How to paste text without formatting on macos
By Christopher Ramos
Here’s how you can paste text without formatting in macOS Catalina or any other version of macOS with a simple keyboard shortcut.
Learn to Paste Text Without Formatting in Any Document in macOS and Keep Things Nice and Simple
So the story goes like this. You are sitting in your favorite coffee shop writing an essay, you paste something from a website as a reference and boom, the earth now has two moons, the sun is excepted to go supernova in a few years and ‘div’ tags appear in your document. Basically, what you did was this – import all the web formatting into your document, something which will obviously mess up what you are doing. So, what you should have done is remove the formatting and then paste the string of text into your document. How do you do that? Simple, by using this shortcut to paste text without formatting:
Option + Shift + Command + V
Keep one thing in mind, once you paste using the above shortcut, if you are copying a list, it will remove the bullet or numerical formatting as well. Use this shortcut very carefully. It works like a charm when you are pasting simple strings of text or paragraphs. But when you throw in special formatting stuff like lists, then you might run into small problems. It is something you should expect.
I know this feels like an obvious thing, but if you are new to the Mac then this shortcut will prove to be a godsend to you. It allows you to blitz through whatever you are working on without worrying about botched formatting. It has saved me from a lot of trouble, especially when you writing on a platform such as WordPress, where you need to keep everything as streamlined as possible so that the final article looks pristine and consistent on your website.
While you are here, you may like to check out the following:
Copy-and-paste moves more than just text around. It often brings along formatting from web pages and other documents. You can paste without formatting in nearly any application to get just the text without the extra formatting. Use this keyboard shortcut.
No formatting means no line breaks, no different font sizes, no bolding and italics, and no hyperlinks. You won’t have to spend time removing formatting elements from your document. You’ll get just the text you copied as if you had typed it directly into the application you’re pasting it in.
To paste without formatting, press Ctrl+Shift+V instead of Ctrl+V. This works in a wide variety of applications, including web browsers like Google Chrome. It should work on Windows, Chrome OS, and Linux.
On a Mac, press Command+Option+Shift+V to “paste and match formatting” instead. This works in most Mac apps, too.
This keyboard shortcut unfortunately doesn’t work in Microsoft Word. To paste without formatting in Word, you can use the special Paste option on the ribbon to “Keep Text Only.” You can also set Word’s default paste options to “Keep Text Only.”
If this keyboard shortcut doesn’t work in your application of choice, there’s always the low-tech method: Open a plain-text editor like Notepad, paste your text into it, and then select and copy the text. You’ll get the plain text copied to your clipboard and you can paste it into any application.
David Williams I am a true junkie for everything tech. My current arsenal includes an Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV Stick, iPhone Xs, Samsung Galaxy S9, Samsung Chromebook, iMac, and Dell XPS 13. Read more February 4, 2015
When you want to copy and paste using Mac OS X, it will generally format the text to the format from the original location. But there is a shortcut to copy and paste without formatting the text based on the original format. We’ll help you learn how to modify the format when you copy and paste on Mac OS X.
It’s important to note that it’s standard that when you are copying and pasting text from one location to another, it will retain it’s original formatting. For some, being able to paste without formatting is a great Mac shortcut to save time from having to reformat the text. But for others, it can just take extra time having to make the changes . For other tips on better use of Mac, check out Best Mac OS X Tips and Tricks.
For those interested in getting the most out of your Mac computer, then make sure to check out Apple’s wireless magic keyboard and mouse, external portable battery pack, and the Western Digital 1TB external hard drive for the ultimate experience with your Apple computer.
A simply way that it’s possible to paste on a Mac without formatting to default content is to just copy the text that you want, and then go to the location you want to paste the original text like Pages, Notepad or Microsoft Word. Once you get to the location where you want to paste, select “Paste and Match Style” from the Edit Menu. This is a quick way to modify the formatting when you want to copy and paste on Mac OSX.
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Note: In some apps you can hold down Shift+Option+Command+V will paste without formatting. This is a great as a copy and paste formatting keyboard shortcut.
When using Microsoft Office a great method to modify the text formatting is by selecting the edit feature. In older version of Microsoft Office, you can select Edit > Paste Special > Unformatted Text. That gets old in a hurry. In newer versions of Office you can choose Edit > Paste and Match Formatting.
Other options to use with Mac OS X when you want to paste without formatting default issues is to just copy everything, by selecting Command+A. This will select everything on the page at once and then you change anything you want like the font size and everything all at once, reducing a few steps. It’s important to note that this method won’t always work on every type of program,
An example of when this paste without formatting shortcut on Mac OS X won’t work is if you want just paste text, not images. Another time where paste without formatting default trick won’t always work is when you have to use the “Paste and Match Style” option.
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Last updated on 24/05/2015 by Pradeep Kumar ( Twitter) | Short URL:
We are back with yet another Apple Mac OS X keyboard shortcut tip. Earlier we posted about enabling Emojis on your Mac OS X keyboard, today we’ll see another productive one.
Paste Text Without Formatting On Apple Mac OS X
I love shortcut keyboard combinations a lot, it helps to save some time and avoids unnecessary actions. Do you remember copying content from the web and pasting it on somewhere, then using the ‘Edit’ option to remove the formatting and make it uniform? Well, if you are a Mac OS X user we have a small trick for you. Just use this keyboard shortcut to fix those annoying text formats.
To demonstrate this simple ‘copy & paste text without formatting’ trick, I copied a paragraph from this post and pasted it on my email through two different keys combination. You can see them below:
Pasting Text With “Command” + “V” Keys Combination
If you use the regular “Command” + “V” keys combination for pasting the copied content, then this (below) will be the output you’ll get with the formatting the copied content has. Now you have to manually remove this with the options provided by Gmail. In short, annoying.
Pasting Text With “Shift” + “Command” + “V” Keys Combination
Whereas if you use “Shift” + “Command” + “V” keys combination for pasting the copied content, then all the formatting will be removed, and you’ll just get the plain text, just like this:
Usually people copy-paste the content on Gmail and use the “Remove Formatting” option to fix it, now we have an easy way. If you are not comfortable with the text format that is appearing with your copied content then you can use this simple keyboard shortcut.
Do you know any other simple Apple Mac OS X keyboard combination or shortcut tips? Do let us know in the comments below.
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ardchoille50
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I’m inclined to agree, I cannot see any way to do this. I wonder if I would be better off using a different app for notes.
Edit: Notability allows for pasting text without including formatting and it has iCloud sync. I’ll try using that and see how it fits my needs.
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How do you copy-paste without formatting on Mac? I usually first copy-paste from a web page to the adress bar.. that removes all the formatting then again copy from there and paste. sounds silly, but fast enough to do. I would like to know if there a better way to do this. though I am on windows PC.
ardchoille50
macrumors 68020
- Dec 12, 2016
How do you copy-paste without formatting on Mac? I usually first copy-paste from a web page to the adress bar.. that removes all the formatting then again copy from there and paste. sounds silly, but fast enough to do. I would like to know if there a better way to do this. though I am on windows PC.
[doublepost=1481561135][/doublepost]That is very helpful to know. always wondered why that copy option is there in the share sheet. never used it though because the most obvious way to copy-paste is to press-hold and copy.
One of the biggest annoyances while trying to copy/paste anything in your word processor is text formatting. Often, you only want to copy and paste plain text from websites without bringing along all the formatting. But the default option on your browser doesn’t allow you to do that. So if that has always bothered you and you want to end that annoyance once and for all, you’re in the right place. Because today, we will show you how to copy/paste plain text without formatting on Windows 10 and Mac.
Copy/Paste Plain Text Without Formatting on Your PC
In this article, we have included special keyboard shortcuts to paste plain text, apps and browser extensions, and other methods to copy/paste text without formatting. We will also show you native options to paste text without formatting in Word, the most popular word processor worldwide. So without any further ado, let’s check out the various ways in which you can copy/paste plain text without formatting on your Mac or Windows 10 computer.
Method 1: Using Keyboard Shortcuts
Using a keyboard shortcut is, by far, the easiest way to paste plain text without formatting on your computer. To do that, press Ctrl+Shift+V to remove formatting instead of Ctrl+V on Windows. This method works in all major browsers while writing in WordPress, say for instance, and in most applications.
On a Mac, press Command+Option+Shift+V to ‘paste and match formatting’ in a document. However, this shortcut doesn’t work in MS Word, which uses a native method to paste plain text into the editor.
Method 2: Using Native Option in MS Word
You can paste text without formatting into MS Word using a special ‘Paste’ option on the ribbon. Once you’ve copied the target text with formatting, hit the Paste button on the MS Word ribbon. You get three options: ‘Keep Source Formatting,’ ‘Merge Formatting,’ and ‘Keep Text Only,’ as shown below.
While the first one keeps the original formatting, the second one only keeps the basic formatting, like bold letters and bullet points, but changes the font to match your document. The third option pastes the plain text into Word, stripped of all the formatting.
Method 3: Using Browser Extensions
There are multiple extensions for Firefox and Chrome that remove all formatting from the selected text before copy/pasting. The one I use on Firefox is Copy PlainText (Free), while the best one on Chrome is Copy as Plain Text (Free). They both work pretty much the same way, by adding a ‘Copy PlainText’ or ‘Copy as Plain Text’ option, to the browser’s right-click context menu. On editors like WordPress, the extensions also add a ‘Paste PlainText’ option.
Using browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox is probably the easiest and cleanest method to copy/paste plain text online. They give you the option to either retain the original formatting by using the default ‘Copy’ option in your browser’s right-click context menu or copy just the plain text by using the ‘Copy Plain Text’ option. They are also configurable, letting users set keyboard shortcuts to copy/paste plain text into their browser.
Method 4: Using Third-Party Software on Windows
If you’re using a Windows PC, you can download an ultra-lightweight utility called PureText (free). The easiest way to use PureText is to use its hotkey to paste text instead of using the standard Ctrl+V shortcut. The default Hotkey to paste plain text is Windows key + V [1], but you can change it as per your liking. To configure PureText, right-click on its tray icon and choose ‘Options’ from the pop-up menu. From the Options window, you can also set the program to run at each startup, so you don’t have to start it up manually [2].
Method 5: Create Your Own Shortcut on Mac
On Mac, you can use System Preferences to customize the copy/paste default options. To get started, go to Apple menu > System Preferences and select Keyboard. Move to the Shortcuts tab and choose App Shortcuts from the left pane. You can then select the “+” icon below the box to create a new shortcut to copy/paste plain text without formatting. After that, type-in ‘Paste and Match Style‘ in the ‘Menu Title’ field and specify your own hotkeys on the Keyboard Shortcut box.
Make sure to select All Applications in the first field to make this shortcut work across all compatible apps on that device. Finally, click on the Add button to set up your new keyboard shortcut. Now you can paste text without formatting across most apps on your Mac. Once this default action is activated, you will need to use Edit > Paste to paste with formatting.
Method 6: Using Notepad on Windows and TextEdit on Mac
This is the clunkiest, most time-consuming, and the most user-unfriendly way to copy/paste plain text on your computer. It is fairly simple, though. Just copy the target text from anywhere, paste it in Notepad on your Windows 10 machine, and then copy that Notepad text to paste it in your document. It removes all the text formatting but is a two-step process.
On Mac, you can use TextEdit for the same trick, but you’ll first have to set the app to use the plain text by going to TextEdit > Preferences and checking the Plain Text box. You can now paste any text in TextEdit to strip it of all formatting. You can then copy/paste that text snippet as plain text wanywhere.
Easily Copy/Paste Text Without Formatting on Your Windows or Mac
Alongside the methods described above, many online document editors, like Google Docs, and CMS applications, like WordPress, also offer native options to copy/paste text without text formatting. So no matter what your use-case is, you will always find a way to copy and paste text without formatting online or offline. So go ahead, try out some of the methods described above and see which one tickles your fancy.
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2 COMMENTS
If in a browser, copy & paste it into & out of the address bar.
Just use the run window to paste and then copy again to get the format free text. Simple and easy.
Windows +R, paste your text, and copy it again.
Last updated on 24/05/2015 by Pradeep Kumar ( Twitter) | Short URL:
We are back with yet another Apple Mac OS X keyboard shortcut tip. Earlier we posted about enabling Emojis on your Mac OS X keyboard, today we’ll see another productive one.
Paste Text Without Formatting On Apple Mac OS X
I love shortcut keyboard combinations a lot, it helps to save some time and avoids unnecessary actions. Do you remember copying content from the web and pasting it on somewhere, then using the ‘Edit’ option to remove the formatting and make it uniform? Well, if you are a Mac OS X user we have a small trick for you. Just use this keyboard shortcut to fix those annoying text formats.
To demonstrate this simple ‘copy & paste text without formatting’ trick, I copied a paragraph from this post and pasted it on my email through two different keys combination. You can see them below:
Pasting Text With “Command” + “V” Keys Combination
If you use the regular “Command” + “V” keys combination for pasting the copied content, then this (below) will be the output you’ll get with the formatting the copied content has. Now you have to manually remove this with the options provided by Gmail. In short, annoying.
Pasting Text With “Shift” + “Command” + “V” Keys Combination
Whereas if you use “Shift” + “Command” + “V” keys combination for pasting the copied content, then all the formatting will be removed, and you’ll just get the plain text, just like this:
Usually people copy-paste the content on Gmail and use the “Remove Formatting” option to fix it, now we have an easy way. If you are not comfortable with the text format that is appearing with your copied content then you can use this simple keyboard shortcut.
Do you know any other simple Apple Mac OS X keyboard combination or shortcut tips? Do let us know in the comments below.
David Williams I am a true junkie for everything tech. My current arsenal includes an Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV Stick, iPhone Xs, Samsung Galaxy S9, Samsung Chromebook, iMac, and Dell XPS 13. Read more August 5, 2016
When you want to copy and paste using Mac OS Sierra, it will generally format the text to the format from the original location. But there is a shortcut to copy and paste without formatting the text based on the original format. We’ll help you learn how to modify the format when you copy and paste on Mac OS Sierra.
It’s important to note that it’s standard that when you are copying and pasting text from one location to another, it will retain it’s original formatting. For some, being able to paste without formatting is a great Mac shortcut to save time from having to reformat the text. But for others, it can just take extra time having to make the changes . For other tips on better use of Mac, check out Best Mac OS X Tips and Tricks.
A simply way that it’s possible to paste on a Mac without formatting to default content is to just copy the text that you want, and then go to the location you want to paste the original text like Pages, Notepad or Microsoft Word. Once you get to the location where you want to paste, select “Paste and Match Style” from the Edit Menu. This is a quick way to modify the formatting when you want to copy and paste on Mac OS Sierra.
When using Microsoft Office a great method to modify the text formatting is by selecting the edit feature. In older version of Microsoft Office, you can select Edit > Paste Special > Unformatted Text. That gets old in a hurry. In newer versions of Office you can choose Edit > Paste and Match Formatting.
Other options to use with Mac OS Sierra when you want to paste without formatting default issues is to just copy everything, by selecting Command+A. This will select everything on the page at once and then you change anything you want like the font size and everything all at once, reducing a few steps. It’s important to note that this method won’t always work on every type of program,
An example of when this paste without formatting shortcut on Mac OS Sierra won’t work is if you want just paste text, not images. Another time where paste without formatting default trick won’t always work is when you have to use the “Paste and Match Style” option.
C opying and pasting text is a routine activity that we all do in macOS. And there’s a good chance that you’re using the macOS version of Notes. Notes is great because of its integration with iCloud, but one of its downfalls is the fact that, when you paste text from a webpage, it will copy that webpage’s font size and text color whether you like them or not.
That might be okay in some cases, but in most cases, it’s an annoyance. Here are two ways to get around it.
Alternative Paste Method
This is probably the simplest and fastest method to paste as plain text (a.k.a. strip text of its formatting).
- Copy a piece of text.
- When you’re in Notes, click Edit in the top menu bar.
- Click Paste and Match Style.
Alternatively, if you’re a keyboard shortcut-user, you’ll want to use the following method. Even if you’re not, it’s worth it to learn these simple keyboard shortcuts — they’re a lot quicker.
- Copy a piece of text using Command+C.
- In Notes, use Command+Shift+Option+V to paste and match style.
Of course, there’s a caveat with this method: it doesn’t technically strip the text’s formatting, it just changes it to the formatting in your particular document.
If it’s a new and blank note, that’s probably okay. But if you have a note that already has wonky text formatting in it, your pasted text will match that style. Not a huge issue, but something to keep in mind.
TextEdit App Method
If you really want to strip a piece of text from its formatting entirely, you can use a plain-text application.
While there are great third-party options available online, for the purposes of this how-to, we’ll use the one included free with macOS: TextEdit.
- Copy a piece of text.
- Open TextEdit (you can find it via Spotlight, or in Applications).
- Paste the text into TextEdit. (Command+V)
- Use Command+Shift+T. This will convert all the text in the document into plaintext and strip it of its formatting.
- Copy that text, and then paste it into Notes.
