Paste Text into Word Without Formatting
Easier than reformatting or pasting into Notepad first
By default, Microsoft Word tries to preserve the styles of text copied from a source outside of Word. If you don’t want to have to manually remove the style information once you have pasted the text into Word, there is a way to make Word paste text from an outside source with no formatting by default.
For this example, we copied text from an article on the Help Desk Geek website. Highlight the text, right-click on the text, and selectCopyfrom the popup menu.
When we pasted the text into Word, the formatting from the article was preserved.
Word Paste as Text Only
To paste the text only when copied from an outside source, selectOptionsfrom theFiletab.
On theWord Optionsdialog box, click theAdvancedbutton in the left pane.
Scroll down to theCut, copy, and pastesection. SelectKeep Text Onlyfrom the drop-down list forPasting from other programs. You can change all of them if you like as I have done, but the default values should work fine for most people.
ClickOKto accept your changes and close theWord Optionsdialog box.
Copy the text from the external source again and paste it into Word. The text is pasted without the formatting.
NOTE:These settings will not affect text already on the clipboard that you have previously copied. Once you change these settings, you must copy the desired text again before pasting it into Word. So now you no longer have to copy everything to Notepad first before copying it from there to Word. Enjoy!
Founder of Help Desk Geek and managing editor. He began blogging in 2007 and quit his job in 2010 to blog full-time. He has over 15 years of industry experience in IT and holds several technical certifications.Read Aseem’s Full Bio
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