Jungled Sales Tips - Cut, Copy, & Paste

As an internet coach I have been amazed how many people don't know how to efficiently use the Cut, Copy, and Paste commands. These three simple commands are absolutely essential to efficiently sell on eBay and use your computer. (to send emails, write reports, etc.)

There are a few common ways of using the cut, copy, and paste commands:

The first place to find these commands is under the Edit button on the menu bar as illustrated below in Notepad's Edit menu. (Fig.1)

Fig. 1

For example, let's say that you want to copy some text from Notepad into the item description box on eBay as illustrated below. First, you highlight the text in Notepad by clicking the left mouse button so the cursor is hovering over the left side of the first letter of the text, and while holding down the mouse button, drag the mouse across the text to the last letter.(Fig. 2 and Fig. 3)

Fig. 2  

Fig. 3

Once the text is highlighted, click Edit on the menu bar and select Copy from the dropdown menu. (Fig. 4)

Fig. 4

This text is now copied to the invisible Windows applet know as the "Clipboard." This highlighted text is now available to paste into any application as many times as you would like. We will now paste it into the eBay item description box as illustrated. Click the left mouse button inside of the blank description box so the cursor is blinking, then right click so the dropdown menu is displayed (Fig. 5)

Fig. 5

Left click on Paste in the dropdown menu and the text appears in the description box. (Fig. 6)

Fig. 6

The Cut command is similar to the Copy command with one difference - the Copy command leaves the original text untouched in the program you are using (Notepad in the examples above) and copies it to the Windows Clipboard. The Cut command "cuts" or removes the original text from the program and places it in the Windows Clipboard. The Cut command is useful when you want to actually remove text from one place to another.

We have now demonstrated one of the few ways of copying and pasting: using the dropdown menus. Here are all three ways to reach the editing commands:

   1. From the Edit button on the main menu bar
   2. From the pop up menu (by clicking the right mouse button)
   3. Using keystrokes

Keystrokes are the most efficient way of accessing the basic text editing commands. These keystrokes will save you a lot of time:

In order to Copy using keystrokes, first select the text you want to copy by placing your mouse cursor to the left of the text. Hold down the left mouse button and drag the cursor to the right (and down if you need to copy more than one line of text) as shown in Fig. 2 and 3 above.

Once your selected text is highlighted, press and hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard (use your little finger on your left hand. DO NOT get in the bad habit of using two hands for keystroke combinations - it will defeat the whole purpose!) Keep the Ctrl key pressed down and, using your index finger, click the C key once (Fig. 7)
Ctrl+C

Fig. 7

This will Copy the text to the Windows Clipboard. Next, select the application and location to where you wish the text to be copied (the eBay description box in the examples above.)

Now, using the keyboard, once again hold down the Ctrl key, and this time click the V key once (Fig 8).
Ctrl+V

Fig. 8

The Ctrl + V keystroke pastes the text from the Clipboard to the desired location.

Again, if you would like to Cut the text from one application to another rather than Copying, you would use the same steps as above but use the Ctrl key and X key instead.

Other useful keystrokes in Windows are as follows:

Ctrl + A - Selects all the text in that current application. (Useful for selecting all the text in a Word or Notepad document rather than highlighting it with the mouse cursur.)
Ctrl + N - Opens a new window. (Useful for opening a new Internet Explorer browser rather than double clicking on the icon on the desktop or in the Start menu.)
Ctrl + S - Save the current document rather than clicking on the File menu and selecting save.
Ctrl + R - Refresh the current window.
Ctrl + P - Prints the current screen.
Alt + TAB - Toggle between open windows and applications.
View all the Windows Shortcut Keys.
Practice using these methods and shortcuts and see how much time they save you