Weekly Computer Tip # 101
19 February 2005

Saving scraps of documents on the desktop (Microsoft Windows)

Does this ever happen to you? You have some text you want to use over and over again in other documents and you find yourself constantly opening up your word processor and copy and paste the text? Well,

Did you know ...

Microsoft Windows provides a nifty feature called "Document Scrap" which is a file that is created when you drag or copy part of a document to your desktop.

Here's how:

1. Make sure that your program, such as Word or Excel, is not maximized by clicking on the middle button in the upper-right corner.
2. Simply select the text you want to copy and drag it to your desktop.

   Alternatively

3. Select the text you want to copy.
4. Choose the Edit, Copy command (Or press CTRL+C).
5. Minimize your program to display the desktop. (Bonus tip: press WIN+M to quickly minimize all open windows. The WIN(dows) key is the key with the Windows logo on it, to the left of the ALT key.)
6. Right-click anywhere on the desktop and select Paste from the shortcut menu.

A desktop icon is created for the scrap file. To use these document scraps, either double-click them to open, or drag them to where you would like to have them inserted into your document.

Finally, I ought to put on my anorak and inform you that you can use this feature only if the program you are using supports OLE drag-and-drop functions. For example, Notepad does not support OLE but popular programs such as Word, Excel, Paint and Wordpad will support this function.

Until next week.

PS I’m committed to sharing the best of what I know with others so please don’t keep me a secret. If you enjoyed today’s tip, please forward it to anyone you feel may benefit. Alternatively, feel free to reprint it (with full copyright and subscription information) in your newsletters and message boards.

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