Cutting and Pasting

The capability to move and copy text from one place to another is one of the most appreciated features of word processing programs. The term cutting and pasting actually refers to both moving and copying text. When you move text, you remove ( cut ) it from one location in your document and paste it in another. When you copy text, you leave the text in its original location and paste a duplicate of it somewhere else.

The location that contains the text you want to move or copy is called the source , and the place you want to paste it is called the destination. The destination can be in the same document, another Word document, another Office document (such as an Excel spreadsheet or a PowerPoint presentation), or a document created in another Windows application.

When you cut or copy text, it is placed on the Windows Clipboard, a temporary storage area available to all Windows applications. Issuing the Paste command copies the text from the Windows Clipboard into your document. (It actually stays on the Windows Clipboard until you perform the next cut or copy, so you can paste the same text multiple times if you like.)

Moving Text

As you're typing a document, you'll probably want to restructure it a bit. You may need to move a word or phrase within a sentence , reorganize the flow of sentences within a paragraph, or change the order of some paragraphs.

Follow these steps to move text:

1. Select the text that you want to move.

2. Click the Cut button on the Standard toolbar or press Ctrl+X. The text disappears from its current location.

3. Navigate to the destination, and place the insertion point exactly where you want the text to appear.

   If the destination is in a different document, copy the data to your Clipboard. Then, open the second document and click the document's taskbar button to switch to it, and then navigate to the place where you want to insert the text.

4. Click the Paste button in the Standard toolbar or press Ctrl+V. The text is pasted into the destination, and existing text to the right of the insertion point moves over to make room for the inserted text.

Copying Text

If you want to insert a block of text that you've already typed somewhere else, it's much faster to copy it than to type it from scratch.

Follow these steps to copy text:

1. Select the text that you want to copy.

2. Click the Copy button on the Standard toolbar or press Ctrl+C. The original text remains in its current location.

3. Navigate to the destination, and make sure that the insertion point is exactly where you want the text to appear. (See the note in the steps for moving text in the preceding section if the destination is not in the current document.)

4. Click the Paste button in the Standard toolbar or press Ctrl+V. The text is pasted into the destination, and existing text to the right of the insertion point moves over to make room for the inserted text.

If you want to copy an entire file into the current document, click at the location where you want to insert the file, choose Insert, File, select the file in the Insert File dialog box, and click the Insert button.

Moving and Copying with Drag-and-Drop

If you are handy with the mouse, you may find it easiest to move and copy text with drag-and-drop. This feature enables you to select text and then drag it to its destination. Drag-and-drop is best suited for moving or copying small amounts of text a short distance.

To move text with drag-and-drop, select the text that you want to move or copy and release the mouse button. Point to the selected text. The mouse pointer becomes a white arrow. Drag the selection to the destination. As you drag, the mouse pointer indicates that you're performing a drag-and-drop. Drag until the dashed insertion point attached to the mouse pointer is in the right place, and then release the mouse button.

To copy the text instead of dragging it, Ctrl+drag it to the destination (hold down the Ctrl key as you drag). The drag-and-drop mouse pointer gains a plus sign to indicate that you're performing a copy, not a move. When the dashed insertion point is in the right place, release the mouse button and then the Ctrl key. (If you release the Ctrl key before the mouse button, Word performs a cut instead of a copy.)

Once you drag or copy the text, click in the document anywhere to deselect the text.

If you accidentally drop the selected text in the wrong place, click the Undo button on the Standard toolbar.

Moving and Copying Multiple Items

With the traditional cut-and-paste procedure, you can cut or copy only one selection at a time. The Office Clipboard, enables you to "collect" up to 12 (24 with Office XP and later) selections of cut or copied data and then paste them in any order into any Office document. The Office Clipboard can handle all of the standard data types, including text, numbers , graphic images, and so on.

To practice using the Office Clipboard, follow these steps:

1. Choose View, Toolbars, Clipboard to display the Clipboard toolbar and the Office Clipboard.

2. Select a block of text in a Word document, and click the Cut or Copy button on the Standard toolbar, and then cut or copy another block of text in the document. Two Word icons appear on the Office Clipboard to represent the two items that you've cut or copied (see Figure 4.13).

   Figure 4.13. Each item you cut or copy appears as an icon on the Office Clipboard.

   

   

   Office XP and later uses a Clipboard Task Pane instead of the floating toolbar to show you which items you've sent to the Office Clipboard. The Task Pane normally appears on the right of your screen. If you don't see the Task Pane, select View, Task Pane.

   
   

3. Cut or copy a couple more items to the Office Clipboard, and then point to one of them. A ScreenTip appears with the beginning of the text in that item so that you can identify it.

4. Click in a location where you want to insert one of the items on the Office Clipboard, and then click the item to paste it into that spot.

5. Paste some of the other items in the Office Clipboard if you like, and then click the Close button in the Clipboard toolbar to close it and the Office Clipboard.

If the Clipboard toolbar is visible, you can click its Copy button instead of the Copy button in the Standard toolbar to copy text. If you want to paste all of the items in the Office Clipboard at once, click the Paste All button in the Clipboard toolbar. To remove all the items from the Office Clipboard, click the Clear Clipboard button (the button to the right of the Paste All button).

When the Clipboard toolbar is visible, you can cut or copy items from any Windows application to the Office Clipboard. (When it isn't visible, you can still use it to cut or copy items in an Office application.) Items that you've cut or copied from applications other than Word show as icons that match those applications.