Microsoft Word 2016 Paste Without Formatting Default Mac

May 17, 2011  Change Word's default Paste setting to save yourself some steps by Susan Harkins in Microsoft Office, in Software on May 17, 2011, 5:58 AM PST.

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the default Word document format became a de facto standard of document file formats for Microsoft Office users. citation needed There are different versions of 'Word Document Format' used by default in Word 97–2007. Set default paste in MS Word 2016 for Mac? With MS Word for Windows, I can go to Options and set the default paste to 'Keep Source Formatting' or 'Match Destination Styles.' How come I can't set the default paste in MS Word for Mac under Preferences (or anywhere else)?

On Windows 10, when using the Microsoft Word app, pasting content from a web browser, another document, or any other program will include the text along with the source formatting, whether you use the 'Paste' option from the 'Home' tab or the 'Ctrl + V' keyboard shortcut.

Although you can always right-click to open the context menu and select the 'Keep Text Only' option to perform a clean paste without formatting, these are additional steps you probably won't remember every time you copy content from the web or another app.

Fortunately, just like in OneNote, if you're using an Office 365 subscription or the standalone version of Office, Word 2019, 2016, and older versions include settings to set the default paste behavior to keep only the text without any weird formatting.

In this Windows 10 guide, we walk you through the steps to change the default paste settings of Microsoft Word to paste text from other programs without formatting.

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How to set default paste settings for Microsoft Word

To paste text directly into a Word document without source formatting, use these steps:

  1. Open Microsoft Word.

  2. Create a blank document.

    Quick tip: You can save the extra steps to create a blank document using this tip to skip the start screen in Office.

  3. Click on File.

  4. Click on Options.

  5. Click on Advanced.

  6. Under the 'Cut, copy, and paste' section, use the 'Paste from other programs' drop-down menu and select the Keep Text Only option.

  7. (Optional) Use the 'Pasting between documents' drop-down menu, and select the Keep Only Text Option.

    All calculations and processes of raw input data can be performed separately, depending on the requirements. Crushing

    Quick tip: We're only setting a new default for pasting content from the web, between documents, and other programs, but Microsoft Word also allows you to keep only the text as the default option when pasting within the same file as well as when there's a styling conflict between documents.

  8. Click the OK button.

Once you complete the steps, when copying fragments from the web, between documents, or another app, you can use the 'Ctrl + V' keyboard shortcut or the 'Paste' button from the 'Home' tab to paste only the text without the source formatting.

If you need to keep or merge the formatting of the content, you can still open the context menu in Word and select the pasting option.

More Windows 10 resources

For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10, visit the following resources:

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Why does formatting sometimes get messed up when you cut and paste text? And what is that thing that appears at the end of the last sentence every time you paste–like a fly returning to honey.

That thing–the Paste Options button–is your friend, a worker bee and not a fly whose only job is to follow your formatting instructions. Learning how it works keeps you from wasting time manually formatting pasted text.

Using the Paste Options button

Click the down-arrow on the Paste Options button and you’ll see a menu with icons that lets you format copied text in different ways. The options you’ll see depend on where you’re cutting and pasting from and to, e.g., from within or between documents. Roll your mouse over the icons and you can see how your pasted text will look before you click.

These are the four most common options:

  1. Keep Source Formatting: Keeps the formatting of the text you copied
  2. Use Destination Styles: Matches the formatting where you pasted your text
  3. Kept Text Only: Discards both the text formatting AND the non-text elements you copied, such as pictures or table, and then matches the formatting where you pasted the text
  4. Merge Formatting: Keeps the formatting of the text you copied without changing the formatting of the destination document, e.g., if you cut and paste a sentence from another document that had a different font type or size

Word gives you other options for copying and pasting things such as bulleted or numbered lists, or hyperlinks. Plus, it lets you define how you want cutting and pasting to work most of the time (click Set Default Paste under the icons)–including getting rid of the Paste Options button if it still seems like a pesky fly.

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