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One of the complaints about the iPhone is that there is no copying and pasting of text. This makes it impossible to move information from one application to another. Apple has thoughtfully provided a few built-in ways, such as the "Share" button that appears in Safari when you're editing a URL that lets you email the URL, but if there's no provided method you're up the creek.

So what do you do if someone emails you a phone number? You'd like to add that number to your Contacts list but there is no way to copy and paste the number. Must you memorize it and add it manually?

Of course not! There is a way. It's slightly roundabout, but it works fine until Apple updates the iPhone with more capabilities.

First, you'll note that Apple has cleverly made the iPhone automatically hot-link phone numbers on web pages and emails. This means that if iPhone sees a phone number, it will appear in blue and underlined, like any enabled web link.

If you tap this phone number, iPhone will dial the number. (This works in most iPhone applications, such as Mail or Safari.)

In this case, we don't really want to make a call, so just cancel the call immediately by touching the red "End Call" button.

Now press the Home button and then the Phone button. Tap on "Recents" which will display all the calls you've received and made. Note that the number you just dialed is at the top of the list since it's the most recent.

To the right of that number is a blue circle with an arrow in it. Touch it to bring up information about that number. (Touching the number itself will dial it, so don't do that!)

On the resulting info screen there are buttons for adding the phone number to a brand new contact or adding it to an existing contact (very handy).

So there you go: a few steps to add an emailed phone number to your Contacts!

macopinion@designwrite.com