How to Copy and Paste Google Books

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1 Open the Google Book you want to copy.

2 Take a screenshot of the part you want to copy.

3 Open Google Drive in your internet browser.

4 Click the + New button.

5 Click File upload on the menu.

6 Upload your book screenshot.

7 Right-click your book screenshot in your Drive library.

8 Hover over Open with on the right-click menu.

9 Select Google Docs on the Open with menu.

10 Select the text you want to copy at the bottom of the document.

11 Right-click the selected text.

12 Select Copy on the right-click menu.

13 Right-click where you want to paste.

14 Select Paste on the right-click menu.

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Co-authored by wikiHow Staff

Last Updated: December 31, 2023 Tested

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Hoping to transfer the contents of a Google Book somewhere else? You're in good hands. We've covered exactly how to screenshot a book from Google Books and automatically transcribe the book text in a Google Docs document with a desktop internet browser.

Steps

1

Open the Google Book you want to copy.

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   Click a book link to open it in your browser. You can also use the search function at books.google.com to find a book.
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2

Take a screenshot of the part you want to copy.

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   Make sure your screenshot includes all the text you want to copy. Then, save it to your computer.

   • If you're not sure how to take a screenshot on your computer, you can follow the steps here for some help.

3

Open Google Drive in your internet browser.

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   Type drive.google.com into the address bar. Then, hit ↵ Enter or ⏎ Return on your keyboard.

   • If you're not automatically logged in, click the Go to Google Drive button and sign in with your Google account.
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4

Click the + New button.

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   This button is located in the upper-left corner of your Drive library. It will allow you to upload a new file or folder to your cloud.

   • Your options will pop up on a drop-down menu.

5

Click File upload on the menu.

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   This option will open a new pop-up window. It'll allow you to select a file to upload from your computer.
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6

Upload your book screenshot.

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   Select your screenshot image in the file navigator window. Click the Open button to upload it to your Drive.

7

Right-click your book screenshot in your Drive library.

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   This will list your right-click options on a drop-down menu.
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8

Hover over Open with on the right-click menu.

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   A sub-menu will pop up with a list of available Google apps.

9

Select Google Docs on the Open with menu.

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   This will open your screenshot in a new Google Docs document. Google Docs will automatically recognize all the text in your screenshot, and copy it to the bottom of the document as editable text.
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10

Select the text you want to copy at the bottom of the document.

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   Find the copied book text at the bottom. Click and drag your cursor over the text you want to copy.

   • This will highlight the selected text in blue.

11

Right-click the selected text.

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   Your right-click options will pop up on a drop-down menu.
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12

Select Copy on the right-click menu.

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   Selecting "copy" will copy the selected text to your clipboard. If you want to use a keyboard shortcut, you can press ⌘ Command+C on Mac or Control+C on Windows to copy.

13

Right-click where you want to paste.

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   Your right-click options will pop up.
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14

Select Paste on the right-click menu.

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   Selecting paste will paste the copied book text here. As a shortcut, you can press ⌘ Command+V on Mac or Control+V on Windows to paste.

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