Cut, copy, and paste

Cut, copy, and paste are essential commands of modern human–computer interaction and user interface design.

The command names are an interface metaphor based on the physical procedure used in manuscript print editing to create a page layout, like with paper.

Typically, clipboard support is provided by an operating system as part of its GUI and widget toolkit.

As soon as computer data entry moved from punch-cards to online files (in the mid/late 1960s) there were "commands" for accomplishing this operation.

[2] The earliest editors (designed for teleprinter terminals) provided keyboard commands to delineate a contiguous region of text, then delete or move it.

[3] Inspired by early line and character editors, such as Pentti Kanerva's TV-Edit,[4] that broke a move or copy operation into two steps—between which the user could invoke a preparatory action such as navigation—Lawrence G. "Larry" Tesler proposed the names "cut" and "copy" for the first step and "paste" for the second step.

Whereas cut-and-paste often takes place with a mouse-equivalent in Windows-like GUI environments, it may also occur entirely from the keyboard, especially in UNIX text editors, such as Pico or vi.

The term "copy-and-paste" refers to the popular, simple method of reproducing text or other data from a source to a destination.

The popularity of this method stems from its simplicity and the ease with which users can move data between various applications visually – without resorting to permanent storage.

Use in healthcare documentation and electronic health records are sensitive, with potential for the introduction of medical errors, information overload, and fraud.