Mac Kung Fu, 2nd Edition

Tip 11

Use a Secret, Alternative Cut and Paste

Ever had something important held in the clipboard, like a picture, yet wanted to quickly cut and paste some text within a document? OS X actually contains two clipboards, although the second is much more primitive than the main one and will cut and paste only text. You won’t find it on any menus, either, and it is available only via two keyboard shortcuts. You can use it in the usual way by highlighting some text, using Control+K to cut the text, and pressing Control+Y to paste the content in the new position. (Note that’s Control and not Command; longtime Unix/Linux users will, of course, recognize this secondary clipboard as an implementation of the kill and yank tools found in the likes of Emacs.) ...