CYBER NOTES January, 2005 by Dave Benore

What is the Clipboard and how is it used?

Many people I have talked to do not know about the Clipboard or how and when to use it. The Clipboard is a very neat tool that can save you time and typing. So here goes that story…

The Clipboard is a small program that comes with all Windows programs, 95, 98, ME, XP, etc. It works the same in all versions of Windows, and it works with most Windows programs like Word, Excel, and Outlook Express. Think of the Clipboard as a small section of RAM memory in your computer where you can store something and call it back at will, and as many times as you want.

Using the Clipboard requires one to understand “cut”, “copy”, and “paste”. If you think of school children cutting something out of a magazine and pasting onto a piece of paper, you start to get the idea.

To use the Clipboard you first select the text you want to “place” on the Clipboard. You do this by highlighting the text, that is, left click on the left-most position of the text, and while holding the left mouse button down, dragging the cursor across the text to the end point. The end point can be anywhere—many lines, many paragraphs, or many pages down.

Once highlighted, you must chose between “cut” or “copy”. These commands are found on the “Edit” command’s menu. (See the menubar at the top of your screen.) Both commands copy the selected text onto the Clipboard. (This is computer-speak for storing a copy of the selected text in the section of RAM called the Clipboard.) The “cut” command also deletes the text from the document whereas the “copy” command does not.

Now that you have a copy of the selected text on the Clipboard, you can “paste” it anywhere else in the document, or in another document. You can paste it as many times as you like. Pasting it does not remove it from the Clipboard, as it would if done with paper. Pasting only copies the text in the Clipboard to wherever the cursor is when you command the paste. The “paste” command is also on the “Edit” command’s menu.

Where or why would you use the cut, copy, or paste commands? Suppose you were writing a letter and decided that a paragraph you had typed would be better if placed somewhere else in the letter. All you have to do is highlight the paragraph, “cut” it, move the cursor to where you want the paragraph to begin, and “paste” it there. Voila! It takes only a few seconds and no re-typing is required.

Here is another example (too late for this past Christmas—sorry). Suppose you want to send out a Christmas letter to many of your friends, updating them on what has happened over the last year to your family, but also customizing the letter to each friend. You can simply type the section you will use for every letter, copy it to the clipboard, and then paste it into each letter you write, adding the customizing you wish to each individual letter.

I find that the more I use cut, copy, and paste, the more uses I find for it. It can be a tremendous timesaver tool.

I said that the Edit command’s menu has the cut, copy and paste commands. Two things bear mentioning. The first is that if you look at the Edit command’s menu and see that any of the cut, copy, or paste commands is “grayed” out, that means they are not available for use at that moment. If no text has been highlighted, there is nothing the cut or copy command can work on so the commands are grayed out. You must highlight some text first, and then look at the commands. If the paste command is grayed out, there is nothing stored (placed) on the clipboard at that moment.

The second point worth mentioning is the shortcut keys. These keys are shown on the Edit command’s menu to the right of the command to which they apply. (Any shortcut keys on any menu are shown in this manner.) The “cut” command’s shortcut cut is shown as Ctrl+X. This means that if you hold down the control key while you press the X key (the letter x—it does not have to be capitalized), it is the same thing as opening the Edit command menu and choosing the “cut “command. It’s a shortcut to save you time and keystrokes. (By the way, Ctrl+X is often written as ^X in computer books, so I’ll use that convention here. Similarly, Ctrl+C would be ^C, etc.)

So the shortcut keys for cut, copy, and paste are ^X, ^C, ^V respectively, as shown on Edit’s menu.

The standard Clipboard only can contain the last thing that was copied to it. Whenever you copy anything to the Clipboard, it replaces whatever was there before. The Clipboard is not visible normally so the only way to check what is there is to paste it somewhere. Of course, you can always delete what you have just pasted into a document. (I said normally not visible but there is a special little program that can show you what is in the Clipboard without pasting it, but that is another story, for another time.)

Try the Clipboard. Understand how it works. You will find many occasions to use it as you grow comfortable with it. (You can paste stuff into emails with it also.)

Since at least Word 2002, the Word program has taken the Clipboard to new heights. Within Word, there is now an Office Clipboard. This is unique to Word as far as I know. It can be found on the Edit command’s menu as “Office Clipboard”. This clipboard can hold more than one item at a time. Investigate it. Play around with it to see how it works. You may find it useful.

A last thought--when your computer is turned off, the Clipboard is erased.

Happy computing!