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Help copy and paste

You select text that you want to cut or copy. Selected text is highlighted in orange.
1 Touch the text field or other portion of the screen that contains the text to select.
2 Use the trackball to move the cursor to the beginning or end of the text to select.
You can also touch in the text field to move the cursor in text.
3 Press & hold the trackball, or touch & hold the text field. A menu opens with options for cutting, copying, and performing other tasks with the text field.
4 Touch Select text. Or touch Select all to select all the text in the text field.
5 Roll the trackball to select the text you want.
6 Press & hold the trackball again (or touch & hold the text field) to open a menu you can use to cut or copy your selection, select all the text, or stop selecting text.
 
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You select text that you want to cut or copy. Selected text is highlighted in orange.
1 Touch the text field or other portion of the screen that contains the text to select.
2 Use the trackball to move the cursor to the beginning or end of the text to select.
You can also touch in the text field to move the cursor in text.
3 Press & hold the trackball, or touch & hold the text field. A menu opens with options for cutting, copying, and performing other tasks with the text field.
4 Touch Select text. Or touch Select all to select all the text in the text field.
5 Roll the trackball to select the text you want.
6 Press & hold the trackball again (or touch & hold the text field) to open a menu you can use to cut or copy your selection, select all the text, or stop selecting text.

They make it so simple and easy on Android.
 
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ugh, i don't see the point in people being rude. it's a forum, people are bound to ask questions. i find that men especially (sorry guys) don't take the time to read manuals, and with modern UIs making most actions fairly common-sense, it's sometimes a shock to find something that we can't figure out how to do.

On top of that, the OP did mention they were new to Android (though I have no idea if copy/paste is possible in other Android versions on other phones), so give them a break! I'd already posted the answer, so why add your pointless remarks? Jeez. I don't get why people are so unreasonable when it comes to giving help.
 
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Another example of copy-paste is in the browser.

- Make sure you're zoomed in on what you want to copy.
- Press the Menu key.
- Press the More button.
- Press Select text.
- At this point you should see a little arrow icon on the screen. Move the arrow to the beginning of the word and click the track ball. This will start the copy.
- Move the arrow to the end of the text you want to copy. Click the ball again to end the select. The text should now be copied to the clipboard.

You can do something similar with your finger, but it's less accurate. It's not as clean as the iPhone, but it gets the job done.
 
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The Nexus One's lack of ability to copy and paste from a received email is the top item on my list of reasons to return it. Wish I knew when this will be fixed.

Does any one know when this will be fixed? This feature is what I use most on my BB Storm to run my business on the road.
I went to buy the droid and when I found it could not do this I decided to wait for the next version. I was really hopping that the N1 was going to fix this simple problem.
Come on Google I want/need to get rid of my Storm.
 
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Not to get into a symantics argument here, but if they removed the shift key, they removed functionality.
The funny thing is that it does actually have a shift key which comes up with the virtual keyboard. I've played around with different combinations of keys trying to get it to work and found that shift + L brings up a strange "label" dialog in the gmail app. Nothing happens with shift + any key in the email app, though.
I agree, though, the functionality of being able to copy and paste should not be removed just because of a change in input device hardware.
 
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