Abstract: A method using two local clipboards in conjunction with the system clipboard to perform cut-and-paste and copy-and-paste operations during the creation and editing of markup language documents. A user editing a document has the option of cutting or copying an entire textbox or selected text from within a textbox. If an entire textbox is copied, two local clipboards are used in combination with the system clipboard to store related information in multiple locations. Upon receipt of a paste command from the user, if a text insertion cursor is present, the text to be pasted is inserted into an existing textbox. If no text insertion cursor is present, a new textbox is created and the text is inserted in the new textbox. The attributes of the text in a newly created textbox depend on how and from what source the text was cut or copied.