If you’ve grown accustomed to Windows PCs, the move to a Mac can feel discombobulating. While Apple’s Macs can process words, edit images, and browse the web just as well as PCs, differences such as the absence of a Windows key may leave new users floundering.
Fortunately, many of Mac’s operations are very similar to Windows, including its copy and paste function. It’ll only take a little bit of patience and practice until you’re just as fluent in Mac as you are in PC.
How to copy and paste text on Mac
Step 1:
Select the text you would like to copy.
You can do this by clicking and dragging your cursor over the text to highlight it in blue. Alternatively, if it is editable text, click to place your cursor at the beginning or end of the text, then hold down Shift and use your arrow keys to highlight the lines you want.
Step 2:
Press Command + C.
Press and hold the Command button at the bottom of your keyboard while also pressing C to copy the text. Alternatively, you can either right click on the highlighted text, or hold down Control and click on it. Doing either will bring up a dropdown menu, from which you can then select Copy.
Credit: Mashable
Step 3:
Click where you would like to paste the text to move your cursor there.
This must be an area in which text is editable, such as a web browser’s address bar, a text box, or a word processing document.
Step 4:
Press Command + V.
Similarly to copying, press and hold the Command button at the bottom of your keyboard while also pressing V to paste the text. You can also bring up the dropdown menu following the same method as above, and then select Paste. Your chosen text will then be pasted into the new area.
If you want to match your copied text to the font, size, and other style settings of the text you’re pasting it into, you can press Option + Shift + Command + V instead of just Command + V. You can also Cut rather than Copy by selecting Cut from the dropdown menu or pressing Command + X instead of C.
How to copy and paste an image on Mac
Step 1:
Right click on the image you would like to copy.
Alternatively, you can hold down Control and click on the image. Doing either will bring up a dropdown menu.
Step 2:
Select Copy Image from the dropdown menu.
Credit: Mashable
Step 3:
Move your cursor to where you would like to paste the image.
This must be an area in which images can be inserted, such as an image editing program or a word processing document.
Step 4:
Press Command + V.
Press and hold the Command button at the bottom of your keyboard while also pressing V to paste the image. You can also bring up the dropdown menu again and then select Paste. Your image will then be pasted into the new area.
