How to copy and paste on a Chromebook computer?

Chromebooks are the special laptops designed over ChromeOS that focus on fast browsing experience. These are gadgets that you can use either as a tablet or as a laptop. Reason being, they are almost similar to Android, but have more functionalit. These processing units are found on even Windows laptops, but Chromebooks have an unmatched speed and price.

A Chromebook is also equipped with a wide range of accessibility features, such as screen recording, screencasting, and screencasting. Additionally, being a native Chrome component, you can install any Android application you want. Meanwhile there is a huge difference between Windows and Chromebooks. It appears that people want to know the copy and paste function in Chromebook. So, let’s discuss it.

How to copy and paste on a Chromebook

On Windows, I agree you have multiple ways to copy and paste but remember Chromebooks support touch response. Additionally, you can copy and paste through that method as well. However, being a newbie you might take time to understand the things but once you get used to, the Chromebook functions will be on your tips. Like here we need to know the different ways to copy and paste. For your information, there are three ways to do this: keyboard shortcuts, mouse and touchpad. So, let’s look at each of them.

Copy and Paste Using Keyboard Shortcut

Using keyboard shortcuts is the primary way that people usually use. This is because it is a popular way of getting around and people are used to it. Here all you need is to know the key combination to copy and paste. By using keyboard shortcuts, you can copy and paste text by selecting the text using SHIFT + Right arrow keys, then pressing CTRL + C to copy it, and CTRL + V to paste it. 

Copy and Paste Using the Mouse

The other popular way beginners use is through the mouse. This seems somewhat stressful for professionals. But we can’t deny it because after all, this is also a great way to copy and paste. So, To copy any text using mouse on chromebook, simple select the text through holding the left click and dragging horizontally over the text. Then release the left click and right click >> select copy. Similarly, when you want to paste it, do right click and select the paste option.

Copy and Paste Using the Touchpad

This thing happens when you don’t use mouse and looking for a way to copy and paste on chromebook. Although this method is similar to using a mouse, there are a few tweaks. Here, you have to highlight the text you want to copy. Press and hold two fingers on the touchpad and drag the text to the desired location. When you release the two fingers, the text will be copied. Similarly, to paste highlight the desired location and press two fingers on the touchpad. The text will be pasted.

I expect now you have got the different ways to copy and paste on a Chromebook. But there might be some users who think what would happen if we copied and pasted an image URL, a webpage URL, or a video URL. Do not worry below we will discuss all these things.

Steps to Copy and Paste a File

1. Simply, open the Files app. 
2. Find the files you want to copy.
3. Click on the files to select them. 
4. After that, click on the “Copy” button. 
5. Now open the folder where you want to paste the files and click on the “Paste” button.
6. That’s it, you are done.

Alternatively, you can copy and paste a file through Open the two folders that contain the files you want to copy >> Drag a file from one folder to the other >> The file will be copied to the new folder. The primary way here is to highlight the file you want to copy >> Ctrl + C to copy the file >> Open the folder where you wish to paste >> Ctrl + V to paste.

Steps to Copy and Paste a full Web page

Note: You can do copy and paste from other available ways that mentioned above. The below steps are just reference to how you can execute to copy and paste a web page.

1. On the webpage, press CTRL + to select the entire page.
2. To copy that web page, press CTRL + C to copy that web page.
3. Next click the area where you want to paste and press CTRL + V.
4. That’s it, your webpage will be copied and pasted in this way.

Steps to Copy and Paste an Image, Video and Web page URL

Note: Similar to the webpage, here you can apply other available ways to copy and paste on Chromebook.

1. Find the Image/Video/web page that URL you want to copy.
2. Then do right click on it.
3. Now select copy Image/Video/Webpage URL.
4. Following this, the Image/Video/webpage URL will be copied.
5. The next step is to right click on the area where you want to paste the above copied content.
6. Select paste option there.
7. That’s it, you are done.

Besides that, you can copy and paste using voice command too. Just select the copy and say hey google copy that and to paste it say hey google paste that. As a pro tip, you should few helpful keyboard shortcuts that are – 

• Ctrl + Shift + V to paste text without any formatting.
• Ctrl + Shift + A to select all text in a document.
• Ctrl + Shift + D to delete all text in a document.
• Ctrl + Shift + Z to undo the last action.
• Ctrl + Shift + Y to redo the last action.

To sum up, Copy and Paste is not a big task on Chromebook. The only issue is people find difficulty because they think if it is a Chromebook that means it has some different function. But as we all can see it has the same function as Windows. Whether you copy and paste a text, image or video URL, the steps will be the same as Windows. Now I hope you understand how to copy and paste on your Chromebook. Even after that, if any users have any questions, feel free to ask them below.

Frequently Asked Questions