clipboard : Java Glossary

Java version 1.1 supports primitive control of the clipboard - the invisible chalkboard you use to transfer data between applications (or parts of the same application) with cut and paste. You can access what is in it, and put data into it. It looks more complicated than it really is since you have the data String, a Transferable object to contain it, and the Clipboard object itself. Be thankful! It is three orders of magnitude simpler than the OLE (Object Linking & Embedding) that C++ programmers have to put up with. You don’t have to understand the following code to use it. Just clone and tune the following code. One catch. You can’t access the clipboard in an unsigned Applet. That is considered too big a security risk. Users can manually cut and paste to your TextAreas though, and you get manipulate them with getText and setText.