or the 2006 Arabic film, see 

Cut and Paste (film).

Cut, Copy, and Paste icons in ERP5

In 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

 1History
o 1.1Origins
o 1.2Early methods
o 1.3Popularization
 2Cut and paste
 3Copy and paste
 4Find and go
 5Common keyboard shortcuts
 6Copy and paste automation
 7Additional differences between moving and copying
 8Multiple clipboards
 9Pejorative use of expression
 10Use in healthcare
 11Use in software development
 12Use on websites
 13See also
 14References
 15External links

History[edit]
Origins[edit]
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 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[edit]
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]
Copy-paste features are implemented in many command line text editors, such as ed, emacs, sed,
and vi.

Popularization[edit]
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 PARC implemented several text editors that used
cut/copy-and-paste commands to move and copy text.[4]
Apple Computer popularized this paradigm its Lisa (1983) and Macintosh (1984) operating systems
and applications. The functions were mapped to key combinations using the  ⌘ Command  key as a
special modifier, which is held down while also pressing  X  for cut,  C  for copy, or  V  for paste. This
handful of keyboard shortcuts allows the user to perform all the basic editing operations, and the
keys involved all cluster together at the left end of the bottom row of the
standard QWERTY keyboard.
The standard shortcuts are:

 Control-Z (or  ⌘ Command + Z ) to undo

 Control-X (or  ⌘ Command + X ) to cut
 Control-C (or  ⌘ Command + C ) to copy
 Control-V (or  ⌘ Command + 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 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[edit]

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.

1. 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.
2. The user performs a "cut" operation via key
combination  Ctrl + x  ( ⌘ + x  for Macintosh users), menu, or other means.
3. Visibly, "cut" text immediately disappears from its location. "Cut" files typically
change color to indicate that they will be moved.
4. Conceptually, the text has now moved to a location often called the clipboard. The
clipboard typically remains invisible. On most syste