Windows XP [Electronic resources] : Visual Quickstart Guide, Second Edition نسخه متنی

Transferring Data

One of the regular things you'll do in Windows is move data around: copy web-page text to an email message, put graphics-editor images in a word-processing document, move paragraphs around in a text file, export spreadsheet rows to a database, embed a chart in a presentation, and so on. Windows gives you a few ways to do so.

Cut, copy, and paste

Cut, copy, and paste, which are second nature to experienced Windows users, are used to organize documents, folders, and disks.

Cut and paste removes (cuts) information and places it on the clipboard so that it can be moved (pasted) elsewhere. Cutting deletes the data from its original location.

Copy and paste copies information to the clipboard so that it can be duplicated (pasted) elsewhere. Copying leaves the original data intact (nothing visible happens).

You'll find Cut, Copy, and Paste commands in a program's Edit menu (Figure 1.48 ), but each program may handle these operations differently. In Windows Explorer, for example, you can copy or move files and folders from one disk or folder to another. In Microsoft Word, you can copy or move text or graphics to another part of a document or to a different document. In Internet Explorer, you can only copy material from web pages, not cut it.

To cut:

1. Select (highlight) the material to remove.

2. Choose Edit > Cut.

or

Press Ctrl+X.

or

Right-click the section; then choose Cut from the shortcut menu.

To copy:

1. Select (highlight) the material to copy.

2. Choose Edit > Copy.

or

Press Ctrl+C.

or

Right-click the selection; then choose Copy from the shortcut menu.

To paste:

1. Click the mouse (or move the cursor) to where you want to the material to appear.

2. Choose Edit > Paste.

or

Press Ctrl+V.

or

Right-click; then choose Paste from the shortcut menu.

If you mean to copy (Ctrl+C) something and accidentally cut (Ctrl+X) it instead, or if you paste something in the wrong place, you can recover by undoing your action.

To undo a cut or paste:

Immediately after you cut or paste, choose Edit > Undo (Ctrl+Z).

Tips

Keyboard shortcuts save time, but they're especially useful when the Edit menu is unavailable (Figure 1.49 ).

Many programs have an Edit > Paste Special command that pastes, links, or embeds the clipboard contents in a document in the format you specify. The Paste Special command in the Microsoft Word, for example, lets you strip all formatting from pasted text, for example.

The Clipboard

The

clipboard is the invisible area of memory where Windows stores cut or copied data, where it remains until overwritten when you cut or copy something else. This scheme lets you paste the same thing multiple times in different places. You can transfer information from one program to another provided that the second program can read data generated by the first. A little experimenting shows that you often can combine dissimilar datayou can paste text from Notepad or Word into Photoshop, for example. Note that you can't paste something that you've

deleted or

cleared (as opposed to cut) because Windows doesn't place that something on the clipboard.

Use ClipBook Viewer to see what's on the clipboard: Choose Start > Run; type clipbrd and then press Enter (Figure 1.50 ). ClipBook Viewer has some handy features such as network clip-sharing and the ability to save clips as files, but if you're a writer, editor, researcher, or graphic artist, you'll want something more powerful. Try ClipCache Plus ($20 U.S.; www.clipcache.com) or ClipMate ($30; www.thornsoft.com), which let you save, organize, combine, preview, and control many persistent clips. (The Microsoft Office clipboard can stack a dozen clips, but that's nothing compared to these utilities.)

Drag and drop

WordPad, Outlook Express, Outlook, Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, and many other email and word-processing programs let you drag and drop as a faster alternative to cut and paste. Figure 1.51 shows you how. Move any amount of text, from single character to epic poem. This technique doesn't involve the clipboard and won't change its contents.

Tips

Press Ctrl as you drag to

copy, rather than move, the highlighted material.

When you drag highlighted material near the window's edge, the document auto-scrolls until you move (usually jerk) away from the edge. See the "Automatic Scrolling" sidebar in "Windows" earlier in this chapter.

If you drag highlighted text or graphics out of your document and onto the desktop, Windows creates a persistent

scrap file, which remains there for future pasting (Figure 1.52 ). Drag a scrap icon from the desktop back into a document window, and the clip appears. You also can drag a scrap icon onto a taskbar button, pause until the document appears, and then drag and drop it in the document.

Intermediate formats

Another way to exchange data between programs is to save it in a format that both the source and target programs can read and write. To read a list of addresses into a mailing-list program from a spreadsheet or database, for example, save the addresses in a CSV-format file (a text file of comma-separated values); then open it in the mailing-list program. The source program's Save As dialog box lists the format types that you can save (Figure 1.53 ). The target program usually will auto-convert the CSV file when you open it with File > Open, but you may have to step through a wizard to organize the incoming data. Image-editing programs such as Paint and Photoshop can exchange files in JPEG, GIF, TIFF, PNG, and other popular graphic formats.

Import/export

Use import and export tools to transfer large amounts of data or data in incompatible formats. Most address-book, browser, email, spreadsheet, database, and statistical programs have Import and Export commands, typically on the File menu. The commands vary by program (they're not part of Windows), so read the documentation for both the source and target programs. Import/export operations can be routinemost database programs can skip the CSV step and export to the native Excel format directly, for examplebut they're superlative when no standard exchange-format exists. If you want to try new email and browser programs, import/export is the only practical way to transfer all your addresses, messages, bookmarks, cookies, and other information (Figure 1.54 ).