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Drag and Drop to Desktop in Vista

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Drag and Drop to Desktop in Vista

Have just discovered that I can no longer create a 'Scrap' on the desktop.  I highlight the text from Word and drag to desktop but the cursor changes to a circle with oblique line through it. The Copy and Paste functions on the right-click menu are greyed out.  Have trawled the Microsoft support site but can't really understand it - something about OLE embedded objects!
Does anyone have any idea as to why I can no longer do this, when it was OK with XP?
I am using Word 2003.
10 REPLIES 10
zubel
Community Veteran
Posts: 3,793
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Registered: ‎08-06-2007

Re: Drag and Drop to Desktop in Vista

As a test can you try running Word 'as administrator' by right clicking on the Word icon and choosing 'run as administrator'
Then try dragging/dropping again
I'm fairly sure I know the reason, but this will help highlight it Smiley
B.
Not applicable

Re: Drag and Drop to Desktop in Vista

Thank you for the reply Barry. I went into Programmes/Microsoft Office and ran Winword as Administrator and tried again - no joy. Hope that this helps to find a solution. It is one of those annoying things that I want to discover the reason for.
Oldjim
Resting Legend
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Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Drag and Drop to Desktop in Vista

No help whatsoever but I am running Vista 64 bit with Office 2003 and the drag from word doesn't work either although the copy/paste aren't greyed out on right click
Oldjim
Resting Legend
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Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Drag and Drop to Desktop in Vista

Just did a quick search using Google for <vista drag desktop scrap word> and got this top result - sorry Penny it's gone
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2008/02/WindowsConfidential/default.aspx
petlew
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Re: Drag and Drop to Desktop in Vista

I have to say I'm slightly mystified by this one. whenever I've used the cut/copy and paste in Word, I'm fairly sure I can only paste via the clipboard. Or drag a complete saved doc (from "my docs" etc.) into an existing folder on the desktop.
I'm fairly sure, but willing to be told otherwise, that I've never been able to do what you want in XP or any other OS. Anyway I'm using Office XP in Vista Home Premium, and can't do what you describe in your original post either. But I have to say, I don't actually see why I would want to. Please enlighten us to it's usefulness.
Experience; is something you gain, just after you needed it most.

When faced with two choices, simply toss a coin. It works not because it settles the question for you. But because in that brief moment while the coin is in the air. You suddenly know what you are hoping for.
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
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Re: Drag and Drop to Desktop in Vista

Just tried with XP and Office 97 and it works as Penny described
hulls
Grafter
Posts: 1,699
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Drag and Drop to Desktop in Vista

Hi Petlow
I'm on XP SP2 and Office 2000 (I know, but if it aint broke don't fix it), and if I highlight text in a document and drag it to the desktop, it creates a "scrap" file, which only includes the highlighted text and can be opened in Word, effectively creating a new document which contains only a part of the parent document.
John
petlew
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Re: Drag and Drop to Desktop in Vista

Uhmm! hulls, well I used Office 2000 quite intensively for a number of years in Win ME/NT/2000 and XP (that was a late addition in ME) and I must say I don't ever think I tried this at all, partly as it's almost as easy to simply open a new Word doc and paste the wanted text straight in it (as that seems what you're planning to do anyway) but each to his own, usually one of the "beauties" of Windows is that there are nearly always several ways of doing anything. But maybe in this case there is a genuine change in later editions of Word!!
Used most of the earlier edition of Word/Office as well, but can't comment about them either.
Experience; is something you gain, just after you needed it most.

When faced with two choices, simply toss a coin. It works not because it settles the question for you. But because in that brief moment while the coin is in the air. You suddenly know what you are hoping for.
Not applicable

Re: Drag and Drop to Desktop in Vista

Thank you for all the replies, and in particular for the link to the Microsoft site which tells me what I wanted to know i.e. the feature is lost on Vista.
With regards to what it was useful for, it was a bit like a post-it note i.e. you could take some of the text out of a Word document to deposit it on the desktop to serve as a reminder for later use. 
I suppose that it's no big loss as there are so many sticky note freeware downloads. Also, you can right-click on the desktop and open Notepad which is the same sort of thing.
petlew
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Re: Drag and Drop to Desktop in Vista

Poppy, thanks for the explanation. See where you're coming from now. I did do what you do occasionally, but used a "post-it" software for it, never realised you could do it without. Open question, wasn't there an add-on for Word for this once upon a time?
Experience; is something you gain, just after you needed it most.

When faced with two choices, simply toss a coin. It works not because it settles the question for you. But because in that brief moment while the coin is in the air. You suddenly know what you are hoping for.