Tip of the Week: How to Master Your Digital Clipboard

Have you ever stopped to wonder what happens when you use the cut, copy, and paste commands in Windows? They all interact with the clipboard, but what is the clipboard, really? Today, we’ll show you the magic of effective clipboard usage and how you can make the most of it on your Windows device.

What is the Clipboard?

When you cut and copy text or images, your computer needs to store that data somewhere.

That somewhere is the Clipboard. It’s where any images, text, links, or other copied files go when you use the Cut and Copy options. It’s a short-term storage solution so you can transfer this content to other applications.

The clipboard used to replace its previous content with newly cut or copied content, but as of Windows 10, this is thankfully no longer the case, and you can store multiple pieces of content in the clipboard’s history for later use.

Why Should You Access Its History?

Why would you want to access the clipboard, anyway?

While you might cut, copy, and paste content pretty much immediately, what happens when you forget one of these steps and accidentally cut, copy, or paste the wrong thing? In situations like this, it helps to have access to the full clipboard history. You can easily go through the clipboard to find the required content, then paste it as you see fit.

The other cool thing about activating clipboard history is that you can set it up to sync across your Windows devices, which means you can be productive on any of your connected Windows devices.

How to Access the Clipboard’s History

To top it all off, accessing the clipboard’s history is super easy.

It’s done with a keyboard shortcut: Windows Key + V.

When you use this keyboard shortcut, you should see a history of your clipboard’s content since you booted up your PC. Keep in mind that this functionality must be turned on first, so if you haven’t already done so, the application will prompt you to do so when you first use this keyboard shortcut.

You can also delete and clear all clipboard content if you need to; all it takes is clicking on the appropriate option.

Want more tips and tricks for how to be productive with your technology? Direct Technology Group can help. Learn more by calling us today at (954) 739-4700.