

Tip	The Cut and Copy buttons may be disabled if you haven't selected information in the window, and the Paste button may be disabled if no information is on the Clipboard.

The following steps explain how to copy or move text from one location to another:

Select the information you want to copy or move.
- You can select information by highlighting it with the mouse or by holding down the SHIFT key as you use the arrow buttons. The help system of the application you're using will contain more information regarding how to select in that application.
- Be careful when you have information selected. Depending on the application, you can inadvertently replace the whole selection by typing a character or space or by pressing the DELETE or BACKSPACE keys. Usually, a simple click deselects the information, ending the danger.
Tip
If you're afraid you deleted something by mistake, press CTRL-Z to undo the change in most programs.
If you want to copy the information, press CTRL-C, click the Copy button, or choose Edit Copy. If you want to move the information, press CTRL-X, click the Cut button, or choose Edit Cut.
If you are copying, you don't see any change on the screen when you give the Copy command. If you are cutting, however (which is useful if you want to move information), the selected information disappears from the screen-it is now stored on the Clipboard.
Move the cursor to the place you want the information to appear. This may mean changing applications by clicking a button on the taskbar, or even opening a new application. As long as you don't cut or copy anything else or turn off the computer, the information will be available to be pasted to a new location.
Paste the text by pressing CTRL-V, by clicking the Paste button, or by choosing Edit Paste. The information you cut or copy appears at the location of the cursor.

Once you cut or copy information onto the Clipboard, you can make multiple copies of it by pasting it as many times as you want.

Tip

Information on the Clipboard takes up RAM, limiting the resources your computer has available to do other things. Therefore, if you cut or copy a lot of information to the Clipboard, paste it quickly. Then, cut or copy something small-one letter or word, for instance-which replaces the large chunk of information on the Clipboard and makes most of the RAM available again. Some programs clear the Clipboard.

If you use Microsoft Office 2000 or later, you may see the small Office Clipboard window (in Office 2000) or the task pane (in Office XP and Office 2007). The Office Clipboard stores up to 12 (for Office 2000) or 24 (for Office XP or Office 2007) "clips" from Office applications. Rest the pointer on a clip to see its contents. You can paste any clip by clicking its icon on the Office Clipboard. The Office Clipboard opens automatically after you cut more than one selection for Office applications.

Note	Some programs have problems with cut-and-paste. If you have trouble pasting into a program, first paste the information into Notepad. Then copy it from Notepad and try pasting into the program where you actually want the information to appear.

What Is Drag-and-Drop?

Drag-and-drop is another method of moving or copying information from one file to another, or to another location in the same file. To move information from one location to another, select it with your mouse and drag it to its new location.

Not all programs support drag-and-drop. Some programs copy the information you drag, rather than move it. Some programs enable you to choose whether to move or copy the information (for example, a program may enable you to copy the information by holding down the CTRL key while dragging).

Capturing Screens Using the Clipboard

Many products can take a screenshot , a picture of whatever is on the screen. This book is littered with screenshots that are used as figures. If you need to create a screenshot, you can use the Clipboard to create one. Use the PRINT SCREEN key that appears on your keyboard-it often is above the cursor control keys with the SCROLL LOCK and PAUSE keys. You can take two different kinds of screenshots:

A picture of the whole screen by pressing PRINT SCREEN
A picture of the active window by pressing ALT-PRINT SCREEN

What Is DDE?

Dynamic Data Exchange is another way for programs to exchange information. With DDE, the programs send messages among themselves . For example, say you are running Microsoft Word and you open a DOC file (a file with the extension .doc) in Windows Explorer. Windows uses DDE to send a message to Microsoft Word so that the DOC file opens in the current Word window, rather than starting up a second copy of Word. You can control what DDE messages your programs send, but programming is required, using macros in programs like Microsoft Office Word 2007 or Excel 2007, or using a programming language such as Microsoft Visual Basic 2005.

Note	Windows Vista includes the Snipping Tool, which enables you to drag the cursor over an area onscreen and take a picture of that area. See Chapter 19 "Using the Windows Snipping Tool," for more information about the Snipping Tool.

Once the picture is on the Clipboard, you can paste it somewhere else. You may want to paste the picture into a graphics program, such as Paint (which comes with Windows), so you can save it in a graphics file format and use it later (see "Drawing Pictures with Microsoft Paint" in Chapter 19). Or, you might want to paste it into a file, such as a word processing document containing an explanation of that screen or window.