To copy to a new place: select, copy, click, paste.
The big ideaCopy leaves the original, and paste makes a new one. Look before you send.
How it works
Copy leaves the words where they were and puts a copy in a little pouch called the clipboard. Paste puts that copy where you clicked.
To copy a line to a new place: select the words, copy them, click the spot, then paste.
The pouch holds one thing at a time, so a new copy takes the place of the old one. One copy can be pasted as many times as you like.
Look at every paste before you send anything. A secret word is for the family only, and it never goes in a card or a message.
Hold Control, then tap a blue key: C copies, V pastes and X cuts. Control is not drawn here.Copy and cut.
Example 1: Ten party cards
Type the invitation line once, with care.
Select the line: drag across the words until they light up.
Copy it, and a copy goes into the pouch while the line stays put.
Click where the next card begins and paste.
Paste again and again, because the pouch keeps its copy until you copy something new.
Example 2: The pouch holds one thing
Copy the word cake.
Then copy the word balloons.
Click a spot and paste.
Out comes balloons, because the new copy took the place of the old one.
Example 3: Look before you paste
Someone copied the family's secret word and left it in the pouch.
If you paste without looking, the secret word can appear in the middle of a card.
Rub it out, because a secret word is for the family only. Nothing was sent, so no harm is done.
Copy a plain word, like hello, so the pouch holds nothing secret.
Example 4: The quick way
Hold Control and tap the C key to copy.
Hold Control and tap the V key to paste.
Hold Control and tap the X key to cut.
Some computers use another key for the Control job, so ask a grown-up which one.
The three keys that go with Control.
Words to know
select
Drag across words until they light up, to show which part you mean.
copy
Make a second one and leave the first where it was.
paste
Put the copy where you clicked.
cut
Take the words away from where they were, so you can move them.
clipboard
The little pouch that holds your copy.
Watch out
Copy does not take the words away. Cut does that.
The pouch holds only one thing, so copying something new replaces what was there.
Pasting without looking can bring out something you did not mean, so look before you send.
A secret word, or the code for the front door, stays out of a card or a message.
Try it
After a copy, do the words stay where they were?
You copy the word cake, then the word balloons. What do you paste?
What do you hold, and what do you tap, for a quick copy?
The pouch holds the family's secret word. Is it fine to paste it into a card?
Answers: 1. Yes · 2. balloons · 3. Hold Control and tap the C key · 4. No
Try at homeAt the computer with a grown-up: type a short note. Select one word, copy it, and paste it in another place. Then copy a plain word, so the pouch holds nothing private. Last, ask your grown-up to show you where the copy and paste keys are on your computer.
For grown-upsAt the computer, let your child type a short note, then select one word, copy it and paste it somewhere else; afterwards copy a plain word so the pouch holds nothing private, and show them which key does the Control job on your computer.
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