Drag-and-drop
Click, drag, and drop describe clicking and holding the mouse button on an object, moving it to an alternate location (drag), and letting go of the button to drop it. Because you're moving an object (e.g., a file, icon, or text), the phrase drag-and-drop describes this action.
The terms click-and-drag or drag, describe manipulating an object on the screen. For example, if you click-and-drag the vertical scroll bar, it can move a page up or down. However, because nothing is picked up when clicked, the term drop is not used.
How to drag-and-drop on a desktop or laptop
The image below shows the three-step process for highlighting, dragging, and dropping files to another location.
Holding down the Ctrl key while dragging and dropping text or another object copies the object or text.
In Microsoft Windows, if you drag-and-drop with the right mouse button rather than the left mouse button, you're prompted with a menu. This menu gives you options to "copy here," "move here," or "create a shortcut here."
How to drag-and-drop on a tablet or smartphone
Locate the app, file, or folder you want to move. Press and hold your finger on the object. Slide your finger across the screen until you have the object where you want to place it, then lift your finger.
How to cancel a drag-and-drop
Press Esc to cancel the drag-and-drop if you click the wrong object when dragging-and-dropping anything.
If you've already released your mouse button and moved something, overwrote something, or caused another problem, the undo feature can fix a bad drag-and-drop action.
What is drag-and-drop editing?
Drag-and-drop editing describes any editing performed by dragging an image, text, or object from one place to another. For example, to move text from one place to another in a document, you could select the text and then click-and-drag that text to another location.
If you hold down Ctrl while dragging and dropping the text, it's copied (duplicated) instead of moved.
How to scroll while drag-and-drop editing?
If where you want to drag text is not visible, while dragging the text, move the cursor to the window edge in the direction you want to scroll. For example, follow the steps below to drag text from the top to the bottom of a document.
- Highlight the text you want to move.
- Click-and-drag the highlighted text to the bottom of the window or document area.
- When near the bottom edge, the program begins to scroll down. Continue to hold the button until you get to where you want to move the text, and then let go of the mouse button.
The above steps work in any scroll direction. For example, if you scroll up, you can click-and-drag text near the top of the window or document area.
If scrolling is needed to reach where you want to move text, it's easier to cut and paste instead of dragging and dropping.
To drag and move an open window, you would click-and-drag what?
1. Scroll bar
2. Status bar
3. Taskbar
4. Title bar
Click, Cursor, Drop, Highlight, Mouse, Mouse pointer, Mouse terms, Stroke, UI