Use the Spike to Remove, Store and Move Parts of a Document to Different Locations

Q: One of the old-timers in my firm told me about a Word function called the Spike. He says it works like Clipboard, but even better. How does it work?

A: Years ago most business offices had an old-fashioned paper holder on some desks. It consisted of a long nail-like stick embedded in a heavy base. When you had a piece of paper you figured you no longer needed but, just in case, you wanted to save it, you’d spike it. Retrieval was easy: You just flipped through the stack of papers.

Word’s Spike works similarly. If you have material (text or graphics) in a document that you either want to move to another place in the document or even to a different document, press Ctrl+F3 to place it in the Spike. Repeat this as often as you wish; adding new material won’t overwrite existing material, and unlike Clipboard, there is no practical limit to the snippets you spike.

Then, to insert the entire contents of the Spike in your document of choice, place your cursor where you want the material and press Ctrl+Shift+F3. This action also erases everything in the Spike.

If you want to paste the contents without clearing them from the Spike, position the insertion point where you want the Spike contents pasted, type spike, and press F3.