Cut, Copy and Paste
'Cut, copy and paste' - one of the simplest but most
powerful of computer "tricks." Its one of the things
that prevents your computer from being JUST an expensive
electronic typewriter.
Cut, copy and paste on the computer is really the
same thing we do when we "cut and paste" using paper,
scissors, and gooey paste from a jar
- you cut out a piece of paper with something on it
you wanted to place in another location,
- you placed the cut out piece of paper on the table
or a "clipboard" and you spread paste on the
back of that paper,
- then you found the new location and stuck it
(or pasted it) there.
On the computer you will use the keyboard or mouse to
- "select" or mark the text or picture you want to cut or copy
- press some keys or the mouse to tell the computer
to save the selection in the "clipboard"
- press some keys or the mouse to mark the place where
you want to move or copy the selected text or picture
- press some keys or the mouse to paste the selection
from the clipboard into the new location
The difference between "cut and paste" and "copy and paste"
is whether you want to remove the item from one place and
move it to another (cut/paste) or make a second copy of an
item and place that copy in another place (copy/paste)
Using the mouse:
- Click the mouse at one end of the text to be selected,
hold the mouse button down and drag the cursor to the
other end of the text selection;
- Select Cut or Copy from the Edit menu;
- Select Paste from the Edit menu;
Using the keyboard:
- Move the cursor to one end of the text to be selected,
hold down the Shift key and use the arrow keys to select text.
- Press ctrl-X to Cut the selection or ctrl-C to Copy it.
- Press ctrl-V to Paste.
Play around with cut/copy and paste until you are comfortable
with it. Many applications will have undo features you can
use in case you make a mistake. this is usually found in
the "Edit" menu of the menu bar - click on "Edit" then
look for "undo."
BEST USE OF COPY AND PASTE -
When surfing the internet keep a word processor or
notepad file open to "copy and paste" notes into instead
of printing lots of pages you don't really need
- be sure to paste in the date and the URL - get URL by
highlighting the URL in the browser address bar, CTRL/C or
use mouse to select copy
NOTE: This also allows only the text in which
you are interested to be saved and not all
of the advertisements and junk.
Miscellaneous Selection and Save Tips
-
PRINT SELECTION - SECOND BEST USE OF COPY / SELECTION
-
if you don't use copy and paste
to SAVE only the parts of a Web page of interest into a file.
When surfing the Web you can SAVE TREES by "selecting"
only the text of interest to print.
In your browser
- highlight the desired text the same
way you would if you wanted to copy it
- select FILE / PRINT
- click on "selection" in the print range section
- PRINT A RANGE OF PAGES instead of printing all pages. This
is harder to do because you don't always know how things will
paginate from a browser but this can be very useful in a
word processor.
-
SAVE A WEB PAGE
- right-click in the page but NOT on an image
- select save page as
- navigate to the folder where you want to save it
- type in a file name if you don't like the one that may
already be in the filename box (BUT BE CAREFUL to
preserve the extension or keep .htm or .html - even if the extension
is php, cfm, asp or several others it is usually safe to save
as .htm / .html. Save the page then use FILE / OPEN FILE to
see if it displays properly
when you aren't connected to the internet.)
- newer browsers allow you to select whether to save the
Web page HTML ONLY (no images) or to save as a complete
Web page including the images and scripts
-
SAVING AN IMAGE FROM A WEB PAGE
- right-click on the image
- select save image as
- navigate to the folder where you want to save it
- type in a file name if you don't like the one that may
already be in the filename box (BUT BE CAREFUL to
preserve the extension)
NOTE: Use browser preferences settings to select font faces and font sizes
that are easy for you to read. There are options to always use
your settings
or allow a website to use their own settings. The "view" menu of the
browser usually has a setting to allow quick increase / decrease of font
sizes. (IE: view / text size; Netscape/Mozilla: view / text zoom)
Drag and Drop (Sort of Like Cut, Copy and Paste for Files / Folders)
Drag and drop is used to move files around to organize them properly
-
Open two explorer folders
- resize them so can access both
- navigate to the folder where you want to DROP
a file in one window
- navigate to the folder where a file is now in
other window
- click on filename, DRAG to the other window
ALTERNATE METHOD:
- click on one filename to select it
- use SHIFT/click or CTRL/click to select multiple files
- right-click and select CUT or COPY
- right-click in "DROP to" window and select PASTE
SHIFT/click selects all files between the file selected
first and the file SHIFT/clicked
CTRL/click selects ONLY the file CTRL/clicked but allows
selection of multiple files that are not adjacent to each other
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