This page is about computer text editing. For rheological properties of pastes such as toothpaste or putty, see Paste (rheology).

In computing, cut and paste is a user-interface paradigm for a means of moving text (typically plain text) or other data from a source to a destination. This paradigm is closely associated with graphical user interfaces that use pointing devices.

The term "cut and paste" of course derives from the traditional practice in manuscript editing in which paragraphs were literally cut from a page with scissors and physically pasted onto another page. This was standard practice as late as the 1960s. "Editing scissors" with blades long enough to cut an 8-1/2"-wide page were available at stationery stores. The advent of photocopiers made the practice easier and more flexible.

The cut-and-paste paradigm was widely popularized by Apple in the Lisa (1981) and Macintosh (1984) operating systems and applications. It was mapped to a key combination consisting of a special control key held down while typing the letters X (for cut), C (for copy), and V (for paste). Similar key combinations were later adopted by Microsoft in Windows. Common User Architecture (in Windows and OS/2) also uses combinations of the Insert , Del , Shift and Control keys. Some environments allow cutting and pasting (even dragging and dropping) with a computer mouse.

Performing cut and pastes

Cut and paste are very frequently performed operations. It is customary to provide several methods for performing them, such as a key combination, a pulldown menu, and a toolbar button.

1. The text to be moved is selected by some method, typically by dragging over the text with the pointing device.
2. A cut operation is performed by key combination, menu, or other means.
3. The visible effect of the cut is to remove the text immediately from its location.
4. Conceptually, the text has been moved to a location often called the clipboard. The clipboard is typically invisible. On most systems there is only one location in the clipboard, hence another cut operation overwrites the previously stored information. Multiple cliboard entries are provided by many UNIX text editors and some Windows clipboard manager programs that are available over the Internet.
5. A location for insertion is selected by some method, typically by clicking at the desired insertion point.
6. A paste operation is performed which visibly inserts the clipboard text at the insertion point.
7. The paste operation is nondestructive; the text remains in the clipboard and additional copies can be inserted at other points.

Whereas cut and paste is usually done with a mouse on Windows-like environment, it may also sometimes be done entirely from the keyboard, especially in UNIX text editors, such as pico or vi. The most common kind of cutting and pasting without a mouse involves the entire current line, but it may also involve text after the cursor until the end of the line and other more sophisticated operations.

When cut and paste are provided, a nondestructive operation called copy is usually provided as well; copy places a copy of the selected text in the clipboard without removing it from its original location.

The clipboard is usually not displayed, because the operations of cutting and pasting, while actually independent, are usually performed in quick succession, and the user needs no assistance in understanding the operation or maintaining mental context.

Sometimes, if a section of text is cut and a different section of text is cut after it, the first section of text will be cut out of existence, with no way to retrieve it. This only applies to cut and paste programs that can only hold one thing on the clipboard. This is usually not a problem for clipboards that can hold multiple cuts.

Comparing paradigms

As of 2003, the cut-and-paste paradigm is so universal as to be taken for granted, and it may be instructive to compare a competing paradigm, popular in some early, highly successful "easy-to-use" applications:

1. Initially, no text is selected.
2. The user initiates the operation by selecting a move command in some manner.
3. The system displays a prompt such as "Move what?"
4. The system enters a modal state in which the only actions available to the user are either to select text or cancel the move operation.
5. The user selects the text in some manner.
6. The system displays a prompt "To where?"
7. The system enters a modal state in which the only actions available to the user are either to indicate an insertion point or cancel the move operation.
8. The user indicates the insertion point and confirms the move operation.
9. The effects of the move are displayed.

This paradigm uses an "verb-object" sequence—the user issues a move command before selecting the text to move. It makes use of modal states to guide the user through the complete move operation. In contrast, cut and paste uses an object-verb sequence and is nonmodal; the operations of selecting, cutting, marking the insertion point, and pasting are independent and do not need to be performed in sequence.

Related articles

• Cut and paste programming, a derogatory term for a bad programming practice.
• Compare copy and paste.