I opened command console as cmd /F and the Quick Edit box is selected.
auto-completion works fine. I am unable to copy and paste. According to
ss64.com/nt/cmd.html, which deal with XP, I should be able to drag
across a line using the left-mouse button, and then right-click
elsewhere to get a pull-down menu with Copy. Now I should be able to use
the right-mouse to paste. It doesn't work.

If I could get it to work, could I paste the line into a Word Doc? Isn't
it possible to copy more than a line? It says to get out of this mode I
should hit ESC to return to edit mode. Maybe this html isn't really
relevant to XP. Note the nt in the link above.

It would be good to shorten the prompts from c:\abc\def\wxyz to
c:\...\wxyz.

W. eWatson wrote:
> I opened command console as cmd /F and the Quick Edit box is selected.
> auto-completion works fine. I am unable to copy and paste. According to
> ss64.com/nt/cmd.html, which deal with XP, I should be able to drag
> across a line using the left-mouse button, and then right-click
> elsewhere to get a pull-down menu with Copy. Now I should be able to use
> the right-mouse to paste. It doesn't work.
>
> If I could get it to work, could I paste the line into a Word Doc? Isn't
> it possible to copy more than a line? It says to get out of this mode I
> should hit ESC to return to edit mode. Maybe this html isn't really
> relevant to XP. Note the nt in the link above.
>
> It would be good to shorten the prompts from c:\abc\def\wxyz to
> c:\...\wxyz.

Interesting, no replies yet. Well, I'm really working in Python, and now
understand how to use the Win Cmd Console it uses. It seems to have
suppressed the long path names, which is good. Copy-paste works fine. A
little convoluted to use. It is definitely slanted towards Python;
however, it was pointed out there is a Console installable program that
vastly improves the Win Cmd Console. I'll hold off on its use until I've
worked with the IPython "console" for awhile.

W. eWatson wrote:
> I opened command console as cmd /F and the Quick Edit box is selected.
> auto-completion works fine. I am unable to copy and paste. According to
> ss64.com/nt/cmd.html, which deal with XP, I should be able to drag
> across a line using the left-mouse button, and then right-click
> elsewhere to get a pull-down menu with Copy. Now I should be able to use
> the right-mouse to paste. It doesn't work.
>
> If I could get it to work, could I paste the line into a Word Doc? Isn't
> it possible to copy more than a line? It says to get out of this mode I
> should hit ESC to return to edit mode. Maybe this html isn't really
> relevant to XP. Note the nt in the link above.
>
> It would be good to shorten the prompts from c:\abc\def\wxyz to
> c:\...\wxyz.

Yes I hadn't updated that sentence to reflect WinXP and Win7/Win2008

I've updated the page now

http://ss64.com/nt/cmd.html

You can copy multiple lines, but the selection won't word wrap like a
text editor - you always get a rectangular area.

--
best

Simon Sheppard