FIn human–computer interaction and user interface design, cut, copy and paste are related commands

that offer an interprocess communication technique for transferring data through a computer's user
interface. The cut command removes the selected data from its original position, while the copy
command creates a duplicate; in both cases the selected data is kept in temporary storage (the
clipboard). The data from the clipboard is later inserted wherever a paste command is issued. The data
remains available to any application supporting the feature, thus allowing easy data transfer between
applications.

The command names are an interface metaphor based on the physical procedure used in manuscript
editing to create a page layout.

This interaction technique has close associations with related techniques in graphical user interfaces
(GUIs) that use pointing devices such as a computer mouse (by drag and drop, for example). Typically,
clipboard support is provided by an operating system as part of its GUI and widget toolkit.

The capability to replicate information with ease, changing it between contexts and applications,
involves privacy concerns because of the risks of disclosure when handling sensitive information. Terms
like cloning, copy forward, carry forward, or re-use refer to the dissemination of such information
through documents, and may be subject to regulation by administrative bodies.[1]

Contents

1 History

1.1 Origins

1.2 Early methods

1.3 Popularization

2 Cut and paste

3 Copy and paste

4 Find and go

5 Common keyboard shortcuts

6 Copy and paste automation

7 Additional differences between moving and copying

8 Multiple clipboards

9 Pejorative use of expression

10 Use in healthcare

11 Use in software development

12 Use on websites

13 See also

14 References

15 External links

History

Origins

The term "cut and paste" comes from the traditional practice in manuscript-editings whereby people
would cut paragraphs from a page with scissors and paste them onto another page. This practice
remained standard into the 1980s. Stationery stores formerly sold "editing scissors" with blades long
enough to cut an 8½"-wide page. The advent of photocopiers made the practice easier and more
flexible.

The act of copying/transferring text from one part of a computer-based document ("buffer") to a
different location within the same or different computer-based document was a part of the earliest on-
line computer editors. As soon as computer data entry moved from punch-cards to online files (in the
mid/late 1960s) there were "commands" for accomplishing this operation. This mechanism was often
used to transfer frequently-used commands or text snippets from additional buffers into the document,
as was the case with the QED text editor.[2]

Early methods

The earliest editors (designed for teleprinter terminals) provided keyboard commands to delineate a
contiguous region of text, then delete or move it. Since moving a region of text requires first removing it
from its initial location and then inserting it into its new location, various schemes had to be invented to
allow for this multi-step process to be specified by the user. Often this was done with a "move"
command, but some text editors required that the text be first put into some temporary location for
later retrieval/placement. In 1983, the Apple Lisa became the first text editing system to call that
temporary location "the clipboard".

Earlier control schemes such as NLS used a verb—object command structure, where the command
name was provided first and the object to be copied or moved was second. The inversion from verb—
object to object—verb on which copy and paste are based, where the user selects the object to be
operated before initiating the operation, was an innovation crucial for the success of the desktop
metaphor as it allowed copy and move operations based on direct manipulation.[3]

Many command line text editors, which predate their more popular GUI equivalents, including: ed,
emacs, sed, and vi, have copy-paste features.

Popularization

Inspired by early line and character editors that broke a move or copy operation into two steps—
between which the user could invoke a preparatory action such as navigation—Lawrence G. "Larry"
Tesler proposed the names "cut" and "copy" for the first step and "paste" for the second step. Beginning
in 1974, he and colleagues at Xerox Corporation Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) implemented several
text editors that used cut/copy-and-paste commands to move/copy text.[4]

Apple Computer widely popularized the computer-based cut/copy-and-paste paradigm through the Lisa
(1983) and Macintosh (1984) operating systems and applications. Apple mapped the functionalities to
key combinations consisting of the Command key (a special modifier key) held down while typing the
letters X (for cut), C (for copy), and V (for paste), choosing a handful of keyboard shortcuts to control
basic editing operations. The keys involved all cluster together at the left end of the bottom row of the
standard QWERTY keyboard, and each key is combined with a special modifier key to perform the
desired operation:

Z to undo

X to cut

C to copy

V to paste
The IBM Common User Access (CUA) standard also uses combinations of the Insert, Del, Shift and
Control keys. Early versions of Windows used the IBM standard. Microsoft later also adopted the Apple
key combinations with the introduction of Windows, using the control key as modifier key. For users
migrating to Windows from MS-DOS this was a big change as MS-DOS users used the "copy" and "move"
commands.

Similar patterns of key combinations, later borrowed by others, remain widely available today in most
GUI text editors, word processors, and file system browsers.

The original copy/cut/paste workflow, as implemented at PARC, utilized a unique workflow: With two
windows on the same screen, the user could use the mouse to pick a point at which to make an
insertion in one window (or a segment of text to replace). Then, by holding shift and selecting the copy
source elsewhere on the same screen, the copy would be made as soon as the shift was released.
Similarly, holding shift and control would copy and cut (delete) the source. This workflow requires many
fewer keystrokes/mouse clicks than the current multi-step workflows, and did not require an explicit
copy buffer. It was dropped, one presumes, because the original Apple and IBM GUIs were not high
enough density to permit multiple windows, as were the PARC machines, and so multiple simultaneous
windows were rarely used.

Cut and paste

The sequence diagram of cut and paste operation

Computer-based editing can involve very frequent use of cut-and-paste operations. Most software-
suppliers provide several methods for performing such tasks, and this can involve (for example) key
combinations, pulldown menus, pop-up menus, or toolbar buttons.

The user selects or "highlights" the text or file for moving by some method, typically by dragging over
the text or file name with the pointing-device or holding down the Shift key while using the arrow keys
to move the text cursor.

The user performs a "cut" operation via key combination Ctrl+x (⌘+x for Macintosh users), menu, or
other means.

Visibly, "cut" text immediately disappears from its location. "Cut" files typically change color to indicate
that they will be moved.
Conceptually, the text has now moved to a location often called the clipboard. The clipboard typically
remains invisible. On most systems only one clipboard location exists, hence another cut or copy
operation overwrites the previously stored information. Many UNIX text-editors provide multiple
clipboard entries, as do some Macintosh programs such as Clipboard Master,[5] and Windows clipboard-
manager programs such as the one in Microsoft Office.

The user selects a location for insertion by some method, typically by clicking at the desired insertion
point.

A paste operation takes place which visibly inserts the clipboard text at the insertion point. (The paste
operation does not typically destroy the clipboard text: it remains available in the clipboard and the user
can insert additional copies at other points).

Whereas cut-and-paste often takes place with a mouse-equivalent in Windows-like GUI environments, it
may also occur entirely from the keyboard, especially in UNIX text editors, such as Pico or vi. Cutting and
pasting without a mouse can involve a selection (for which Ctrl+x is pressed in most graphical systems)
or the entire current line, but it may also involve text after the cursor until the end of the line and other
more sophisticated operations.

When a software environment provides cut and paste functionality, a nondestructive operation called
copy usually accompanies them; copy places a copy of the selected text in the clipboard without
removing it from its original location.

The clipboard usually stays invisible, because the operations of cutting and pasting, while actually
independent, usually take place in quick succession, and the user (usually) needs no assistance in
understanding the operation or maintaining mental context. Some application programs provide a
means of viewing, or sometimes even editing, the data on