Use the Spike in Word to cut multiple blocks of text or other content and paste them elsewhere in the document or into another Word document. The Spike is similar to the actual physical spike used in many restaurants: when you have paid your bill, it's stuck on the spike with other paid bills. Similarly, you can place multiple items to the Spike and then paste all that content at once. The Spike is different from the Windows clipboard, which only pastes one copied item at a time.
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Add content to the Spike
You can use the Spike to cut anything you can cut to the Windows clipboard, for example, text, tables, or images.
Select the content you want to cut in Word and press Ctrl+F3. The selected item is cut from the original document and added to the Spike. If you only want to copy it instead of cutting, press Ctrl+Z to undo the cut. The content still stays copied in the Spike.
You can repeat this as many times as you like. Each cut item is stored in the Spike.
Paste content from the Spike
There are several ways to paste content from the Spike.
Paste everything and clear the Spike
If you know that you only need to paste the content in the Spike once, press Ctrl+Shift+F3 to paste all of it at the current location. This empties the Spike.
Paste everything by typing spike
If you want to paste the content in the Spike to multiple places or documents, type spike and press Enter to paste all of it at the current location without emptying the Spike. Repeat this anywhere you need the content.
Paste everything using the ribbon
You can use the Word ribbon to paste all content in the Spike without emptying it.
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Select the Insert ribbon tab and open the Explore Quick Parts menu.
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Select AutoText > Spike. The Spike content is pasted at the current location.
You can repeat these steps anywhere you need the content.
