Strangely enough it hasn’t always been straightforward to paste text into an MS Word document as plain text. The functionality has existed for some time in the browser version of MS Word and Microsoft Teams, but the desktop version of Microsoft’s word processor does not have it as yet. However Microsoft will soon introduce a plain text paste feature in MS Word. This will make it easier to paste text without having to remove unwanted formatting manually.
MS Word introduces Paste Plain Text Shortcut for Windows and MacOS Desktop
Microsoft announces the arrival of ‘paste plain text’ in a blog post. Pasting without formatting is already possible via the paste special command, but it takes a little more steps to achieve the same result. The feature is currently available in trial versions of the app. The feature works for Microsoft 365 beta users running at least version 16.0.15831.20174 for Windows. For Microsoft 365 for Mac, this is beta version 16.67.1113.0. Microsoft has not yet announced an exact release date as yet.
What is pasting without format?
Users of other apps such as, for example, OpenOffice, Google Docs and Gmail already know this feature. This can be achieved by the shortcut ctrl + shift + v. This is the exact functionality that Microsoft will introduce for MS Word and MS Teams desktop versions.
Pasting without formatting means that additional data in a copied text, such as font size, font, colour, and hyperlinks, is not included when pasting. In many applications that support it, the shortcut for it is ctrl + shift + v.
However currently that shortcut doesn’t work in the release version of Word for desktops. This will change with the release of the ‘paste plain text’ feature. With macOS this becomes cmd + shift + v, but macOS already has the systemwide key combination cmd + opt + shift + v, which is the same functionality.
Tech-Wales IT Services
At Tech-Wales we pride ourselves providing excellent Business IT Services and Business IT Support. We have fully trained and customer focused technicians who will make sure that your IT network is always working for you. We provide pay as you go and monthly IT support packages for your business. Combined with our wide range of cloud computing services Tech-Wales provides the complete package for your business. Feel free to contact us to discuss.