While technology has brought us a long way, there are still some telling remnants of how things used to be done. Take, for instance, the terms “cut,” “paste,” and “copy.”

“Cut” and “Paste” Have Roots in Traditional Editing Processes

Historically, manuscripts would be edited by physically cutting up pages and pasting them in different order. This practice continued into the 1980s and was only replaced once word processors became available. At one point, specialized extra-long scissors were even sold to cut through an entire page in one fell snip for editing purposes.

Now, our computers allow us to make these adjustments—as well as duplicate existing content through the copy function—far easier than could be (and once was) done manually. Plus, if the wrong thing is cut or pasted, the undo function makes it a lot easier to fix the mistake.

A Quick Shortcut Refresher

Accomplishing these tasks nowadays is simple:

• Cut - Ctrl+Z
• Copy - Ctrl+C
• Paste - Ctrl+V
• Undo - Ctrl+Z

However, the next time you press these keys, take a moment to think about how much used to go into accomplishing the same thing.