The Apple macOS Blog

How to Copy and Paste on a MacBook

Published: 17th of September, 2024

Authored by Maria
Maria Garner
Adventurer and Mac specialist

Congratulations on your new Mac! After switching you might've noticed the keyboard shortcuts for copy and paste no longer work. Not to worry, today I'll teach you how to copy and paste on your new MacBook Pro.

Keyboard shortcuts

The quickest way to copy and paste on your Mac is by using the standard Mac keyboard combinations, they're almost the same but just a bit different to what you're used to!

Select the content

First you highlight the thing you want to copy. Do this by clicking then dragging your cursor over the text. If it's a file or image then simply click on it.

Copy that content

Once you've selected the content press ⌘ + C on your keyboard. This will copy the item to your clipboard, where it is ready for pasting.

Paste the content

Now go to the location where you'd like to paste the copied content. Click to position your cursor and press ⌘ command + V. Et voilà your copied content will appear!

 

All those other shortcuts

Cutting, undoing and redoing edits works like on other computers with the exception that you press ⌘ command instead of CTRL. The command key is Mac's equivalent of the Windows key. It'll take a while for your muscle memory to adapt but once you're used to it hitting CMD + whatever will become second nature.

 

Using The Trackpad

Sometimes you might prefer using your trackpad or mouse to copy and paste.
Copying content is exactly the same as before: select, copy, paste, except instead of the keyboard shortcuts you right-click on the item and choose Copy and Paste etc from the context menu. Pretty easy isn't it?! 

Copying Files

This process is just as simple for copying and pasting files/folders.To deal with those you simply:

  1. Select the files or folders you want to copy.
  2. Right-click and select Copy or use ⌘ + C.
  3. Use Finder to navigate to the folder you want to paste the items into, then right-click and choose Paste or just press ⌘ + V.

 

Bonus Tip: Universal Clipboard

Yet another cool feature included on your MacBook Pro is Universal Clipboard. It allows you to copy something on your Mac, then paste it on another Apple device like your iPhone or iPad! Pretty nifty and this'll work so long as both devices are signed in to the same iCloud account.

It's very simple to use, just copy the text, image, or file on your MacBook using ⌘ + C shortcut or mouse method. Now on your iPhone or Pad, goto the app where you want to paste, tap and hold then select Paste.

Like most things Mac it's that simple — no extra setup required!

Hope you found this useful and enjoy your newfound cut-copy-paste-skills!

Till next time,
❤️ Maria

 

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