Perhaps one of the most useful but also one
of the most misunderstood functions in Windows is the Copy and Paste function.
It is of course very useful and yet often misunderstood as far as how to use it
fully.
I will attempt to explain the process here.
Most of the copy and paste use can be done
within most Windows Programs and one webpages and for moving files or parts of
texts around from one spot to another without the need for typing it all out
again. To use this function you will need a mouse and know fully how to use
both the left and right buttons on it. The left button generally can be used
to highlight a part of the text or a file name you wish to copy. It is
generally best to work from the bottom right to the upper left on text from
what I have found personally at least in my case but it works either way to
some extent. If the text you wish to highlight exceeds the height of your
screen, you can just keep going slowly and the screen should move up along with
the area you are highlighting. I am sure most of you have highlighted some
text by accident already so this should not be a mystery to you. It however is
very important not to release the left mouse button or the highlighting
(selecting) function will stop there and if you left
click again on the page it will disappear. If you did it by accident that is
ok but if you have about 1 1/2 pages of text out of a 4 page document you were
going to select it is a bit annoying. Once you have gotten all the text you
wish to select you can depress the right mouse button (after releasing the left
one) and you should get a little menu that offers the option of copy. Select
copy and then this text or file(s) will be added to the clipboard. The
clipboard is basically a section of memory that the files are placed in on your
computer awaiting movement to a different area. Once you shut down and in some
cases close the window you were working with the clipboard selections are often
discarded by Windows, so do not close anything up at this point. Minimize it if
you need to but do not close any windows until you have finished. At this
point I will mention that you can also select files more or less in the same
manner with My Computer or Windows Explorer functions in much the same way with
the following difference. To select more than one file at a time hold the
control key down on your keyboard, and click once in most cases on the file
name. This should highlight them and then as long as you keep the control key
down you can keep adding files to this, or even entire folders depending on the
memory limitations of your system. Then like with the text clicking the right
mouse button should offer the copy option. If it is grayed out, then you will
have to try again because that means nothing is selected.
Ok so you have something saved off to the
clipboard now what you ask? Well in cases of text you will need to have the
other program running or start it up that you wished to place the text into.
For stuff off the internet I generally suggest Notepad for this as it does add
extra stuff to the file. Other programs such as Wordpad or MS Works often add
extra formatting that may not be useful, so try saving it to notepad. You can
find notepad in most cases by going to the Start button on the lower left of
the Windows Desktop, and then going to Programs, and then to Accessories, and
then finally to notepad.
If you find the notepad program useful for this as I do it is often worthwhile
to keep a shortcut to it on your desktop just for this purpose so you can save
texts off on the fly without having to go threw the Window Start button stuff
to get to it. Notepad is not without limitations however. It is not designed
to save huge amounts of text. Generally 4 or 5 pages is about all you would
wish to add to it however it will generally accept more but will not open it
again after you try to do so once you saved it and closed or cleared Notepad.
It will usually tell you to use Wordpad to open the file at that point so it is
not a big deal anyway provided you understand what is going on when this
happens.
Ok now what about moving files, well as I
said the rest is coming and it is called paste. It is the reverse of the copy
command and will allow you to "paste" the files or texts from your clipboard
back into the area you select. It will not however take raw text and turn it
into a file or take a file and turn it into text for you. It is there just to
move the files or text from one spot to another. This works from one area to
another or one program to another in most cases just fine.
Additional short cuts. Ok you may have
noticed if you have been playing with these functions there is a select all
command too. This is useful when you have a few files or a entire page or in
some cases a program routine in HTML or JAVA you wish to move from a source to
a target file. An example of this would be something like you are making a
webpage and you are going to get a CGI script for a site counter, and the
Webhost displays the line or more of text in a small window on the page. In
most cases clicking your left mouse button in the window, and then using the
select all, even if it is not all seen within that window, and then going back
and selecting copy will allow you to then move to whatever you are using to
edit your HTML page and then after you left click the cursor to where you wish
this copied text to be placed, select paste the text that has been stored in
your clipboard is then moved to that area. Make sure to set your cursor
however or you will often find that the text will end up in an area you did not
intend to put it, and you may have to then remove it all out of the text again.
If this happens, you will have to select the text you pasted in again and then
once selected you can select cut or press the delete key on your keyboard to
remove it. I mentiont his however as it is sometimes hard to figure out what
was just pasted in and what was supposed ot be left there. So a bit of care
before hand can save you a lot of extra work.
A few other little things to keep in mind.
You can often copy URLs this way as well on Websites to a notepad file.
(however it may be that you will have to copy them from notepad and place them
into the browser destination bar area that you wish to go to later. Even so
this is very useful on absolute calls for a given image or file at times or
when someones URL is so long it is otherwise hard to recall. Scolling screens
such as chat often have to be paused to copy text. Sometimes webpages, this
one included turn off the right click functions on the mouse as well. The
truth is this is often done to discourage copy attempts of a given item on the
page. I know in my case I have refused no one emailing me with a request for a
given image or something. So do not be too dismayed if you see this. The
function of the right button will return once you leave that page for another
window or page.
I hope you have found this useful and you
can also get some help with these commands with Windows Help which should be
located on the START button then up to Help in most cases on Windows. Granted
at times it seems they are not speaking your language but if you play with the
command long enough it generally is fruitful.
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