When you get information (or a joke or story) in an e-mail, and you want to send it to someone else without all those previous addresses attached to it, this is a solution to that problem. If you have a photo or picture in one place on your computer or a Web site, this trick will move it anywhere else (into a document or a new e-mail message).
It's called Cut & Paste or Copy & Paste. The difference between cutting something and copying something is quite simple. Cut means to remove it from where it is. Copy means to leave the original where it is and make a copy of it for transport to another location. Paste is what you do when you place it in a new location.
Four simple steps will move text (or graphics) from one place to another.
There are four ways to copy & paste or cut & paste. All four do the same thing, but they were developed by people who are accustomed to using the computer in different ways.
Highlight: with your cursor at the beginning of the text, hold down the Shift key, and tap (or hold down) the right arrow key until you have highlighted the text you want (you can also arrow back, up, and down to highlight in any direction)
To Copy: hold down the Control key and tap the letter C (called Ctrl + C)
To Cut: hold down the Control key and tap the letter X (called Ctrl + X)
Place your cursor where you want the text to appear (this may involve opening another document)
To Paste: hold down the Control key and tap the letter V (called Ctrl + V)
Quick Recap
: place cursor at the beginning of text; click and drag the mouse to highlight the text
Copy or Cut: right-click (a menu drops down) and left-click on your choice
Place cursor where you want the text
Paste: right-click (a menu drops down); left-click on Paste
Highlight: use either method above to highlight (to highlight the whole document, click Edit in your menu bar, and click Select All)
Copy or Cut: select Copy or Cut from the Edit menu in the menu bar at the top of the page
Place the cursor where you want the text to go
Paste: select Paste from the Edit menu
Highlight: drag mouse or use Shift + arrows to highlight
To Copy: click on the Copy icon (2 pieces of paper) in your toolbar
To Cut: click Cut icon (scissors) in toolbar
Place your cursor where you want the text to go
To Paste: click on the Paste icon (clipboard) in your toolbar
When you cut or copy something, it is placed in a holding area called the "clipboard." You can't see the clipboard, but your data is there. It will stay there until you...
1. copy or cut something else
2. turn off your computer
You can paste what's on your clipboard over and over, as long as you don't copy or cut something else on top of it. The clipboard that comes with Windows 95 will hold only one selected item at a time.
You can copy or cut and paste large blocks of text, graphics, all or part of the text of an e-mail, text on a Web page, graphics on Web pages, tables, and just about anything else a computer has on it. There is a limit to how much material the clipboard can hold, but if you exceed it, you can possibly do it in several steps.
There is no reason that a forwarded e-mail has to have hundreds of names and headers included with the message. The only reason I can think of for leaving the names on is to show where the message has been. With Copy & Paste, you can send your friends only the message and not the e-mail addresses of everyone in the Universe. This also will help cut down on Spam (unsolicited commercial e-mail). (Note: you cannot cut text from an e-mail or a Web page; you can only highlight then copy and paste.)
About the Author
Coco is the newsletter editor of The F1 Key, a publication of the F1 Computer Users' Club in Shell Knob, MO.
Copyright Notice
Copyright © 2004, Melbourne PC User Group Inc and individual authors. Except where otherwise stated, all material is the copyright of the author. Material in this magazine may be copied by nonprofit PC User Groups without fee provided that there is no restriction published with the article, the copies are not used for commercial advantage, and the origins of the material and this permission to copy are acknowledged in the reprinted item.
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