Copy, Paste, the “Clipboard” & “Ditto”

“DITTO” is a free feature available in Windows Operating Systems XP, Vista & 7 and is free

The “CLIPBOARD” is the “virtual spot” where items are held when you use either the copy or cut feature. So when you activate the copy or cut command, whatever you have “highlighted” and then copied or cut, will be held on the CLIPBOARD. It will remain there until you activate the PASTE command and remember, you can activate the paste command wherever you’d like – in an email, in a document using word, word pad, word perfect, an excel spreadsheet, that book you are working on in BookSmart or Walgreen’s, or any where else.

This is useful for URLs (web addresses from your browsers address bar), news articles, instant messaging, e-mail and much much more.

Typically the clipboard can only hold one thing at a time*. You can copy a block of text and paste it somewhere else. Then you have to go back for the next block. To copy and paste multiple things, you have to go back and forth.

*The clipboards in newer versions of Office programs, such as Word, Excel, Power Point, Access & others can hold many more items than a single item; this has been true since Office 2000 and the number items which can be stored has increased with each newer version of Office

You can activate “Ditto” which takes away the “one item a time” limitation. It allows your clipboard to hold more than one entry. So copy a URL and some text and a few e-mail messages. Then paste them wherever you'd like without going back and forth. Your clipboard holds it all.

You can copy and paste just like you've always done. To activate “Ditto” use your keyboard shortcut - press Ctrl + `. You'll see a list of past items you have placed on the “clipboard”; just click on the one you want to paste.