The Cut, Copy, and Paste Toolbar Buttons

You use the Cut, Copy, and Paste tools to move and copy data within or between document files. You can, for example, move or copy text you've selected in a Word document, a worksheet range you've selected in an Excel workbook, a piece of clip art you've placed in a PowerPoint presentation, an Access database object, and even entire Outlook items. In short, you can move or copy just about anything you can select.

NOTE: To select text or objects in a document file, you typically click and drag the mouse across the text or click the object.

 Moving Data

To move data, for example, you use the Cut and Paste buttons in tandem, by following these steps:

1.      Select the data you want to move.

2.      Click the Cut button to move the selected data from the Office document file to the Windows Clipboard, a temporary storage area. (For details about the Clipboard, see the following section, “Using the Clipboard.”)

3.      Position the insertion point at the exact location to which you want to move the data. (You can do this by clicking where the insertion point should be placed in the document.)

4.      Click the Paste button to move the data you previously stored on the Windows Clipboard—you did this in step 2—to the insertion point location.

TIP: You can use the Cut, Copy, and Paste buttons and the Windows Clipboard not only to move and copy data within a document file but also between document files. Note, too, that almost all Windows programs provide Cut, Copy, and Paste buttons, which you can use in the manner described here.

Copying Data

To copy data, you use the Copy and Paste buttons in tandem, by following these steps:

1.      Select the data you want to copy.

2.      Click the Copy button to store a copy of the selected data on the Windows Clipboard.

3.      Position the insertion point at the exact location to which you want to copy the data. (You can do this by clicking where the insertion point should be placed in the document.)

4.      Click the Paste button to copy the data you previously stored on the Windows Clipboard—you did this in step 2—to the insertion point location.

TIP: All Office programs also let you move and copy data by dragging the selection to a new location using the mouse. You can move the selected data simply by dragging it. (This is called drag-and-drop.) And you can copy the selected data by holding down the Ctrl key and then dragging the selection. As with the Cut, Copy, and Paste buttons, you can use the mouse to drag-and-drop data both within a document file and between document files. Note, however, that not every Windows program supports drag-and-drop editing. You can also drag-and-drop using the right mouse button instead of the left. When you go to drop the selection, the Office program displays a shortcut menu asking you what you want to do with the data: move it, copy it, create a link to it in that location, or create a hyperlink