Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Moving Text without Affecting the Clipboard.

Moving Text without Affecting the Clipboard

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 30, 2020)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021


1

Here is a trick that was first introduced in Word 5 for DOS and is still valid in all succeeding version of Word. Suppose you want to move something (a word, sentence, graphic, table, etc.) from one location in the document to another. You probably know the standard way of doing the move (using cut and paste), but there is another way. You can do the move very quickly via the following:

  1. Highlight (select) what you want to move.
  2. Display the spot in the document where you want to move the information.
  3. Holding down the Ctrl key as you right-click the mouse on the spot where the item should be moved. Word moves the highlighted item to where you right clicked.

The beauty of this technique is that the Clipboard is not involved. This means that if you had something on the Clipboard before the move, it is still there for later use; it hasn't been disturbed.

You should note that if, instead of moving, you want to just copy, all you need to do is hold down both the Shift and Ctrl keys in step 3.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (12899) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Moving Text without Affecting the Clipboard.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Counting the Instances of a Text String

Sometimes it is helpful to know how often a particular phrase appears within a document. If you need to know such a ...

Discover More

Hanging Indents in Wrapped Text

If you use hanging indents for some of your paragraphs, you may wonder why they don't look right when they wrap on the ...

Discover More

Identifying Digit-Only Part Numbers Excluding Special Characters

When working with data in Excel, you often need to determine if that data meets criteria that you specify. This tip ...

Discover More

Create Custom Apps with VBA! Discover how to extend the capabilities of Office 365 applications with VBA programming. Written in clear terms and understandable language, the book includes systematic tutorials and contains both intermediate and advanced content for experienced VB developers. Designed to be comprehensive, the book addresses not just one Office application, but the entire Office suite. Check out Mastering VBA for Microsoft Office 365 today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Selecting a Group of Words

Want to select a chunk of text in a document? Perhaps the easiest way to do this involves using the mouse in conjunction ...

Discover More

Meaningless Text

Need to quickly put some text into a document, even if that text is essentially meaningless? Here's how to put this type ...

Discover More

Selecting the Entire Document with the Mouse

Want a quick way to select your entire document without taking your hand off the mouse? Try clicking away using the ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 3 + 2?

2020-05-30 10:03:10

Erik Eilertsen

The latest clipboards store each successive copy or cut and by displaying the clipboard you can find the one you want and insert it wherever you need it - there is no need to worry about whether a subsequent copy or cut will wipe out a previous one.
I use 2016 and on the home tab on the left is the Clipboard - click the arrow in the bottom right corner to show the clipboard. All copies and pastes are shown here from your current session - be it an image from the web, an excel or PDF page that has been copied from.
If you are going to be working on a couple of new Word documents you can open the clipboard and clear it then, if it is in the way, close it and only open it when you need to find a cut or copy that you previously made in this session.


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.