Cut, Copy, and Paste

The heart of word processing—what first made it superior to the typewriter 25 years ago—is the ease with which you can cut, copy, and paste text. Using Word, you can move text around at will, until you're satisfied with its content and organization.

To cut, copy, or paste text (or any other document element, such as a graphic), first select it. Then, right-click and choose Cut, Copy, or Paste from the shortcut menu. Or, if you prefer, use any of the mouse, menu, or keyboard shortcuts shown in Table

Methods for Cutting and Pasting in Word

Action	Via Menu	Via Keyboard
Cut	Edit, Cut	Ctrl+X
Copy	Edit, Copy	Ctrl+C
Paste	Edit, Paste	Ctrl+V

You can cut, copy, or paste within the same Word document, among open Word documents, or among multiple Windows programs. For example, you can copy worksheet data from an Excel report and paste it into an executive summary created in Word.