How to access Office Clipboard?

Accessing the Office Clipboard allows you to view and manage multiple items you've copied or cut within Microsoft Office applications like Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.

Opening the Office Clipboard

To access the Office Clipboard pane in an Office application, follow these simple steps:

1. Click the Home tab: Navigate to the Home tab in the Ribbon interface.
2. Locate the Clipboard group: Find the Clipboard group, typically located on the far left of the Home tab.
3. Click the dialog box launcher: In the lower-right corner of the Clipboard group, you will see a small arrow or launcher icon. Click this launcher.

Clicking the launcher will open the Clipboard task pane, usually on the left or right side of your application window.

Adding Items to the Office Clipboard

Once the Clipboard pane is open or even if it's not, you can add items to it.

• Select the content: Highlight the text, image, shape, or other element you want to copy.
• Copy the selection: Press Ctrl+C on your keyboard. Alternatively, right-click the selection and choose Copy, or click the Copy button in the Clipboard group on the Home tab.

Each selection you copy using Ctrl+C or the Copy command will be added to the Office Clipboard.

Key Point: As stated in the reference, each selection appears in the Clipboard, with the latest at the top. This means the most recently copied item is always the first one you see in the pane.

Understanding the Office Clipboard

The Office Clipboard is more powerful than the standard Windows Clipboard. While the Windows Clipboard holds only one item at a time (the last one copied), the Office Clipboard can store up to 24 different copied or cut items.

Action	Keyboard Shortcut	Effect on Office Clipboard
Copy Selected Item	Ctrl+C	Adds the item to the Clipboard pane
Cut Selected Item	Ctrl+X	Adds the item to the Clipboard pane
Open Clipboard Pane	(See steps above)	Displays collected items
Paste from Clipboard	Click item in pane	Pastes the selected item
Paste All from Clipboard	(Button in pane)	Pastes all collected items
Clear Clipboard	(Button in pane)	Removes all items from the pane

Using the Office Clipboard pane makes it easy to paste any of the 24 collected items in any order, multiple times, without having to re-copy them.

By following these steps, you can easily access the Office Clipboard pane to manage your copied items efficiently across your Microsoft Office applications.