# MSWord Problems

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/msword-problems/167373>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 8, 2003, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/msword-problems/167373 "2003-04-08T19:36:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![chickendoc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@chickendoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chickendoc)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/msword-problems/167373/1 "2003-04-08T19:36:21Z")

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Why does MSWord turn everything to bold and from 12 to 16 font whenever I cut and paste something? Its a real headache. I miss the old days when word processing programs didn’t have all of these “helpful” auto formatting add ons.

Thanks

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**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/msword-problems/167373/2 "2003-04-08T20:12:07Z")

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Have you checked your formatting defaults? If they’re out of whack, you can change them back and then set the changes as a default.

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**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/msword-problems/167373/3 "2003-04-08T20:19:19Z")

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It might help if you mentioned what version of Word you’re using. Microsoft has an article [here](http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;283388) which explains some of the pasting options in Word 2002.

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**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/msword-problems/167373/4 "2003-04-08T20:25:50Z")

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A couple of things to check:

It changes _everything_, no matter how it’s formatted in what you’re copying from? I’ve never seen that and I’ve used Word since it was a DOS program.

What is the definition of your “Normal” style? If it’s bold 16-point then that could be an issue.

For a paste, try going to the menu and use Edit \> Paste Special \> Unformatted Text. It pastes using whatever formatting is used at the insertion point. This is a workaround but should work.

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**Author:** ![chickendoc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@chickendoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chickendoc)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/msword-problems/167373/5 "2003-04-08T20:32:17Z")

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I’m using MSWord 2002.

Everything that I cut from was originally 12 point Times New Roman and normal ie. not bolded or italicised or underlined.

It seems to happen whenever I take a selection from another Word file and paste into a new Word file.

My boss has the same problem with his computer. I’ll try the paste formatting options and see what happens.

Thanks for the info.

ChickenDoc