5/14/2015 UsetheSpiketoCopyandPasteTextinWord

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Use the Spike to Copy and Paste Text in Word

There is a little known feature in word that allows you to gather groups of text and/or graphics from differentlocations in a Word document and then paste all of that text into another location.

It is called the Spike and it is different in than the Clipboard, which allows you work with only copied set of textat a time. The Spike is named after an old-fashioned paper holder onto which people poked papers as they weredone with them. You may still see the old-fashioned version of the Spike in use in some retail stores.

NOTE: The Spike feature is available in versions of Word from 97 through 2010.

To gather information into the Spike in Word, simply select the text you want to add and press Ctrl + F3. Thiscuts the information from your document and places it into the Spike. You can continue to cut parts of yourdocument and Word will continue to add the cut text to the Spike.

NOTE: When you use the Spike, you are cutting or removing text from its original location, NOT copying text.

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To paste the collected text, place the insertion point at the location in the current document, a new document, oranother existing document where you want to paste the text. Press Ctrl + Shift + F3 to paste the text from theSpike at the insertion point. All the information in the Spike (not just the last text you cut into there) is pastedinto your document at the insertion point.

Pressing Ctrl + Shift + F3 also erases all the information in the Spike. If you dont want to clear the Spike whenyou paste the contents of it, place the insertion point where you want to paste the contents, type spike (withoutthe quotes), and press F3.

You can also view the contents of the Spike without pasting the contents or emptying the Spike. To do this inWord 2007 and later, click the Insert tab on the ribbon and find the Quick Parts button in the Text section.

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Click the arrow on the Quick Parts button and select Building Blocks Organizer, if you are using Word 2007, orAutoText, if you are using Word 2010, from the drop-down menu.

In Word 2007, the Building Blocks Organizer dialog box displays. Click the Spike in the list on the left to display

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a preview of the text and/or graphics the Spike currently contains.

To view the contents of the Spike, if you are using Word 2003 or earlier, select AutoText | AutoText from theInsert menu.

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The AutoCorrect dialog box displays. On the AutoText tab, type spike (without the quotes) in the EnterAutoText entries here edit box to quickly find the Spike in the list. The Spike is automatically selected once it isfound and you can see the contents of the Spike in the Preview box below the list of AutoText entries.

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You may have noticed that when you pasted the contents of the Spike, there was an extra blank line betweeneach item you added to the Spike. Thats due to Smart Paragraph Selection.

With Smart Paragraph Selection enabled, its impossible to select a paragraph without grabbing that finalparagraph mark as well. You might want to turn off Smart Paragraph Selection to avoid creating blank linesbetween each of the items on the Spike. To do this in Word 2007, select Word Options from the Office menu.

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On the Word Options dialog box, click Advanced in the list on the left.

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In the Editing options section on the right, select the Use smart paragraph selection check box so there is nocheck mark in the check box.

Click OK to close the Word Options dialog box.

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To turn off Smart Paragraph Selection in Word 2003 or earlier, select Options from the Tools menu.

On the Options dialog box, click the Edit tab. In the Editing options section, select the Use smart paragraphselection check box so there is no check mark in the check box.

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Click OK to close the Options dialog box.

The Spike is a useful feature if you need to quickly and easily rearrange and move non-contiguous text or createa new document from pieces of another document.

by Lori Kaufman

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August 15th, 2010byAseem KishoreFile in: Office Tips

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Kat1110says:Thankyou,thankyou,thankyou!!Idevelopedseriousmemoryandcognitiveissuesinthepastfewyearsthatwouldassertthemselvesatthemostinconvenientoftimes.Ineedthewrittenwordandillustrationstogetthroughmythickscullthesedays!

I'vehadanonandoffrelationshipwithWord.WhenIinheritedalaptopfrommybrother,ithadOffice2003,andsinceIhadbeenusingOpenOffice.orgWriterexclusivelytothatpoint,andeventhough2007wasalreadyoutatthetime,itwas"new"tome.IstillprimarilyusedWriterthough,especiallyafterIpurchasedanewlaptopandfeltthecostofanupdatedOfficeprohibitive.Itriedout2010betawhenitwentpublicandlovedit.Somuchso,thatIstoppedusingitwhentheretailpricingwasreleasedbyMS!ItseemedpointlesstometobecomeattachedtoaprogramIwouldn'tbeabletoafford.ThenIcameacrossasweetdealandpurchased2007whichwasupgradableto2010whenitwasreleased.WhileIfinditincrediblyintuitive,I'mauserguideperson.IreadanythingandeverythingtobecomeascomfortablyknowledgeableasIpossiblycan.Thatsaid,I'vepurchased,andamcurrentlyreading,2booksand1ebookonOffice2010.(Ifindreadingdifferentwritingstyles,betterenablesmyunderstanding,dependingonwhat'sgoinginmylifeatthetime,ifthatmakesanysense.)

Afterreadingyourarticle,Icheckedtheindexineachofthethreebooksandguesswhat?NoSpike!Notinasingleoneofthem!!Andallthreearepopular,wellknownandwellwrittenguides.

Ican'tthankyouenoughforsuchatimelyarticleforme.CuttingcertainareasofmywritingpresentedmewithannoyinglittlenotesallovermycomputerwhereIwould"save"it'tilIneededitsomewhereelse.YetdeletingitsometimeswasevenmoreannoyingwhenIwishedIstillhadwhatIhaddeleted!NowIhavetheSpike!!

helpdeskgeek.comrocks!!

August16,2010at4:09am

oneshot719says: August16,2010at8:57am

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itcutsnotcopiesonmine,hmmmthat'sweird

Lorisays:I'msorryiftheheadlinewasmisleading.Yes,theSpikecutsyourtextratherthancopyingit.Thereisanoteinthepostpointingthisout.Sorryforthemisunderstanding.

August16,2010at10:42am

mattdangersays:Aswritteninthearticleabove:"NOTE:WhenyouusetheSpike,youarecuttingorremovingtextfromitsoriginallocation,NOTcopyingtext."

Ididn'tuseSpiketomovethistext,soitisstillintheoriginalarticle.

August16,2010at12:14pm

dextersays:Ihadnoideathatthisfeatureevenexisted.Ihaveevenlesserideaastohowusefulcanthisfeaturebe.Cuttingtextfromonedocumenttoonesingleplace?

August21,2010at4:48am

MohamedSamysays:Veryhelpful.Thankyoufortheeffort.

September29,2010at4:59am

ChristineHillsays:Thearticleistitled'UsetheSpiketoCopyandPastTextinWord'butthearticletellshowtocutandpastusingthespike.ThismixupisreallyannoyingasIwanttocopynotcuttotheSpikeandpaste.I'mprettysurethatIusedtobeabletocopytotheSpikeonamuchearlierversionofWord.CuttingtotheSpikeisnotallthatuseful.

November15,2011at8:54pm

Bobsays:Youcanusethespiketocopyandpaste.AftertheselectionoftexttocopyusetheCtrl+F3keycombothenbeforeselectingthenextlotoftextormovingthecursoruseCtrl+Zkeycombinationtocancelthelastoperation.Thisdoesnotalterwhatsonthespikeandleavesthetextintheoriginaldocumentalone.Alternatelyclosetheoriginaldocumentaftertheallthecopyandpastingisdonewithoutsavingit.

November27,2012at9:20pm

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