Copy ... Paste Computer Compulsion by Cindy O'Hora

"I've got sunshine on a cloudy day. When it's cold outside I've got the month of May.
I guess you'd say. What can make me feel this way? Copy...Paste. (from My Girl by the Temptations. Or is it My Mac by the Computations?)

To Copy:

1. Select what you want to copy.

2. Go Edit...Copy.

Note: To tell the computer what it is you want to copy, you must first Select it.

• To select in word processing, in email, in web browsers, in SimpleText & and many other text environments - Highlight the text with the cursor. Place the cursor where you wish to start copying, hold down the mouse button and drag across the text.
  
• To select in AppleWorks Drawing: click on the Arrow tool and then click one time on the object (picture). You should see the 4 black handles at the corners of the object. It is selected. (In WP you may select a picture only to see one black handle and a dotted line. It is selected when you see that)
  
• To select in AppleWorks Paint: use the lasso or rectangle tool to enclose the area you want to select.
  
• To select in a Spreadsheet:
  • one cell: click in it
  • one row or one column click in the appropriate heading (top or left hand side) for the row or the column desired. All the cells in that row or column will be highlighted.
  • a range of cells use the spreadsheet tool to highlight by dragging over &/or down.
  • all the cells in the spreadsheet click in the empty cell to the left of the A column heading and above the 1 row heading.
    
• To Select in PhotoShop: use the lasso or rectangle tool to enclose the area you want to select.
  
• To select all the text OR all of the graphics in the document Go Edit ... Select All. (You cannot select all the text AND all the graphics in an AppleWorks/ClarisWorks document at the same time. But you can Duplicate the document before opening it!)

 To Paste:

1. Go to where you want the copied item to appear.

2. Go Edit ... Paste.

• If pasting text (words) in WP - click with the cursor where you want the text to appear.
  
• If pasting an image in AppleWorks WP be sure to click the arrow tool BEFORE pasting.
  
• In Spreadsheet: highlight the cells you want to paste into. Then paste.
  
• If you want to paste the results of a formula calculation NOT the formula -
  1. Select the cells where you want to paste the values.
  2. Choose Paste Special from the Edit menu.
  3. In the Paste Special dialog box, click Paste Values Only and then click OK.

I ALWAYS use keyboard commands for all my Copy ... Pasting:

Copy: hold down the key and type a "c".

Paste: hold down the key and type a "v".

 

Harnessing Copy ... Paste

URL consternation...

I recently got an email request for the web page address of my site. I opened my Scrapbook and Copied the address. I then Pasted it in the email reply. This eliminated the chance that I might mistype the address which would then be a broken link.

A few minutes later I got a note back complaining that the address was so long. "So what?", I thought. Suddenly I realized what was happening on the other end. I immediately emailed the person with the directions to highlight the address and copy it in the email message. Open their Browser. Paste the address in the location bar. Then, hit the return key.

She responded that indeed she had started to type the address in the location bar.

 

Family news ...

I LOVE email for its simplicity and effectiveness as a communication tool. Now that the vast majority of our extended family is online I communicate regularly with our news. But many times there are a few sentences I would like to add unique to a group or individual.

For example, Dad and I share an interest in natural things and I frequently tell him about unusual sightings. But my husband's family has never been interested in birds. So I copy the newsy email to them. Paste it in a new email form and add the latest birding news for Dad!

 

Building a document from several contributors...

I volunteered to do my son's middle school newsletter. My guidelines were simple. Send me the article's file as an attachment, or copy the article out of word processing and paste it in an email message, or save it on a disk and send it to me.

Why do I not accept paper versions? Because then I have to type it all over again into the document. Still, I received a neatly word processed, spell checked, and printed version of an article. I emailed the person to copy their article from the document in the computer and paste it in an email message to me. They emailed back that they had sent a printed version. I repeated my directions. They complied.

Doing the school's seven page newsletter was a three hour format and clip art inserting process. There was no reason for me to enter words that already existed in another computer.

The same is true for posting the school's honor role. 272 names! The secretary sends it to me as an attachment in email. I open the text document. Copy the names. Paste it on the web page. Fix the formatting.

 

Paper Saver ...

I usually save web pages as text documents to my hard drive so I can read them later. But on occasion I do print pages. More importantly I help students do this from the Internet. A straightforward print command can result in pages upon pages printing for just a few paragraphs of text.

1. I show the kids how to highlight the text they want.
2. Copy it.
3. Open a word processing page.
4. Paste it.
5. Reduce the margins to 0.5 inches.
6. Now Print it.

 

Quote Queen...

I collect quotes from email messages and web sites. You may have noticed them at the bottom of my site's pages. I haven't typed out a one of them. I highlight them on the email or web site. I go Edit ... Copy. I go to my quote database in AppleWorks. I paste the new one. Quick as a wink. ;-)

 

Surfing Dudette...

I have a SimpleText document on my Desktop near the trash can. When I come to a great educational web site while surfing, I highlight the url in the location bar and Copy it. I slide the browser window up enough to view my SimpleText document. I double click on it. When it opens, I paste the url there and write a brief explanation of what it is.

Later, I open Claris HomePage and once again Copy the address from the SimpleText document and Paste it into the link dialog box. This way I avoid making those small, but deadly entry errors which break the links.

 

Impossibly complicated schedule which changes each month?

I wrote each day's activities in an individual text frames. I discovered that, after about seven weeks, some days repeated. I was delighted. I had saved my January and February schedules. So I selected the text frames and Copy... Pasted them onto the correct days in the March schedule. I was one happy computer user!

I do the same thing with the lunch menus which I post in the school's web site. It is much simpler to edit peaches to applesauce occasionally than to reenter all the text each month.

 

Evangelist to the max...

The other day I vented to my friend Sue about a teacher who had failed to follow my Copy ... Paste email directions TWICE. The teacher even sent home a print copy of her article via my daughter.

Later that day Sue emailed me about adding a counter to her web site. I told her how to do it using Copy ..Paste. She wrote back to say she had located the web site with the counter script by copying the url from my email and pasting it into her browser. She then wrote she wouldn't admit typing it if she had. Sue, I love you!

 

Web work made easy

I write almost all my rough drafts in AppleWorks WP. I highlight the text and paste it into Claris HomePage to build this web site. I do have to make a few format concessions due to html restrictions. I also have to copy each image and paste it into the web page separately (unless it already exists in my web site's image file).

But, by and large, I am quite happy with the results. I then have a nicely printable version of each lesson in Word Processing on my computer.