hi! i discovered this when i was doin my project. i needed to embed some turbine diagrams into my work but all the diagrams i found wouldnt highlight therefore would not copy by the normal "copy and paste" method.
And then neccesity begat discovery.
Below were my steps to "graceland":
step 1: print screen (using the print screen key on keyboard) of the page where ur source document is
step 2: click start>all programs>accessories> paint
step 3: paste(ctrl+V) on paint or you could right click on your mouse and choose paste
step 4:click on the "select" tool on the side toolbars(symbolised by a rectangle made of broken lines)
step 5: then cut the needed size(portion) of the document you need using the "select" tool of equation 4
step 6: copy(ctrl+v) the cut portion( as in step 5)
step 7: paste(ctrl+V) on MSword or any package that suports ur document.
step 8: clap for your self
i am certain for only windows OS. never used any other but it.

Could be handy...thanks!

Great advice!
I have used this process to resize photos also. When trying to send lots of photos to friends who like myself has dialup (archaic and painfully slow), it helps when you can take a 1.5 M photo and reduce it down to 20-50 kb. Learned my lesson last Christmas when I tried to email out a couple dozen homemade Ecards that had one of own photos in it. Took days! Well actually about six hours. Still ouch!

I assume you are attempting to copy something from the web.
Simple solution with a lot fewer steps.

Setup, do only once:

1) Use Firefox
2) Install ScreenGrab extension http://www.screengrab.org/

Use:

1) Right click,
ScreenGrab, save, selection
or
ScreenGrab, copy, selection

Right click, Save image as..., doesn't work?

Nope, sometimes the image is copyrighted.

I already learn that trick,and doesn't work well if the picture is long than the browser
anyway,I use Opera
try going to any website that doesn't allow you to copy and save the pictures in Opera
just right-click,and what do you know,it can save the pictures!!

wow! great tip!!

It might be more a pain to do it this way, but if you don't want to install anything, sometimes you can find the picture saved in your windows temporary internet folder. I've found ways of grabbing embedded video this way too.

I use a good, free and malware-free (of course) screengrabber. It's screengrab from cnet or download.com.

There are others that I've used but they can get a little bit too complicated.