Nothing Happened
Copying and Pasting have been hallmarks of the earliest personal computers, yet the function still confuses users. And it's not entirely the users' fault.
So often I teach clients to Copy and Paste and they do the copy part and remark, "Nothing happened." They try again, expecting something to happen, and when it doesn't, they give up, sure they have failed. Ugh.
The confusing part: something does happen, but you don't see it. (Software companies ... would it be so hard to acknowledge that content has been copied?)
When you copy text or an image, the computer stores the content on its clipboard, a folder hidden somewhere in your computer. When you decide where you want to place the content, the "Paste" command prompts the clipboard to deliver the stored material. Simple and efficient, but understandably frustrating.
Reminders:
Copy: Edit > Copy, or keyboard shortcut "Control + c" ("Command + c" on a Mac)
Paste: Edit > Paste, or keyboard shortcut "Control + v" ("Command + v" on a Mac)
When you copy, it appears nothing happens, but if you did it correctly, the right thing did happen.