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Copy and Paste

"Copy and Paste" is a broad concept that can be applied to a wide variety of computer tasks. It can be applied in many different ways in many different programs.  The general idea is to copy something on the screen so that you can place it in a different location. Several examples are listed below.
Here are the four basic steps:

• Select what you want to copy. (To select text, place the mouse cursor to the right of the text you want, then left-click and hold the mouse button down.  While holding the mouse button down, drag your mouse across the desired text.  The text that is being highlighted is "selected.")
• Go to the Edit Menu and choose Copy. (Nothing visible occurs - the computer makes a copy of it and puts it on the clipboard, an action which takes place entirely behind the scenes.)
• Go where you want to paste it.  (If you are pasting text, put the flashing cursor where you want the text to go.)
• Go to the edit menu and choose Paste. (You will see the result.)
  
  

Here are a FEW examples of how you could apply "Copy and Paste":

• Open an email joke you've received and select just the joke - not all of the garbage above and below it. Copy it and paste it into a new email message, addressed to your friend. This way you can send the joke to your friend without the page of garbage that leads up to it.
• Suppose you want to print that same joke - without printing all the garbage above and below it. Select and copy the joke. Open Word Pad (or another word processor) and paste the joke into a new document. Then print it.
• If someone sends you a web address in an email, you can select it and copy it. Then paste it into the address bar on your web browser to view the web site.
• If you typed a letter to your daughter and now you want to send several of the same paragraphs to your son. Instead of retyping them, open the letter to your daughter, select the paragraphs that you want, copy them, start a letter to your son, and paste the paragraphs into the new letter.
• You have scanned a photograph for a friend who has an old computer. Since your friend doesn't have e-mail, you could copy the picture from your hard drive and paste it on to a floppy disk. Give the floppy disk to your friend so he or she can access the photo.
  

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