Answer: This is called copy and pasting. Basically you are copying something from one place and then pasting it in the new place. Similar to when you cut something out of a piece of paper (copying to a small paper in your hand) and pasting on new paper.

There are a couple ways to do this; they do the same thing but are a different command. Sometimes one or the other will not work, so be aware of the other route, besides the way you normally use.

First you will go to the place containing what you want to copy; some places are protected and will not let you copy. The click and hold down the shift key and at same time left click before the opening letter with your mouse and continuing to hold the mouse button and the shift key down move the mouse over the text you want to copy. It will light the chosen text in a different color. When all is chosen, let go of the mouse button and the shift key. Now either (1) go to the menu at the top of the page and choose Edit and Copy or (2) press the CTRL and C keys together (usually shown as CTRL+C). You have now put the text on the clipboard on your computer.

The clipboard is an area of memory you do not see that is used to temporary store information. Windows only allows one item at a time on the clipboard. If you are copying within an application (for instance from one Word document to another) Word will allow up to 10 items on its clipboard, but only the latest item copied will be on the Windows clipboard.

Now go to the new document (usually in a word processor document or Wordpad or Notepad file) and left click with your mouse at the location you want to paste the item. (Same as choosing place to start typing). Now either (1) go to the menu at the top of the page and choose Edit and Paste or (2) press the CTRL and V keys together. You will now have pasted it to your document.

This process works the same for copying pictures. To select the picture just click on it.

The item will stay on your clipboard until you either copy something else to your clipboard or shut the Windows down. Items on the clipboard are lost when either occurs. This does mean you can copy one item and paste in multiple places.

Send me your questions about computers to me at the paper or to my e-mail dwight@dwightwatt.com and tell me you read this in the paper. I will pick a question to answer each week.