Word contains a little known feature, called the Spike, that allows you to gather blocks of text and/or images from different locations in a Word document and then paste all of that content to another location in that document or into another Word file or other program.
The Spike in Word is named after the old-fashioned paper holder onto which people poked papers as they were done with them. You may still see the original version of the Spike in use in some businesses.
The Spike is different from the Clipboard, which allows you work with only one copied block of text at a time. The Spike collects multiple, non-contiguous blocks of text as you copy them until you paste all the collected blocks of text somewhere else.
You can copy and paste any type of content—like text, tables, and images—onto the Spike. To add content to the Spike, select the content and press Ctrl + F3.
This cuts the content and puts it on the Spike. But don’t panic. If you don’t want to cut the content from the original location in the document, press Ctrl + Z to undo the cut. The content returns to the original location and stays in the Spike.
Select another block of text and press Ctrl + F3 again to add it to the Spike. You can do this as many times as you want.
Paste the Contents of the Spike Using a Shortcut or the Word “Spike”
You can paste the contents into another location in the same document.
To paste the blocks of text you collected in the Spike, press Ctrl + Shift + F3.
This empties the Spike so the blocks of text are not available to paste anymore. If you’re pasting the contents of the Spike to multiple places, or you just don’t want to lose what you copied, you can paste the blocks of text and keep them in the Spike at the same time. Type: spike and press Enter.
When you type: spike, you’ll see the first part of each block of text in a popup before you press Enter to insert text.
Word pastes all the information in the Spike (not just the last block of text you added to it) into your document at the cursor. Any formatting, like bold, italic or different fonts, are preserved in the pasted text.
Paste the Contents of the Spike Using the Ribbon
You can also paste the contents of the Spike into your document using a command on the ribbon.
Click the Insert tab. Then, click the Quick Parts button in the Text section and move your mouse over Auto Text.
If your Word window is too small, you may not see the text label on the Quick Parts button. But you can simply click the icon for the button as shown below.
Word shows the contents of the Spike on the submenu. Click Spike on the submenu to paste its contents into your document.
Pasting the contents of the Spike using the Quick Parts button also leaves the contents in the Spike.
Empty Out the Spike to Reuse It
If you want to copy blocks of text and paste them into multiple locations, typing “spike” or using the ribbon to paste the contents of the Spike is quite useful.
But if you know you’re not going to paste the contents of the Spike anywhere else, use Ctrl + F3 to paste the contents. That way, the Spike is empty and ready for the next use.
Source: Kaufman, Lori. “How to use Spike to Copy & Paste Blocks of Text in Microsoft Word” Groovy Post June 2018