Contents of the Clipboard

With a mention of the Windows clipboard in another tip recently, questions about it have been rolling in. Most of the inquiries have basically been about what all goes on the clipboard. I've gotten several e-mails about this or that being saved on the clipboard or not. Well, I'm here today to help clear some of that up for you. Here we go!

First of all, if you're not sure what the clipboard is, read here before you continue on. It will help the rest of this tip to make a lot more sense for you. Now, to make a long story short, pretty much anything you copy when using your computer is saved to the clipboard. As in everything, I mean any text, images, Web addresses, whole documents, folders, files and so on. Hopefully you get the picture!

For example, if you make a screenshot on your computer using the Printscreen button, that will go to the clipboard until you paste it into your image editing program (like Photoshop). If you visit a Web site and want to share the URL with someone, copy it and it will go to the clipboard until you paste it into an e-mail. If you copy a picture you received in an e-mail, it will be on the clipboard until you paste it somewhere else.

The pattern is always the same. The data will stay on the clipboard until you paste it somewhere, until it is covered up by something else or until you shut down your computer. So, now you know where all of your information goes and yes, the Windows clipboard is a pretty cool thing!

~ Erin