Almost all of us are familiar with copy & paste.  You can get to the copy & paste functionality in several ways. The most standard methods are:

• Keyboard (CTRL+C to copy, CTRL+V to paste, CTRL+X to cut)
• Mouse - clicking the right button will make a popup menu appear (called a context menu); inside that menu are the Copy, Paste, and Cut commands

OK, for most of us, that is basic.  Here's the part you might not have known.  These tricks only work in certain applications.  My examples come from Microsoft Word and Excel.  For .NET developers: they also work in Visual Studio. For more tips, read this article. 

Selecting Vertically (ALT+drag)

Select text vertically to copy, cut, or delete.  Sometimes, we end up with a situation where we need to get rid of some text at the start of each line.  You could delete each character one at a time with the DELETE key.  However, a faster way is to highlight a block of text and delete it all at once.  To select a block of characters from multiple lines:

1. Hold down the ALT key
2. While holding down the ALT key, use the mouse to move the cursor to one corner of the block
3. Keep holding down the ALT key, then press down the left mouse button
4. While keeping the ALT key and the left mouse button pressed, use the mouse to draw the selection block
5. Let go of the ALT key and the mouse button
6. Now you can do something to just the selected text: copy, cut, delete, format, etc.

For example, let's say I copied a bulleted list from the web, and when I changed it to Word formatted bullets, it kept the original "* ", making each item look like it had double bullets. By selecting vertically, this is very easy to correct.  Here is a screenshot of fixing that exact situation:

Quick Copy & Paste (CTRL+drag)

You can also quickly copy selected text to another location.  instead of doing a Copy command, then moving the cursor and then doing another paste command, simply hold down the CTRL button while dragging the highlighted text to the new location (while holding down the left mouse button). 

For example, if I wanted to change the previous list to include the word "dog" or "dogs" after each entry.  I just typed the word "dogs" once and then Quick Copy & Pasted it to the other lines. Here is a screenshot of my doing that.

Advanced Copy Menu (right button drag)

But what if you don't want to copy the text?  Maybe you want more choices.  In that case, simply change the mouse button while dragging the highlighted text.  Instead of the left mouse button, hold the RIGHT mouse button while dragging the text.  Here is a screenshot of the menu that pops up when you let go of the mouse button.

This trick is great to use with files and folders.  In this screenshot, I used the right mouse button to drag the file "notes.txt" to the folder "copy of my notes."  After I let go of the mouse button, I got this menu that lets me choose what to do. 

Excel Quick Fill (drag from handle)

My last time saver tip for today is a trick for quickly filling cells in Excel.  When a cell is selected, Excel gives you a handle at the bottom right of the cell.  The handle looks like square. You can click and drag () from that handle to automatically fill other cells.  You know when the mouse cursor is over the handle because it looks like a plus sign (+).  These screenshots show me doing this. 

Visual Studio: Copy & Paste Entire Lines (copy & paste without selection)

For .NET developers, here's a bonus trick.  If your cursor is in a line, and you do not have any characters selected, you can copy & paste the entire line!  Simply press CRTL+C then CTRL+V.  Very fast for repetitive code like this: