Tag: Microsoft

How to Clear Clipboard in Windows 10

How to Clear Clipboard in Windows 10

What is the clipboard?

Let’s suppose you’ve just copied a folder from a shared network drive and pasted it to wherever you needed to paste it. Now would be a good time to clear the clipboard.

The clipboard is where Windows stores what you’ve just copied.

Why is it a good idea to clear the clipboard?

Clearing the clipboard saves system resources and keeps your data secure, but for me, it’s more personal.

I have this bad case of OCD when working on a Windows machine. I would find myself constantly right-clicking and hitting Refresh. Only sometimes I’d hit Paste in accident and Windows would start moving whatever file or folder I had copied. It’s not pretty and canceling the copying and pasting on Windows always seems to take longer than necessary.

Back in the good old days of Windows 7, I used to be able to just press the Windows key, then type “clipbrd” and hit Enter to pull up the clipboard and empty it. For whatever reason, Microsoft decided to discontinue this in Windows 10, but luckily, the latest operating system from Microsoft still allows for the clipboard to be emptied. Here’s how.

How to clear the clipboard in Windows 10

Press Windows + R on the keyboard and type in the text below.

 cmd /c echo.|clip

Hit Enter and you’ll see the Command application quickly flashes on your screen. You’ve now successfully emptied the clipboard. Right-click on your desktop and you’ll see the “Paste” and “Paste shortcut” options are now grayed out.

Windows + R Command to Clear Clipboard

If you prefer the Command application, launch it and type in the command line below.

echo off | clip

Command Line to Clear Clipboard

Better still, you can save this command as a bat file and simply double click to run it when needed. It’ll do the same trick. Just type out the command in a new Text document and then save it with a “.bat” extension name and you are good to go.

Using Quick Parts and AutoText to Manage Multiple Outlook Email Signatures

Microsoft Outlook Icon

Do you find yourself switching between different email signatures when you use Outlook? In today’s tutorial, we look at how to set up and manage different Outlook email signatures using Quick Parts and AutoText.

Before we begin, we are using Outlook 2010 for the tutorial. Other versions of Outlook might differ slightly, but you’ll be able to find your way.

What are Quick Parts and AutoText?

According to Microsoft’s official guide, the Quick Parts feature in Outlook provides building blocks, reusable pieces of content or other email message parts that are stored in galleries. You can access and reuse the building blocks at any time.

AutoTexts are a subset of Quick Parts.

Quick Parts in Outlook UI

How to Set up Email Signatures Using Quick Parts and AutoText

    1. First, start a new email and type out the signature you desire
    2. Then select and highlight the signature and press Alt + F3
    3. In the Create New Building Block box, give the new signature a name and a description. Maybe put it in its own category too, for example, a signatures categoryCreating Signature as AutoText

Managing Email Signatures in Quick Parts

    1. To see a list of your current email signatures created as AutoTexts, start a new email and click in the email body
    2. Go to the Insert tab, click on Quick Parts, then AutoText, and you’ll see all your AutoTexts here including all the signatures
    3. To insert any of the signatures, just click on them
    4. To manage the AutoTexts and signatures, right-click on any of them and select Organize and Delete

Quick Parts in Insert Tab 

Quick Parts Organize and Delete 

Organize and Delete Window

Inserting Signatures in Email Messages as You Compose Them

With different email signatures saved as AutoTexts, you can quickly insert any of them as you are typing out your email messages.

When you are ready to close an email and insert the signature, just simply start typing the name you gave the signature. You’ll see a prompt that says “Press ENTER to Insert“.

Press either Enter or Tab and your signature will be inserted.

Press ENTER to Insert 

Signature Inserted 

One More Thing

Moreover, what you have read in this post works with any building blocks saved as AutoTexts.

For instance, say you often get a certain type of inquiry, and you have developed a template message for it. Why not save the template message as an AutoText. Next time you get the same inquiry, just type the name of the AutoText and hit Enter or Tab. With that, your reply will be ready to go.

Lastly, if you would like to read Microsoft’s guide on how to create reusable text blocks for email messages, here’s the link. 

However, if you indeed read Microsoft’s guide, did you find their typo hiding in plain sight? Let us know in the comments!

Microsoft Typo