Copy and paste text, pictures, files and more

With the point and click interface of Windows, you can copy and paste just about anything. Here are some tips from simple to obscure:

You can copy and paste files to move them from one place to another, such as from your hard drive to a USB memory device.

• Right-click on the file you want to copy and select Copy
• Open the location where you want to place the file. Right-click and select Paste.

You can select multiple files to copy by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking each one. When finished, right-click on any of them and select Copy. If you don’t have an Edit menu, you can always use the keystrokes Ctrl-C to copy, Ctrl-V to paste, and Ctrl-X to cut. This works in every Windows application.

Of course, you can copy and paste text from just about any source into a Word document. If the text you’re copying has an unwanted format (e.g. a different font, color, or size), use “Paste Special” under the Edit menu rather than just Paste. Under the Paste Special options, select “Unformatted text.” That way, the text you paste will have the same format as the document you’re putting it into.

Sometimes, to illustrate what you’re writing about, it would be useful to insert a screen shot into your document. You can do this by pressing the PrtSc (Print Screen) key on your keyboard. That puts the image of the screen onto the Clipboard (that mysterious place that holds your copied material waiting to be pasted.) Then put the cursor where you want the screen shot to go and press Ctrl-V to paste. Once pasted, you can resize it or use the Crop button the Picture toolbar to eliminate all but the part you want.

Here’s more on copying materials from other other sources:

Copying non-text items from a PDF file -

1. Open the PDF from which you want to copy.
2. Click the Snapshot tool button – looks like a camera with a dashed box around it.
3. Drag through the text or portion of the PDF you want to copy. This should put a dashed “marquee box” around that portion. A message will pop up indicating that the item has been placed on the clipboard.
4. Open the application in which you wish to place the item, and paste as usual.

How to copy and paste text from a DOS Window -

1. Open the DOS window by clicking Start -> Run and typing “cmd”
2. Execute whatever commands you want
3. When the text you want to copy is displayed, right-click on the blue title bar at the top of the DOS window. Select Edit then either Select All or Mark.
4. If you selected Mark, you can now drag through the text you want to highlight it. It should turn white as you select.
5. Right-click again on the blue title bar and select Edit then Copy
6. Open the application in which you wish to paste, and paste as usual.

You can also paste text into a DOS window by right-clicking on the title bar and selecting Edit then Paste.

By Carol Sabbar from the Kenosha News on 7-9-06