Cut, Copy and Paste Techniques

The Copy and Paste Microsoft Office commands are listed in several Internet articles as the most-used commands in Microsoft Office Word 2003 and Excel 2003. The Cut command is the third part of the Microsoft Office edit command trio.

For those of you new to Microsoft Office terminology, to Cut selected data is to move it, and to Paste that data is to put it in another place within the same file or another file. Copy still means copy.

Early computer office applications used different menus and keyboard commands to cut, copy and move information within and between documents. Microsoft Office chose certain commands to appear in their Office Suite of programs that are: 1.) Microsoft Office Word, 2.) Microsoft Office Excel, 3.) Microsoft Office PowerPoint and 4.) Microsoft Office Access. These programs have consistent appearances and locations for their toolbar and keyboard shortcut commands. In most cases, the order of the commands’ appearance is 1.) Cut, 2.) Copy, and 3.) Paste.

Users have four different toolbars and menus to access the Cut, Copy, and Paste commands:

• Menu Bar
• Standard Toolbar
• Context menu
• Keyboard shortcut

Menu Bar

The Menu Bar displays the Edit menu that is a drop-down menu with the commands Cut, Copy and Paste. Most beginners use the mouse to click on the Menu Bar that displays the three editing commands for copying or moving data.

The sequence to copy or move data from the Edit menu is the following:

• Select the data to be copied or moved
• Click the Edit menu
• Click either the Cut or Copy command
• Click the spot where the data will be placed
• Click the Edit menu
• Click the Paste command

Standard Toolbar

The Standard Toolbar is a collection of shortcut buttons that allow the user to click on a button to start or complete a task. The sequence to copy or move data from the Standard Toolbar is the following:

• Select the data to be copied or moved
• Click either the Cut or Copy toolbar button
• Click the spot where the data will be placed
• Click the Paste toolbar button

Context menu

The context menu is displayed by using the right-click mouse technique anywhere in a document.

• Select the data to be copied or moved
• Right-click anywhere in the document
• Click either the first command Cut, or the second command Copy, from the short menu
• Click the spot where the data will be placed
• Click the third command Paste

Keyboard shortcut

• Select the data to be copied or moved
• Use either keyboard shortcut; Ctrl + X to Cut, or Ctrl + C to Copy
• Click the spot where the data will be placed
• Use Ctrl + V to Paste the data where you want it.

There you have it, four different ways to Cut, Copy or Paste data. Don’t be in a rush to use the keyboard shortcuts to copy or move data. Microsoft allows you to select the best method that works for you to cut, copy and paste data. Using the Menu Bar allows you to see each command and choose an instructive method as a result of a few clicks of the mouse. The Standard Toolbar offers a one-click macro to the commands. The Right-click context menu technique should be used after understanding mouse clicks, and keyboard shortcuts can be used after several weeks of practice and confidence in using the mouse as an editor. Hope this helps. See you in the next lesson.

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Originally posted 2009-08-12 08:47:49. Republished by Blog Post Promoter