Office 2008 for Macintosh: The Missing Manual

Moving Text Around

Three commands—Cut, Copy, and Paste—appear in every word processing program known to humankind, Word included. But Office 2008 has more powerful ways of manipulating text once you’ve selected it.

Copy (or Cut) and Paste

To copy text, highlight it as described above. Then choose Edit → Copy (or click the corresponding Standard toolbar button), click the mouse or use the arrow keys to transport the insertion point to your new location, and choose Edit → Paste. A copy of the original text appears in the new locale. To move text instead of copying it, use Edit → Cut and Edit → Paste; the selected text moves from one place to another, leaving no trace behind.

Alternatively, after selecting the text, you can also Control-click the selection (or click the right mouse button if you have one), and choose Copy or Cut from the shortcut menu. Similarly, when you arrive at the place where you want to paste, you can Control-click, then select Paste.

If this procedure sounds like a lot of work, you’re right—especially if you’re trying to choose these menu commands using a laptop trackpad. Cut/Copy and Paste is the sequence you’ll probably use extremely often. By learning the keystroke equivalents, the time you save avoiding the mouse really adds up. For example:

Table 2-1. Copy, Cut, and Paste commands

Function	Command	Keystrokes
Copy	Edit → Copy	⌘-C or F3
Cut	Edit → Cut	⌘-X or F2
Paste	Edit → Paste	⌘-V or F4

Note

Long, long ago, when keyboard commands were first handed out, Print got in line ...