How to use the clipboard to copy and paste code between the forum and QB

1- Select the code from the forum and click Edit/Save from your browser menu bar.

2- Start QBasic in a window.

3- In the top left corner of the window (just left of the "Microsoft QuickBASIC" title), you will see a drive letter, usually C:\. Click on it.

4- Select Edit > Paste.

5- The code will be copied from the clipboard into the QBasic edit screen. Now you can edit and save it.

There are some limitations but it works most of the time with smaller programs. The biggest problem is that each line that was indented will continue to tab over to the right.

You can also reverse the procedure and copy code directly from QBasic to the clipboard and Notepad (or directly to the forum).

1- Click on the drive letter in the corner. Select Edit > Mark.

2- Select code in the QB edit screen by holding down the left mouse button and dragging. The selected text will turn yellow.

3- Click the drive letter again and select Edit > Save.

4- Open Notepad and click Edit/Copy. The code will be copied to Notepad. However, the Mark only works on the part of the screen that displays. If you have more code, you will need to scroll down, mark, copy and paste the marked sections more than once.


Alternatively, you can copy the code directly into the forum, but the tabs and leading spaces (and all multiple spaces) will be lost.


All Tabs formerly in QBasic will be transformed into spaces when transported into Notepad. If you are running Windows XP, Notepad has a Replace feature:

1- Click on Edit/Select All.

2- Click on Edit/Replace.

3- A dialog box will open. Type a space in the "Find what" box.

4- Using the numeric keypad only, hold down the Alt key and type 255 in the "Replace with" box.

5- Click the "Replace All" button. All spaces will be replaced with hard spaces. The dialog box will close.

6- Click Edit/Select All.

7- Click Edit/Copy.


Now you can paste the code into the forum and all spaces (and former tabs) will be preserved.


If you don't have Windows XP and your version of Notepad doesn't include a Replace feature, you can use a word processor such as WORD or Wordpad instead of Notepad. If you decide to save it, make sure it is saved as a text file, not as a word-processing document.