Typically, clipboard support is provided by an operating system as part of its GUI and widget toolkit. This interaction technique has close associations with related techniques in graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that use pointing devices such as a computer mouse (by drag and drop, for example). The command names are an interface metaphor based on the physical procedure used in manuscript editing to create a page layout. The data remains available to any application supporting the feature, thus allowing easy data transfer between applications. The data from the clipboard is later inserted wherever a paste command is issued. The cut command removes the selected data from its original position, while the copy command creates a duplicate in both cases the selected data is kept in temporary storage (the clipboard). In human–computer interaction and user interface design, cut, copy, and paste are related commands that offer an interprocess communication technique for transferring data through a computer's user interface.

Quick test paste