Clipboard (computing) facts for kids
The clipboard is a software facility used for short-term data storage and/or data transfer between documents or applications, via copy and paste operations. It is most commonly a part of a GUI
Clipboard managers are applications that enable user to manipulate clipboard. Most environments support a single clipboard transaction. Each cut or copy overwrites the previous contents. Normally, paste operations copy the contents, leaving the contents available in the clipboard for further pasting operations.
When data is added to the clipboard by an application, it typically makes it available in as many different data formats as it can. This includes both native and simpler (or more common) formats that would have a higher chance of being recognized by a wide variety of applications. Thus, when data is pasted into another application, the format that is closest to that application's native format can be used, preserving as much of the original data as possible.
Most environments do not save the clipboard contents to any persistent storage - when a user logs out or reboots his or her system the clipboard contents are cleared and forgotten.
The standard Windows key bindings are:
- Ctrl+C to copy data onto the clipboard
- Ctrl+X to cut data to the clipboard
- Ctrl+V to paste data from the clipboard
The standard Mac OS keybindings are:
- Cmd-C to copy data into the clipboard
- Cmd-X to cut into it
- Cmd-V to paste data from the clipboard
See also
In Spanish: Portapapeles para niños
