Weekly Computer Tip # 269
10 May 2009


copy and paste multiple items gathered from various programs
(Office 2003-2007)

Many, many moons ago Microsoft introduced the Microsoft Office Clipboard, enabling you to copy up to 24 pieces of text and graphics from Office documents or other programs and paste them into another Office document. What I see, though, is that most people simply copy and paste one item at a time, blissfully unaware of this nifty feature! So this is to tell (or remind) you that you can copy text from, say, an e-mail message or website, data from a spreadsheet or database, and a picture from a presentation and then paste them all into a document.

Here's how:

  1. Open the program or website that you want to copy items from.
  2. Copy the first item you want to copy, using your favourite method. (Mine is CTRL+C!)
  3. Continue copying items from the various files or programs until you have collected all of the items that you need. (The Office Clipboard can hold up to 24 items. If you copy a twenty-fifth item, the first item on the Office Clipboard is deleted.)
  4. Display the Office Clipboard. (In Office 2003 the Office Clipboard is displayed automatically. If not, press CTRL+C twice. In Office 2007 click the Clipboard Dialog Box Launcher on the Home - or Outlook's Message - tab, in the Clipboard group. Or simply right-click the Office Clipboard icon on the Taskbar in the right hand bottom corner and select Show Office Clipboard. With special thanks to Lucy Kane for spotting this!)
  5. Move the insertion point to the location in which the text is to appear and click on the item on the Clipboard you want to paste.

Collected items remain on the Office Clipboard until you exit all Office programs that are running on your computer or click Clear All in the Clipboard task pane.

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