How copy and paste works in Windows Phone 7
One of the most important features that Windows Phone 7 was lacking from the beginning was copy and paste. Microsoft promised to update this soon, and they have done so with the release of the HTC Arrive.
However, it may be the most complicated feature of the operating system. Why? Find out below.
You might remember this document. It was written to show how easy it is to use Word for simple document creation.
But when you start to re-edit your document, things get tricky. You see, based on the current iteration of copy and paste for WP7, you can only copy items to a clipboard. There really isn't a cut option at all, at least in Word. See the pictures below to get a understanding of how the process is started.
First, you tap on a word to bring up your selector. It also gives a little button in the upper-lefthand corner of that selector for copying the selection.
After you press the button, a little toolbar pops up above the keyboard, letting you know that something is indeed in your clipboard. However, to reiterate that there isn't a cut command, the word that you selected is still there. I think that Microsoft should've let cutting be the primary way of selection, because if the word is in your clipboard, you can easily just paste it back in if you want it there.
That button by the word "formatter" is for pasting.
Pressing that button will then paste whatever selection you have made back into your document at whatever area you've specified.
My theory is that Microsoft simply wanted to be different in what they did with copy and paste, versus what the other guys did. But they made it way too complicated and with way too few features to be even viable against the competitors. This is especially disappointing when you take into consideration that WP7 includes a mobile version of the Office suite of applications.
Which mobile operating system has your favorite implementation of copy and paste?
