7 Ways To Copy and Paste Things On an iPhone

[@lawrenceatkinson]

You deserve an award for your work educating.

[@jobeejay8201]

absolutely!!

[@bevintx5440]

There are two ways to get to the share menu in the apps. The one you mentioned is at the top of an apps window, which shares entire documents. However, the 2nd way is via Share on the context menu, which shares just the selected text AND removes any special formatting. Instead of tapping Copy, keep tapping the right arrow until you see Share. Share is hidden towards the end of it, so you may need to tap the right arrow on the context menu quite a few times to see Share. But it’s worth it if you want to copy without formatting.

[@artysanmobile]

Great advice. And regarding the hiding context tools; I find this an increasingly frustrating concept. As we have many choices, why should they be hidden? Those context menus are a KEY writing tool for me. The existing method is needlessly difficult, and I may need it dozens of times in a row. Very non-Apple. Expand the menu vertically as needed. I don’t need the rest of my screen when making those very important decisions. Show them all, larger, vertically if needed, and even highlight or shade depending on user context.

[@bevintx5440]

​@@artysanmobile On iOS/iPadOS one must copy without formatting and then do a normal paste. On Macs one copies normally and chooses to paste with formatting (command-V) or as plain text without formatting (command-option-shift-V). I prefer the Mac method because one might want to paste the same text multiple times with different formatting requirements.

[@artysanmobile]

@@bevintx5440 Yes, I am aware, and I’m very vocal about what I consider bad UI design. I admin dozens of Apple products. Desktops, tablets and phones largely need to do the same things today and the UI needs flexibility to make that happen. Yet, we find out after the fact that iPadOS is crippled deliberately to prevent its competing with the Mac. 🤦🏽‍♂️ I don’t know of anyone who thinks the three product lines overlap at all. We pocket phone, carry a tablet, sit down to the desktop. I have all three for specific reasons. iPadOS is horribly crippled by nonsense assumptions of the sales team and I’m very tired of it. My iPad Pro cost me $2,200. Does Apple really think buyers don’t know what to do with it at that price?

[@bevintx5440]

@@artysanmobile I sent feedback about this to Apple again a couple days ago. One can purchase some Mac’s for less than what some iPads cost. It is a viable platform in to own right.

[@artysanmobile]

@@bevintx5440 Very true. And I am constantly frustrated with Apple’s poor stepchild approach to it. The Mac finder is a masterpiece. The iPad Files app is a bad joke. Why?

[@EnglishRain]

That tap with three fingers trick to paste multiple times quickly it’s pretty useful, thanks for that. Wish point number two text selection with trackpad was more finally developed by them though, in its current state it is extremely buggy and unreliable.

[@hello-4229]

I learn something new on your videos, no matter how old I’ve been using iPhone

[@garynagle3093]

Great video. I never cease to learn something new. Trackpad mode. Love it

[@kingech_B15]

Track pad mode is fire. 🔥

[@garynagle3093]

I had never heard of this before. Awesome!!!

[@bbartky]

@@garynagle3093Same! I never heard of it prior to Gary’s video.

[@edm2822]

Right! Blowing my mind!

[@user-xv4he4mt4x]

copy and paste on ios might seem easy. but i always find a new way of doing things from this guy. Thank you!

[@briantdaniel9280]

Also, triple clicking text will select an entire sentence. I’m with ya Gary, the three finger pinch gesture works about half the time for me.

[@artysanmobile]

@@briantdaniel9280 What happened on the fourth click is left to the app creator. I’ve seen paragraph and I’ve seen whole document. I prefer paragraph.

[@afzulebrahimsoobedaar3680]

Excellent tips, Gary!

[@Anarcath]

Great video! Congrats on hitting 400K subscribers.

[@Aljobritt]

Thank you so much for the video😊

[@loisskiathitis8926]

Thank you, Gary! 👏🏻❤️

[@farzadmf]

Geniune question: how do you figure out these guestures? For example, that dragging on the keyboard to move the cursor and a second tap to select; is it mentioned somewhere? It's a nice feature, but I personally wouldn't have known that's possible in a million years!

[@macmost]

When Apple introduces these over the years, they usually feature them on What's New lists and in other places. So if you keep paying attention to the updates, you get to know them.

[@carolinebarlow4795]

Thanks very much, Gary, for this informative video! Really comprehensive guide to copy and paste methods on the iPhone.

[@PaulLeMay3218]

Good information to know. Thank you for sharing. ❤️🇨🇦

[@MazUKQ8]

Superb 😍😍😍

[@cjc363636]

I forget how between-apps 'switchable' iOS has become. Thanks for the tutorial, Gary!

[@garudasomanna]

Thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, and, a seventh time for the 7th way, thanks😀😀😀😀😀😀😀

[@chucksaeger7500]

Excellent! I performed a copy as you described and it worked perfectly! Thanks dude!

[@ernielansford8710]

Would love to see a CMD function on iPhone.

[@artysanmobile]

I remember the bad old days pre-iPad when iOS introduced similar content-handling tricks for our phones that were not all successful, such as touch-hold, which took an agonizing number of iOS upgrades to work across the multi-app system. The iPad changed the list of ‘gotta haves’ such that iOS bifurcated to two increasingly different platforms. Some of the current iOS tools on the phone work on iPad, while some don’t. I’ve noted a welcome trend to re-integrate the systems and do I ever welcome it! Truth is, the phone is often the superior of the two just because it needs to be.

[@Sergesouszero]

Thanks a lot, Gary, for thes tips! Nevertheless, they remain far more complicated than what can easily be achieved on a computer. I'm thinking, for example, of the action of selecting a portion of text, which you can do virtually with your eyes closed on a Mac, and which requires almost abolished precision with your fingers on the iPhone or iPad screen. I'm also thinking of file management, which is so much easier on a Mac than on Apple's mobile devices. I'm certainly not ready to swap my Mac for an iPad.

[@oktryit8]

useful！

[@Mjmcaw]

Thank you, I didn’t know that.

[@antd2733]

Is there a open in new tab shortcut

[@macmost]

In Safari on the iPhone? Or some other app? In Safari, tap and hold a link and then you can select Open in New Tab.

[@antd2733]

@@macmost brave browser.

[@Uneklyme]

How come I don’t have a red round cursor on my iPhone 14?

[@macmost]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/m2aVdYCYrsh5naM

[@NewmNetwork]

What about large amount of text?? It’s so frustrating to get the highlight to scroll down to the bottom without lifting my finger off. I am forced to lift my finger off to then scroll down. As soon as I go to move the highlighter, it vanishes and in highlights everything. I then have to start again!

[@macmost]

Depends on the app. But you usually have a Select All option that makes this easy. Or, you can select the first word, then drag the end point down and let the screen scroll as part of that.

[@dr.mahesh3536]

How to do bibliography arrange in alphabetical order in ipad

[@macmost]

Unless there is a third-party app, I don't know of an easy way. Maybe create it in Numbers so you can sort alphabetically, and then copy and paste into Pages (I assume that is what you are using) when done.

[@skepticsr_us]

Great video as usual. Any tips on accessing SELECT ALL without a physical keyboard (which would be Command A)?

[@macmost]

@@skepticsr_us In most apps when you tap in text to get the context menu, Select All is one of the choices.

[@GilbertGryfud-mu3zi]

YOU are worth subscribing to but I’m flat broke!

[@Dagocart]

👍