Part of the Computing fundamentals glossary:

What is a clipboard?

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A clipboard is a temporary storage area for data that the user wants to copy from one place to another. 

In a word processor application, for example, the user might want to cut text from one part of a document and paste it in another part of the document or somewhere else. When the user copies the selected content, it's stored in the clipboard buffer until it's pasted. Some operating systems, including Windows and Macintosh OSes, let the user copy content from one application to another. 

Learn More About IT:
> Wikipedia has an entry about clipboard software.
> Scott Nugati explains more about the clipboard in Vista.

This was last updated in September 2008
Posted by: Margaret Rouse

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