What is a Temporary Magnet?

Temporary magnets are those which act like a permanent magnet when they are within a strong magnetic field, but lose their magnetism when the magnetic field disappears. Examples would be paperclips and nails and other soft iron items.

A body of normally a soft steel or piece of iron which is readily magnetized but retains only a very small field after the active power of the external magnetic field is removed.Temporary magnets act as magnet only as long as it is in the magnetic field produced by a permanent magnet or an electric current. Magnetic materials from which temporary magnets are made are called soft magnetic materials. Every object that is lifted or moved by a magnet acts as a temporary magnet. Those objects will eventually lose its magnetism once the permanent magnet is removed, although in certain cases it will remain weak magnetic properties.

Temporary magnets are made of such materials as iron and nickel. The materials are known as soft magnetic materials because they usually do not retain their magnetism outside a strong magnetic field.

There are two essential ingredients for generating a magnetic field. Those two ingredients are, Magnetic Material or currents.
You can create a temporary or permanent magnet by what kinds of metals you use. By stroking a permanent magnet onto a pure metal in one direction many times, soon it will become temporarily magnetized. What causes this is the Magnetic Domain by witch tapping the magnet and metal you nudge any stubborn domains into alignment.
Currents can be used to make a magnet by getting a bar of iron and wrapping it with wires then run a current through the wires.

http://www.geocities.com/sunsetstrip/palms/8423/what.htm
http://www.coolmagnetman.com/magtypes.htm
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http://hubpages.com/hub/Permanent-and-Temporary-Magnets