Whether you’re sending a link to a friend, writing a school paper, or working on a spreadsheet–the ability to copy and paste is an essential task. Fortunately, it doesn’t matter what platform you’re on, whether it’s Windows, MacOS, or a Chromebook–some shortcuts are universal, and copying and pasting is one of them.
Just in case you need a refresher though, follow these steps below and you’ll be forwarding that cat video from YouTube in no time.
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1. Highlight the text you want to copy, either by selecting the URL bar or clicking and dragging with the cursor to select the text.
2. Press Ctrl+C to copy the selected text. Alternatively, you can right-click on the text and choose copy from the context menu. Both will accomplish the same task, copying the text to your clipboard, so choose whichever you feel most comfortable with.
Related: How to right-click on a Chromebook
Tip: If you’re working on a document and you prefer to move the text entirely instead of copying it, then use the shortcut Ctrl+X to “cut” the selection, instead of copying it. You can also find this option in the context menu by right-clicking as well.
3. Navigate to where you’d like to paste your freshly copied text and press Ctrl+V. Again, if you’d rather not use the keyboard shortcut, then that’s fine, simply right-click again and select the paste option.
Tip: Sometimes text that you copy will include the formatting, such as being a larger size or bolded. However, there is a way to remove this when pasting it into your document. Simply, use the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+V when pasting, or you can right-click and choose the “Paste as plain text” option.
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