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About this lesson
Cut, copy and paste is an essential skill to help minimize re-typing text.
Lesson versions
Multiple versions of this lesson are available, choose the appropriate version for you:
Exercise files
Download the ‘before’ and ‘after’ Word documents from the video tutorial and try the lesson yourself.
Basic Cut, Copy, Paste.docx58 KB Basic Cut, Copy, Paste - Solution.docx
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Quick reference
Basic Cut, Copy, Paste
An essential computer skill, cut/copy/paste can help to minimize re-typing text.
When to use
Whenever words or paragraphs are repeated, use copy/paste. And whenever they need to be moved, use cut/paste.
Instructions
To copy and paste:
- Select the word(s) with a click and drag or a double/triple-click.
- Choose Copy (3 ways: use the tool on the home ribbon, use right-click “copy”, or use “Ctrl C” on the keyboard.)
- Place the insertion point where you want the copied text to land.
- Choose Paste (3 ways: use the tool on the home ribbon, use right-click “paste”, or use “Ctrl V” on the keyboard.)
To cut and paste:
- Select the word(s) with a click and drag or a double/triple-click.
- Choose Cut (3 ways: use the tool on the home ribbon, use right-click “cut”, or use “Ctrl X” on the keyboard.)
- Place the insertion point where you want the cut text to land.
- Choose Paste (3 ways: use the tool on the home ribbon, use right-click “paste”, or use “Ctrl V” on the keyboard.)
Hints & tips:
If using the right mouse button to paste, and you get the 3 tiny clipboards that give you Paste Options, take the time to hover your mouse over those options and preview how your text behaves.
Keep Source Formatting will retain all color, fonts, and alignment that were copied along with the text.
Merge Formatting will blend the two styles together (as this can often be unruly and not the desired results.)
Keep Text Only is a valuable tool if you want the copied text to be cleaned of all formatting.
Login to download- 00:05 This lesson is about cut, copy, paste,
- 00:07 which is basically the essence of using a computer.
- 00:10 Every time you're at the computer you're going to be cutting, copying,
- 00:12 pasting text somewhere.
- 00:15 So let's go ahead and review the process.
- 00:18 First of all I'm gonna draw your attention up to the home ribbon
- 00:21 on the very left hand side is a group called clipboard.
- 00:25 In this group we have the paste.
- 00:27 Now, whenever we select text, we can cut it, we can copy it, and
- 00:31 then we have to paste it.
- 00:33 But I just wanna point out,
- 00:34 the paste is the biggest button on the set, 'cause they want you to see it.
- 00:38 Notice when I flip my mouse here, a tool tip pops up underneath,
- 00:40 it says Ctrl+V as in Victor.
- 00:42 That's a keyboard command, so you can hit the button or
- 00:45 you can press the keyboard command, your personal preference.
- 00:48 Now the little pair of scissors next to it, that is cut.
- 00:51 And notice a tool tip says Ctrl+X and
- 00:54 the little twin pieces of paper that is copy, Ctrl+C.
- 00:59 Now there's another way to do this as well.
- 01:00 We could also access those same buttons on the right click.
- 01:04 So I'm gonna go ahead and scroll into this document so
- 01:08 you can see that I've got it all written out what I needed to do.
- 01:11 We're going to select this paragraph,
- 01:13 that means click into the paragraph then triple click, one, two, three.
- 01:17 That'll select the entire paragraph.
- 01:19 Next, we're going to copy.
- 01:21 So you have the option, I can come up here to the little button that says Copy.
- 01:25 I could press Ctrl+C on my keyboard, which you don't even see me do, but
- 01:29 I just did it.
- 01:30 Or I could right click and I could choose Copy way up on top.
- 01:35 I'll go ahead and do that method, Copy.
- 01:37 And notice nothing happens on your screen and it still stays there, so
- 01:40 you might think It didn't work.
- 01:42 Yes, it did.
- 01:43 It's just floating on a clipboard waiting for you to paste.
- 01:46 The instructions say that you paste it above the black, original paragraph.
- 01:50 So this is the top one.
- 01:51 So I'm gonna go ahead and click right in front of that and
- 01:54 hit Enter just once to push that paragraph down, and I'm going to paste.
- 01:57 Again, I can come up here to the Paste button.
- 02:00 I could press Ctrl+V as in Victor or I could right click and these little clipboards,
- 02:05 see this clipboard matches the one up on the top left.
- 02:08 So I'll hit Paste.
- 02:09 Actually we do that many other options, but I'm gonna use this first one, paste.
- 02:13 There we go, we just pasted the blue one.
- 02:15 Okay, let's go to the next instruction, the green paragraph.
- 02:19 This time, we are gonna select the paragraph again.
- 02:21 Triple-click into the paragraph.
- 02:23 And this time we're gonna cut this, and
- 02:25 we're gonna paste it above the black original paragraph.
- 02:28 And again, there's three ways to do that.
- 02:30 So I'll go ahead and cut this with Ctrl+X.
- 02:33 Actually, I'll do a right-click.
- 02:35 And I’ll choose Cut, a little scissors right up here, Cut.
- 02:38 Now this time something did happen, it actually vanished from your screen.
- 02:41 Remember, it’s on the clipboard just waiting for you to paste it.
- 02:45 Now the instruction was to put it above the black paragraph, so
- 02:48 I'll click right above it and this time I'll paste.
- 02:50 Again, I could hit the button on the Home ribbon.
- 02:54 I could Ctrl+V as in Victor or I could come over here and hit Paste, there we go.
- 02:59 All right, now the very last instruction is one more practice,
- 03:03 copy this orange paragraph.
- 03:05 I'm gonna triple click it, one, two, three.
- 03:06 This time I'm gonna copy it.
- 03:08 So I'll go ahead and chose right click, copy,
- 03:11 which means it's gonna stay on my screen where it's at.
- 03:14 But I do have a copy of it waiting to be pasted.
- 03:16 And this time, a little curve ball.
- 03:18 I'm gonna have you paste it below
- 03:20 the black paragraph, but I want you to merge formatting.
- 03:24 Now what does that mean?
- 03:24 So I'm gonna click below the black paragraph, and
- 03:28 this time I'm going to right click.
- 03:30 And I want you to observe all those little clipboards now.
- 03:33 If I just float my mouse on this first one, it's gonna paste it in as orange.
- 03:37 Look what happens on the next one.
- 03:39 When I float my mouse there, it says merge formatting.
- 03:41 It's gonna paste it in, but it's going to merge with the formatting above it,
- 03:45 kinda love that button.
- 03:47 So I'll go ahead and hit that one, and there we go.
- 03:49 That saved me some work.
- 03:51 I didn't have to change the orange to black.
- 03:54 Okay, that's it for today's lesson.
- 03:56 Please pull out this extra exercise file and practice on your own.
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