Guidelines for clipboard commands
Clipboard commands (copy, cut, paste) provide users with a familiar way to transfer content from one location to another. With these commands you can help users transfer content:
- Within the same app
- Between Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps
- Between Classic Windows applications
- Between UWP apps and Classic Windows applications
Recommendations
- Support copy and paste for any editable content that a user can explicitly select, such as a subset of a document or an image.
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Consider supporting copy and paste commands for content that users might want to use somewhere else, for example:
- Images in a photo gallery application
- Computation results in a calculator
- Address in a restaurant-search application
- Be aware of rights management and other factors that might restrict the use of copy and paste commands. For example, if your app supports viewing rights-managed mail, a policy might restrict the user from copying all or parts of such content.
- Make sure it's clear what a user is copying, or to where a user can paste content.
- Provide support for paste only on editable regions and canvases in your app.
- Consider implementing an undo command, as copy and paste can lead to content being deleted or replaced.
- If a control already supports copy and paste, use the control's implementation. If you need to build your own implementation of copy and paste, make sure the experience you create is consistent with these controls.
- Consider supporting sharing if you are also supporting copy.
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Determine if users should access the copy and paste commands by using a context menu or the command bar. Use a context menu:
- For items that users can only select through tap-and-hold gestures, such as hyperlinks or embedded images. And example would be if your app displays an address to the user, and you want the user to be able to copy that address. A great user experience would be to create a Copy Address command that users can access when they either right-click or tap-and-hold the address. This command would then copy the address to the clipboard, from which the user can paste it into the app of their choice.

- For text selection (both editable and read-only).
- For paste operations in which the target is well-defined, such as a cursor location or a table cell.
Use the command bar if the preceding guidelines don't apply. Some examples include:
- When your app supports the selection of multiple items.
- When the user can select a portion of an image.
- When the target of a paste command is clear—such as pasting a screen shot on a canvas.
- For items that users can only select through tap-and-hold gestures, such as hyperlinks or embedded images. And example would be if your app displays an address to the user, and you want the user to be able to copy that address. A great user experience would be to create a Copy Address command that users can access when they either right-click or tap-and-hold the address. This command would then copy the address to the clipboard, from which the user can paste it into the app of their choice.
- We strongly encourage supporting keyboard shortcuts for clipboard commands.
- Don't provide support for copying content that can't be selected either explicitly or through a context menu.
- Don't enable the paste command when the clipboard is empty or if it contains content that your app doesn't support.
[This article contains information that is specific to UWP apps and Windows 10. For Windows 8.1 guidance, please download the Windows 8.1 guidelines PDF .]
Related topics
- For designers
- Guidelines for context menus
- For developers (XAML)
- Popup menu
- For developers (HTML)
- Popup menu
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