Minor annoyance in MS Word

Factual Questions
1

Just a quick question about a feature in MS Word that has been driving me crazy. When I copy text from a websight and paste it into a word document, the program by default copies the formatting of the text, including font, size, style, color, and even table formatting. There is also a small menu that pops up on the lower left hand corner which gives me three options, to keep the formatting as is, keep jst text formatting, or keep just the text content itself and use whatever formatting I happen to be using in the document.

This feature has never been useful, and is always annoying. I always choose the third option—I only want the content of the text itself. What I would like is to either turn off the feature completely, or to set the menu to default to the third option (text only, no formatting). I have scoured the options available, and I can’t find a way to rid myself of this annoyance.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to turn off this useless feature?

2

Hmm. After you block and copy the text and go into your document, try going to your “edit” drop-down menu, select “paste special”, and then select “unformatted text”.

3

I believe the OP knows that already. What they want to know is how to make that option the default. As do I.

4

Yeah, I actually added the “paste special” butten to my toolbar, but I still have to go through the same process of choosing an option on a menu and stuff. If I’m doing a LOT of pasting, it just becomes a repetative hassle either way. Plus, there’s no keyboard shortcut like for regular paste.

What I would really like is for “Ctrl+V” to just paste text without formatting, if that’s possible. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

5

The easiest way to do this is to create a macro in your Normal.dot file. If you know how to edit the macro directly, here’s the code you need:



Sub MacroName()
    Selection.PasteAndFormat (wdFormatPlainText)
End Sub

Then just assign the macro to a keyboard shortcut. I like to assign it to CTRL+SHIFT+V so I can paste normally if I would like or paste without format. Let me know if you want step-by-step instructions on how to do all this. It works like a charm!

6

Can I edit the Normal.dot file in notepad, like a textfile? And how do I assign the keyboard shortcut?

7

Okay, I’m doing this in Word 2002, but I’ve had no problems doing this with other versions of Word as well.

[ul]
[li]In Word, go into the Tools menu, select “Macro” and in the pullout menu, select “Macros.”[/li][li]In the bottom of the window, make sure that the “Macros In…” pulldown says “Normal.dot”. Up at the top, type in a name for the Macro. Mine is called “PasteUnformatted”, but the name doesn’t matter as long as it doesn’t have a space in it.[/li][li]Click the “Create” button. It will pop up a VB window. Paste the following string into the window right above line that says “End Sub”: Selection.PasteAndFormat (wdFormatPlainText)[/li][li]Close the window. Don’t worry, it saved the change. [/li][li]Go into the “View” menu, select “Toolbars”, then click “Customize…” at the bottom. [/li][li]Click the “Keyboard” button at the bottom. In the window that pops up, make sure that the “Save changes in:” pulldown says Normal.dot.[/li][li]In the left “Categories” pane, scroll down to “Macros” and select it. On the right pane, you should see the macro you just made. Select that as well.[/li][li]Click your mouse in the “Press New Shortcut Key” textbox, then press in the shortcut key you’d like to use. If it’s already in use by another function, it will warn you.[/li][li]Click “Assign” at the bottom, then close all of the open dialog boxes. You should be all set![/li][/ul]

8

There is also a neato little freeware utility called PureText (I’m too lazy to dig up a link, but it’s easily Googled). Does the same thing as Paste Unformatted in any Windows application, and you can map it to Ctrl, Shift, or [Windows] + any key. I use Windows + V. You could map it to Ctrl + V if you never-ever want to preserve formatting using the shortcut. It also drops an icon in your system tray for if you ever want to change options.

9

I’m glad Mac browsers don’t behave that way (ugh!).

10

Yes, I suppose it is a good thing that a Mac browser is not the same thing as a word processing application. (?) Did I miss something?

11

I’ve combined the advice of previous posters and created a “Paste Unformatted” macro, then installed it as a button on the Standard Toolbar next to the regular Paste button. I’ve given it a different color, to set it apart from the regular Paste button (which I almost never use anyway).

12

You’re using Word on a regular basis and you’ve only found one minor annoyance?!?

Sheesh. Bill Gates is the Dark Prince and Word is his tool.

13

Oh, it’s a feature of your word processor that makes it do that?

Either way, the combo of the two ≠ behaving that way for me.

14

I went around Word altogether to fix the problem.

I use the Firefox browser, and in version 1.5.0.x i added an extension called Copy Plain Text. It adds a Copy Plain Text option to your right-click context menu in Firefox, which allows you to copy text from the browser without all the annoying formatting.

The person who made this extension hasn’t updated it for Firefox 2.0, and his/her extension homepage seems to be gone.

Because i really like the feature, and wanted to have it back, i took a stab at updating the extension myself, by changing the settings in the .xpi file to correspond with Firefox 2.0 rather than Firefox 1.5.0.x. I’ve been using it for a while now, and it works fine.

If anyone else wants the updated extension i rigged, you can download it from my webspace:

https://jshare.johnshopkins.edu/mhender4/public_html/copy_plain_text_2.0.xpi

Once you have the .xpi file on your computer, in Firefox, go to Tools > Add-Ons. When the little add-ons window pops up, just drag the .xpi file onto it, and it will install just like any other extension. Then restart Firefox, and when you select some text and right-click on it, you should have a Copy as plain text option in your context menu.

A word of caution: as i said above, the only change i made to this extension was to alter the version number. The code, the way the extension interfaces with the browser, has not been altered, and it’s possible that there could be some issues between the extension and FF2.0 that will cause the browser to crash. If that happens, you should uninstall the extension. But, so far, it’s worked fine for me, and i use it quite a bit.

15

Rock on! So did I, but I stole the “Paste Values” icon from Excel and edited it to read “AB” instead of “12”.

Heh. I love this place. Quick thanks to MsWhatsit for her Pit thread (which led me here).

16

Half the original question remains unanswered: To turn off the feature completely, go to Tools > Options > Edit > Cut and Paste Options and uncheck the “Show Paste Option” checkbox.

It’s been said before many times many ways (Christmas being near and all that), but most of Word’s petty – as opposed to grand – annoyances are the result of the way Microsoft sets the default options. When annoyed, always go to options first.