Events - cut, copy, paste

cut, copy, paste

The cut, copy, and paste events fire when the user cuts, copies or pastes a text or image.

Method or property	IE 5.5	IE 6	IE 7	IE8b1	FF 2	FF 3	Saf 3.0 Win	Saf 3.1 Win	iPhone 3G	Opera 9.26	Opera 9.51	Konqueror 3.5.7
On the window	No				No	Too many	No		Untestable	No		No
On the window	See below for Firefox 3.
On the document	No				No	Too many	Yes		Untestable	No		No
On the document	See below for Firefox 3.
On forms	Yes				No	Too many	Yes		Untestable	No		No
On forms	See below for Firefox 3.
On text inputs	Yes				No	Too many	Yes		Untestable	No		No
On text inputs	See below for Firefox 3.
Method or property	IE 5.5	IE 6	IE 7	IE8b1	FF 2	FF 3	Saf 3.0 Win	Saf 3.1 Win	iPhone 3G	Opera 9.26	Opera 9.51	Konqueror 3.5.7
On images When you go to the context menu and select 'Copy image' or a similar command.	Yes				No		No		Untestable	No		No

On any element In general only the copy event should be available, since it's not possible to cut or paste text from or to, say, a paragraph.	Yes				No	Too many	Yes		Untestable	No		No
	See below for Firefox 3.
Prevent default The point of these events: can you prevent a cut, copy or paste action from taking place?	Yes				Untestable	Yes	Yes		Untestable	Untestable		Untestable

Event bubbling These events should bubble up.	Yes				Untestable	Yes	Yes		Untestable	Untestable		Untestable
Event bubbling These events should bubble up.
Cancel bubble	Yes				Untestable	Yes	Yes		Untestable	Untestable		Untestable
Cancel bubble
Method or property	IE 5.5	IE 6	IE 7	IE8b1	FF 2	FF 3	Saf 3.0 Win	Saf 3.1 Win	iPhone 3G	Opera 9.26	Opera 9.51	Konqueror 3.5.7

Firefox bug

Firefox 3 has a lazy implementation: it fires these events whenever the user presses the Cut, Copy, or Paste shortcut keys, whether that action makes sense in a given context or not.

For instance, when you press [Ctrl | Cmd]+X while the focus is nowhere in particular and you have not selected any text, Firefox will fire a cut event, even though there's nothing to cut.

IE and Safari check if something is actually cut, copied or pasted before firing the events.

Related events

Event	IE 5.5	IE 6	IE 7	IE8b1	FF 2	FF 3b5	Saf 3.0 Win	Saf 3.1 Win	Opera 9.26	Opera 9.5b	Konqueror 3.5.7
beforecopy Test page.	Yes				No		No	Yes	Untestable	No		No
beforecopy Test page.	I do not understand the real purpose of these events. However, when the user calls up a context menu that contains cut, copy and paste actions, beforecut, beforecopy and beforepaste all fire.
beforecut Test page.	Yes				No		No	Yes	Untestable	No		No
beforecut Test page.	See beforecopy.
beforepaste Test page.	Yes				No		No	Incomplete	Untestable	No		No
beforepaste Test page.	See beforecopy. Safari 3.1 does not fire this event before an actual paste action. It works fine on context menus.
Event	IE 5.5	IE 6	IE 7	IE8b1	FF 2	FF 3b5	Saf 3.0 Win	Saf 3.1 Win	Opera 9.26	Opera 9.5b	Konqueror 3.5.7