Provided are a method and an apparatus for processing contents in a portable terminal. The method includes displaying the contents on a contents screen. The method also includes displaying a tray to display selected information in the contents screen when the information is selected from the contents screen. The method also includes displaying information and a recommendation application related with the information on the tray when the selected text is moved to the tray. A user selects and collects collected texts in the tray without inconveniently pasting the collected texts into a corresponding field to recommend an application related with the collected texts, and executes a selected application when selection of the application is detected, and collectively maps the executed application to a corresponding item.