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The Virtual Clipboard Inside your Computer

28 Responses (Add) | Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 at 2:08am

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Think of the virtual clipboard like a real clipboard. When you cut or copy some information from a document or spreadsheet, for instance, it is saved on the clipboard for you to paste somewhere else later.

Let’s say you want to put something from the beginning of a document into the end of your document instead. You’ll need to do the following:

  • Select the text you want to move. Place your mouse cursor just to the left of the text you want to select. Hold down your Shift key while dragging the mouse to the right, until all of your text is selected.
  • Cut the text from the document. With the text selected, right click on it and choose “Cut”. Alternately, you can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + X in Windows or Command + X on the Mac.
  • Paste the text where you want it moved to. Place your cursor in the spot where you want the cut text to begin. Right click your mouse and choose “Paste”. Again, you can use a keyboard shortcut instead. For Windows, it’s Ctrl + V, and for Mac it’s Command + V.

You have now moved your text! To copy a certain block of text to another place, you follow most of the same steps:

  • Select the text you want to copy.
  • Right click on the selected text, and choose “Copy”. You can also use another shortcut. For Windows, use Ctrl + C and for Mac it’s Ctrl + C.
  • Paste the text where you want it copied to.Place your cursor where you want the text, and right click. Choose “Paste” again, or use your keyboard shortcut.

Now you have cut, copied and pasted text! You can also view the contents of your Clipboard at any time, or clear it out. In Windows select Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools and then click Clipboard Viewer.

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28 Comments

Windows Vista Torrent

November 7th, 2007
at 10:58pm

Tech Interviews Jones Soda Coupons Changing Your Desktop Wallpaper is Easy!The Virtual Clipboard Inside your ComputerTask Switching Google Docs What is a ZIP File? Electric Toothbrushes: Sonicare vs Ultreo How to Set up a RAM Disk for Free Jumping Jack Flash Audio Question Eye-Fi Wireless SD Card Review

Computer

November 8th, 2007
at 3:00pm

Original post:The Virtual Clipboard Inside your Computerby at Google Blog Search: computer Blog tag: Computer Technorati tag: Computer

News from everywhere » News Feed Alerts

January 28th, 2008
at 9:45am

for about 1.5 seconds, you can bet your bottom dollar you won’t ever enter select mode by accident. I’m sure it’ll happen eventually… and maybe video recording, to boot. Related Content: Sincerely Jeffrey Tome Is the iPhone a Good PDA?The Virtual Clipboard Inside your ComputerRemove the IE Drag & Drop Prompt Your Name In Lights

froghand00

November 6th, 2007
at 5:08pm

Yay first view:P you uploaded this 4minutes ago

kinglaffo

November 6th, 2007
at 5:28pm

Basic as it is, you’d be surprised how many people absolutely have no idea about this, so hopefully someone will see this and grasp it better.

DerelictDreams

November 6th, 2007
at 5:45pm

With Linux you can just highlight the text to copy and press the middle mouse button to paste. I don’t get why Windows or Apple don’t provide a facility to do this..

buckamoona

November 6th, 2007
at 10:46pm

nah im pretty sure most people know this…and if they dont they prolly dont go on the pc much or their really old <_<…

DatVillain83

November 7th, 2007
at 12:18am

is there a physical clipboard that i can locate on the drive? in a temp folder maybe?

Bloomengns

November 7th, 2007
at 3:55am

maybe cus the middle mouse button(aka scroller) in IE is for scroling pages… just click(dont croll) your scroller and you’ll see.
Oh and also, windows and apple cant steal all :P

dndn1011

November 7th, 2007
at 9:15am

You know it would be great if we moved into the 21st centuary and had a clipboard that could hold more than one thing at once…

vahnx1337

November 7th, 2007
at 9:34am

Chris, stop being a noob.

OSI_LAYER

November 7th, 2007
at 4:58am

You can also have multiple virtual clip books through software.
link: http://101clips.com/freeclip.htm

scorpio209

November 7th, 2007
at 1:40pm

lol. he usually up’s some advanced stuff but the 4 videos that he uploaded yesterday were stuff that my dad even knows how to do(he doesnt even speak english).hopefully his next batch of vids are advanced :D

XGuNn3rX

November 7th, 2007
at 3:17pm

I don’t get it. Why the sudden change to appeal to people know know fuck all about computers/technology? This stuff is so basic that even my dad knows this shit.

XGuNn3rX

November 7th, 2007
at 3:19pm

Why the sudden change to appeal to people WHO know fuck all***

Fixed.

Alek Davis

November 7th, 2007
at 12:52pm

Hmm… I assume this post is for computer novices, right? Anyway, if people are interested in clipboard options, I would highly recommend ClipX, which keeps a history of your clipboard entries. For usage info, see: http://alekdavis.blogspot.com/2007/05/clipx-fix.html

danielsheldrake

November 8th, 2007
at 12:44am

you can use aswell shift and insert to paste stuff

tsaw

November 7th, 2007
at 7:51pm

Fantastic Chris. I think you are right on by going back over the basics. Would you believe I just showed a friend of mine that has been using windows for 6 years.. and didn’t know about the cut/copy/paste feature.
The keyboard shortcuts are really handy cuz they work even if there isn’t a right click cut/copy/paste menu.

thereecieboba

November 8th, 2007
at 9:41am

why dont u just highlight it and just right click n go to copy or paste

Chris Thornton

November 8th, 2007
at 6:13am

Here are more resouces for end-users and developers, from the inventor of the windows clipboard extender. see: http://www.clipboardextender.com

martyjerry

November 8th, 2007
at 11:15pm

Chris thank you for this video. i did learn something new from it. Thanks for including something for us noobs.

mattsuzanna1992

November 10th, 2007
at 9:22am

ill never press those key combos the same again.
heh
NH|Computer|Geek

where is the computer clipboard - Dogpile Web Search

October 21st, 2008
at 8:17pm

[...] Windows … en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipboard_(software) • Found on Yahoo! Search The Virtual Clipboard Inside your Computer ~ Chris Pirillo Nov 7, 2007 … I assume this post is for computer novices, right? Anyway, if people are [...]

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