# Help with cut and paste **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 28, 2003, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-cut-and-paste/177946 "2003-05-28T03:53:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DebiJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f08c70/32.png) [@DebiJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DebiJ)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-cut-and-paste/177946/1 "2003-05-28T03:53:48Z")
Please settle an argument. I was talking to Reeder about cutting and pasting. He says the clipboard has nothing to do with cut and paste. I say it does. As I understand it, when you highlight text and hit ctrl-C or CTRL-X or right click and choose cut or copy, that information is stored in the clipboard until something else is put there and then it’s gone. Reeder says it’s a part of the browser function and doesn’t use the clipboard. Which is it or are we both wrong? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-cut-and-paste/177946/2 "2003-05-28T04:00:40Z")
The clipboard has _everything_ to do with copy and paste. If he doesn’t believe it, use the Windows clipboard viewer. Or copy and paste some text from the browser to Notepad. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-cut-and-paste/177946/3 "2003-05-28T04:02:04Z")
Thanks guy. Now I don’t get any next time we meet. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![StephenG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@StephenG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StephenG)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-cut-and-paste/177946/4 "2003-05-28T04:05:37Z")
**Reeder** : Pick your battles. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-cut-and-paste/177946/5 "2003-05-28T04:06:00Z")
Hey, don’t blame me for your dumb bet, pal. Hehehe. This is GQ, I’m going to give the correct answer. Unless you pay the $10 first. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![DebiJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f08c70/32.png) [@DebiJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DebiJ)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-cut-and-paste/177946/6 "2003-05-28T04:10:43Z")
Um… Reeder… if you don’t get any, I don’t get any. 🙂 That’s 3 tonite… I’m on a roll. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-cut-and-paste/177946/7 "2003-05-28T04:11:29Z")
whew… ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-cut-and-paste/177946/8 "2003-05-28T04:12:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DebiJ \* > \*\*That’s 3 tonite… I’m on a roll. \*\* Oooo…what were the other two? ---
**Author:** ![DebiJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f08c70/32.png) [@DebiJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DebiJ)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-cut-and-paste/177946/9 "2003-05-28T04:26:07Z")
Actually, both other ones are Reeder too. 🙂 Now… maybe someone can answer this for me… My cut and paste isn’t working… I can cut, but when I go to paste, it acts like nothing is on the clipboard… PASTE doesn’t even come up as an option on the dropdown. I rebooted, and it gave it back to me until I tried to copy the URL of this one site. After that, it’s gone again. I don’t know if it’s the site or if it’s just a coincidence. It’s starting to drive me quite bonkers. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-cut-and-paste/177946/10 "2003-05-28T04:31:35Z")
Make sure you aren’t trying to copy mulitple formats. If you try to copy some text and an image is in there too, nothing will be copied to the clipboard and a Paste operation will fail. The clipboard _hates_ multiple data formats. ---
**Author:** ![DebiJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f08c70/32.png) [@DebiJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DebiJ)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-cut-and-paste/177946/11 "2003-05-28T04:42:33Z")
all I did was highlight a URL in my address bar on my browser IE 6, and right click to copy. When I pull up Windows Clipboad Viewer, it says \ It will not allow me to clear it ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-cut-and-paste/177946/12 "2003-05-28T04:47:26Z")
Weird. It worked for me. I have XP and I copied and pasted the following from clipbrd.exe using this thread: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=186797](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=186797) ---
**Author:** ![Thin\_Ice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@Thin\_Ice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thin_Ice)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-cut-and-paste/177946/13 "2003-05-28T15:12:51Z")
What you cut does not go to the clipboard. Cutting is like deleting. Copying goes to the clipboard and stays there until something else is copied and takes its place. Pasting does not remove the pasted item from clipboard. Pasting pastes a copy. Users should say “copy and paste”, not “cut and paste”. ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-cut-and-paste/177946/14 "2003-05-28T15:33:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Q.E.D. \* > \*\*Make sure you aren’t trying to copy mulitple formats. If you try to copy some text and an image is in there too, nothing will be copied to the clipboard and a Paste operation will fail. > The clipboard _hates_ multiple data formats. \*\* :dubious: Which application are you pasting into? I’ve never had this problem. Just as a test I highlighted this entire page using CTRL-A, including the STRAIGHT DOPE header as well as all the buttons, and then I copied it (CTRL-C). Pasting the contents into Notepad just gave me the (unformatted) text , of course, but it still worked, ignoring all the graphical elements. When I pasted into Word, however, it copied everything as I expected it to do, including the graphics and retaining the same font properties. ---
**Author:** ![Thin\_Ice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@Thin\_Ice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thin_Ice)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-cut-and-paste/177946/15 "2003-06-04T18:20:24Z")
_Correction to my earlier post_ What you cut does go to the clipboard. Sorry.