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Did You Know that Cut, Copy, and Paste are Rooted in History?

Preferred Blog How To

Vince Arden

Monday, February 03 2025

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While technology has brought us a long way, there are still some telling remnants of how things used to be done. Take, for instance, the terms “cut,” “paste,” and “copy.”

“Cut” and “Paste” Have Roots in Traditional Editing Processes

Historically, manuscripts would be edited by physically cutting up pages and pasting them in different order. This practice continued into the 1980s and was only replaced once word processors became available. At one point, specialized extra-long scissors were even sold to cut through an entire page in one fell snip for editing purposes.

Now, our computers allow us to make these adjustments—as well as duplicate existing content through the copy function—far easier than could be (and once was) done manually. Plus, if the wrong thing is cut or pasted, the undo function makes it a lot easier to fix the mistake.

A Quick Shortcut Refresher

Accomplishing these tasks nowadays is simple:

Cut - Ctrl+Z
Copy - Ctrl+C
Paste - Ctrl+V
Undo - Ctrl+Z

However, the next time you press these keys, take a moment to think about how much used to go into accomplishing the same thing.

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About the author

Vince Arden

Vince Arden is the founder and President of Preferred Communication Systems. He is a graduate of DeVry University with over 30 years of experience in the IT industry. In addition to providing leadership in sales, marketing, project management, and service delivery at Preferred, Vince provides Virtual CIO-level services for the 4th-largest Realtor Association in the nation and to an Inc. 500 fastest growing company. He has been interviewed by industry publications like Redmond magazine, CRN News, and Continuum for his expertise related to cloud computing and the managed IT services industry. He also lends his voice as a contributing author for the Cloud Business Review.

His core purpose is to, "Help people achieve their greatest potential in work and L.I.F.E." He passionately works toward making this a reality in every aspect of life, including his areas of expertise, such as thought leadership, ideation, communication, team building, and Servant Leadership. Vince models building strong relationships, both with his team at Preferred and with his clients. He strives to build a network of people he can embolden to work smarter, so that they may ultimately be able to live better.

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