How to copy and paste text on an Android Phone?

One of my readers asked me how to copy paste on a touch screen phone. Considering that I write a lot about Android Phones these days, I am assuming the reader wants to know how to copy and paste text if you are using an Android Phone.

Is it not obvious? Many of you may think. Well, it is not that obvious. I have come across many people who find it difficult to figure out how copy and paste functionality work on a phone. Now, let us figure it out.

Now, Android lets you select text, cut or copy and pate it else where. Let us go step by step, to figure out how to copy text in one application and take it else where, to another application:

• Decide what text you want to copy. Long press that part of the text with your finger. To long press is to touch the screen for a longer time than usual, until some action happens. When you long press on the screen a menu will pop up.
• The menu on the Android Phone that pops us when you long press on text will have the following options
• Select Word
• Select All
• Cut
• Copy
• Paste
• Once the menu pops up, you can select all the text or select a word to start with. Select a word if you do not want to select the entire text on the screen.
• When you select a word, Android 2.1 or above will show an orange select highlight with two markers at both ends of the highlights. Now you can click on the markers and drag them to select which ever text you want to select. If you are using Gingerbread or above you can do it like a breeze. If you are using the older versions of Android, it becomes a little difficult. However, you can touch the highlight and drag you fingers on the text you want to choose.
• Once you select the text, long press on the highlighted part again to open the menu. And cut or copy as you please.
• After the text is copied to the clipboard, press the home button to leave the application. Open the application where you want to paste the content. Long press the text box where you want to paste the content and open the menu. And click "Paste"

If you could not make figure out how to do it after reading these instructions, here is a video that will help you:

Alternatively, if you want to use the clipboard on your phone in a more advanced form and want to keep a record of what you copied and pasted for future reference or use, you can go to market and download Clipper. In other words, clipper is a clipboard management app for android. You can download Clipper from here.  Clipper allows you to access your clipboard and get what ever you copied.