paste text only

(Originally posted March 7, 2023 By ~ Ali Forelli)

Hello, Microsoft 365 Insiders! I’m Ali Forelli, a Product Manager on the Word team working on Accessibility features. I’m excited to announce that the Paste Text Only shortcut is now available in Word for Windows and Word for Mac!

Shortcuts for pasting text only in Word

How great would it be if you could just copy text from a website and paste it into your document and it would look great? Imagine not having to manually remove the original formatting, like font size, font type, or background color.

You may know about this shortcut. Ctrl key + move + five (Command + move + five On Mac)—It’s also called “Keep Text Only” or “Paste Plain Text” because it’s popular in other applications like Microsoft Teams, Word for the web, and Google, Gmail. Whatever you call it, the paste text only shortcut is now available in Word for Windows and Word for Mac.

Shortcuts for pasting text only

How it works

Select a range of text in the current document or another document.
Place the cursor in your Word document where you want the text to appear.
press Ctrl key + move + five (Command + move + five (For Mac) Make sure the pasted content matches the formatting of the surrounding text, rather than retaining the original font size, color, etc.

Putting feedback into practice

Word has been around since 1983 (Word turns 40 this year!). This long heritage sets a precedent for established user expectations. While the engineering team continues to develop new features for improved user experiences with new and more advanced technologies, there is not always an opportunity to modify existing behaviors.

When it comes to shortcuts, the industry standard is different than when Word first implemented these features. In reality, users expect: Ctrl key + move + five Pasting plain text can be frustrating when it doesn’t work. The Word team has heard from you about this issue, and we’re updating the keyboard shortcuts in direct response to your feedback. Accessibility is a priority for Word, and we want to make your cut, copy, and paste experience as seamless as possible.

Other changes to shortcuts

Some existing keyboard shortcuts have changed as a result of the updated Paste Text-Only shortcut. Below is a table of the full list of changes.

characteristic	New Shortcuts (Windows)	New Shortcuts (Mac)
Paste text only	Control + Shift + V	Command + Shift + V
Copy Format Painter	Control + Alt + C	Command + Option + C
Paste Format Painter	Control + Alt + V	Cmd + Option + V
Special paste	Alt + H + V + S	doesn’t exist
Copyright symbol	( + C + ) or Insert > Ω symbol > ©	( + C + ) or Insert > Ω symbol > ©

Would you like to restore your previous shortcut settings?

To restore your keyboard shortcut assignments to their original settings, go to: Customize your keyboard shortcuts Help documentation. Below is a table of command names you may want to reset.

memo: The copywrite command Common symbols This is the category of the Keyboard Customization dialog box. All other commands can be found in All commands category.

characteristic	Command name	Previous Shortcuts (Windows)
Paste text only	Paste text only	doesn’t exist
Copy Format Painter	Copy format	Control + Shift + C
Paste Format Painter	Paste Format	Control + Shift + V
Special paste	Edit Paste Special	Control + Alt + V
Copyright symbol	copyright	Control + Alt + C

Tips and Tricks

To disable pasting of number and bullet icons in Paste Text Only:

Choose file > Options > Advanced.
Go to Cut, copy, paste
Erase Use the Keep Text Only option to keep bullets and numbers when pasting text. Check box.
Word Options dialog box with the Advanced tab selected
To select different paste options using the Paste Options float:
When you paste content into a document, a Paste Options pop-up appears next to the pasted content.
press Ctrl key Open the Paste Options float or expand it by clicking on it with the mouse.
Paste Options Plot
Select one of the available paste options.

To change the default paste options:

Select or move the Paste Options float. file > Options > Advanced.
Go to Cut, copy and paste part time job.
Cut, copy and paste options
For each option you can choose from: Maintain source format, Merge Formator Keep text only.

effectiveness

These shortcuts are available to M365 Home and M365 Business Standard Beta Channel users who run:

Windows: Version 16.0.15831.20174 or later
Mac: Version 16.67.1113.0 or later

Features are released over time to ensure everything works smoothly. They are released slowly to a larger number of Insiders, highlighting features you may not have. Sometimes we remove elements based on your feedback to make them even better. This is rare, but we also have the option to completely remove a feature from the product, even if you, as an Insider, had the opportunity to try it out.

feedback

Share your feedback directly in Word. Click help > feedback And let me know what you think!

Learn about Microsoft 365 Insider Program And join us Microsoft 365 Insider Newsletter Get the latest Insider features straight to your inbox once a month!

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