Robin Williams Mac OS X Book, Jaguar Edition, The

Delete or Clear and the Clipboard

Now, the Delete key (on the upper-right of the main group of keys, called Backspace on older keyboards and typewriters) works a little differently from Cut: if you hit this key while something is selected, whatever is selected is deleted but is not placed on the Clipboard. This means if you are holding something in the Clipboard to paste in again, whatever you delete from your document will not replace what is currently being held in the Clipboard. But it also means that you don’t have that deleted item anymore—whatever you delete is really gone. Clear, in the Edit menu, does the same thing as the Delete key.