More eBay Tips...

Tip #5 - Cut, Copy and Paste!

I'm always amazed to find out just how many otherwise computer-savvy folks have no idea how to use the three basic text editing commands 

Cut

Copy

Paste

If you are plan to spend any amount of time using the Internet to sell things, or if you just spend a lot of time at the computer, sending email or writing the great American novel, then you are going to need these three commands. If you are going to sell your merch at eBay, then you will REALLY need them.

Cut, Copy and Paste are the ultimate time savers for moving text from one place to another or creating copies of long pages of text. Let's watch them in action:

The three commands, Cut, Copy and Paste can be executed in three ways.

The first and most common place to find the commands is under the  menu bar Edit command for any Windows (or Mac) application. Here is an example of where the commands are usually found in any application using Notepad's Edit menu command (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1

Let's say we want to copy some text from Notepad and paste it into the item description box on the eBay Sell Your Item Page. First we highlight the text in Notepad by clicking the mouse cursor on either side of the text and while holding down the mouse button, dragging the mouse across the text (Fig. 2 and Fig. 3):

Fig. 2                                        Fig. 3

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

Fig. 4

What this does is copy the highlighted text to a built in Windows applet called Clipboard. Anything copied to the Windows Clipboard can be pasted into the same or another application. Until some new text is copied to the Clipboard, this text will be available for pasting into any other application any number of times. Let's copy the text into another application, in this instance, we will copy it into the Sell Your Item page's text entry box for the Item Description.

In the example below, I have clicked my cursor so it is blinking inside the box. I then clicked the right hand button on my mouse and selected Paste from the resulting pop up menu box. (Fig. 5.)

Fig 5

This will cause the text you copied from Notepad to be pasted into 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 and copies it to the Windows Clipboard. The Cut command "cuts" or removes the instance of the original text and copies it to the Windows Clipboard. The Cut command comes in handy when you want to actually move text from one place to another.

As I mentioned earlier, there are three ways to call up the Cut, Copy and Paste commands. We have explored one of them - using pop up menus - but there are two others, one of which is better than the other two. Here are all three ways to reach the editing commands:

1. From the main menu bar

2. From the pop up menu (reached by clicking the right mouse button)

3. Using keystrokes

Keystrokes are the most efficient way of accessing the basic text editing commands. In the old, old, old, days of DOS (before Windows - yes, there was a time when Windows did not exist!) way before everyone used a pointed device like a mouse, anyone who did a lot of text editing or word processing relied upon these keystroke combinations to do all their basic text editing. There were no other options!

Although it takes a day or so to get used to using keystroke combinations to do text editing, once you are comfortable doing so, you won't ever want to use anything else! Any tip or trick that keeps you from moving your hand over to the mouse and back a hundred times a day not only saves time but will help prevent repetitive motion pain or injury.

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 right mouse button and drag the cursor to the right (and down if you need to copy more than one line of text) as 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 down and, using your index finger, click the C key once (Fig. 7)

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 (usually, this means clicking the mouse cursor into a box or blank page so that it is blinking in just the place you want the text to appear.) 

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

Fig. 8

This keystroke combination (Ctrl + V) Pastes the text into the application where the mouse cursor is currently active.

Other keystroke combinations are 

Ctrl + X for Cut

the following work for most Windows applications but not all!

Ctrl + A for Select All

Ctrl + N for New (window  - VERY helpful for opening new Internet Explorer windows!)

Ctrl + S for Save

Try them all and see how much more efficient and quick they are when compared to selecting commands from a menu!

  Click here to Close this Window