Learn Cut / Copy / Paste with WebTV

This page was designed for those using a WebTV. Why is cut/copy/paste helpful, you may ask? Basically, it makes typing and editing letters, word processing documents, even custom webpages, a lot easier, faster and a heck of a lot more fun!

If you've been getting some really cool jokes, stories, poems...etc., in your e-mail and you want to send them to your friends and make it look like you are the "originator" (or just want to eliminate all those extra e-mail addresses at the top!), you must learn to COPY and PASTE the joke or story into a brand new e-mail letter from you!

Maybe you just want to be able to edit out a paragraph in an e-mail you're writing without having to sit there with your finger on the "delete" key for five minutes! Or move a paragraph or phrase to a different location in your letter.

Some of you are using the word processing sites and may need to save a document you are creating for future editing. Most WP sites don't allow you to save your current document, but you can copy it and send it to yourself in an e-mail, then copy and paste it into a new WP screen and continue editing.

PLEASE NOTE: If you are a computer user and are visiting this page to learn how to cut, copy and place, please use the CTRL key instead of the CMD key in these instructions.

Memorize These Keystrokes

(see keyboard image)

"cmd" + "x" = cut
"cmd" + "c" = copy
"cmd" + "v" = paste

"cmd" + "a" = highlights all words
"shift" + "down-arrow" = highlights one line at a time going down
"shift" + "right-arrow" = highlights one letter at a time going right

Basic Instructions

PLEASE NOTE: When working with e-mail you have "received" from someone else, you can only COPY the text. To CUT only works on text you yourself are composing.

To highlight a whole group of text, hold down the "cmd" key & press the "a" key.
To highlight only a certain part of the text use your FIND key and type in the first couple of words of the paragraph you want to copy and press RETURN. Then hold down the "shift" key & press the "down arrow" key until all the words you want to copy are selected.
To copy the text, hold down "cmd" & press "c".
To cut the text, hold down "cmd" & press "x".
After you have copied (or cut) the text you want to paste, go to WRITE and set your curser in the area where you normally write a letter. Now, hold down "cmd" key and press "v". The text will magically appear on the screen of your e-mail program.

* Don't forget to address your letter before you send it!

Let's Practice Keystrokes!

The next few sections are "test" areas where you can practice. Be sure to 'set your cursor' inside each test 'box' before pasting. To do this, press the "RETURN" key to make your cursor start "blinking" inside each box.

Test Area # 1

Test Area # 2

Test Area # 3

NOTE: You may be wondering where these words are going that you are copying or cutting. They are going onto an invisible "cyber clipboard" and will remain there for you until you either paste them somewhere, copy something new over them, or power off your WebTV.

Test Area # 4

Using the FIND, COPY and PASTE commands, insert the "introduction" of this tutorial into the box below. (Don't forget to set your cursor in the box below before pasting.)

So, how did you do?

Keep practicing and before you know it, it will become second nature to you. It takes a little bit of patience, but you can become an editor-in-chief in no time!

Good luck and enjoy!
Deb McBride - Internet Consultant
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