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Paste Plain Text with Ctrl + Shift + V - Word and other Office 365 Apps [Solution]

Anonymous
2024-03-12T03:38:47+00:00

I have searched far and wide for a solution to paste plain text (or paste text without formatting) through Ctrl + Shift + V or another keyboard shortcut. While I found nothing, I happened to stumble upon the solution myself.

While a bit hacky, I set my own keyboard shortcut by going to File > Options > Customize Ribbon > Keyboard Shortcuts > All Commands > Paste Text Only and set the shortcut to Ctrl + Shift + V.

If any of you have a better or easier solution, please let us know. But for the time being, this works perfectly fine! (Sorry for the absence of images - they always failed to load when I attempted to add them).

You're welcome :)

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | Other | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-09-11T17:25:47+00:00

    It's great news that they added this feature to Word, but is there any way in OUTLOOK to assign the same keyboard shortcut to paste text only (ctrl+shift+v) into an email?

    I don't really want to adjust the default paste format in Outlook because usually I need to retain the formatting in a new email or reply, but sometimes text-only gives me a cleaner product. I have a VERY repetitive data-entry job, so I'm using a small macro pad with limited buttons to dramatically cut down on multiple key presses. I currently have ctrl+shift+v assigned to one my shortcut keys, but that key combination doesn't do anything in Outlook, and I can't find a way to customize the ribbon in Outlook in the same way that Word allows...

    Thanks!

    You can't adjust the keyboard shortcuts in Outlook, but what you want is already there except in two shortcuts.

    To Paste in Outlook in as Text Only

    In the email body paste the copied text with its original formatting by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + V. After the text pastes and Before pressing any other keys, press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Space (Ctrl key and the Space bar). This second keyboard shortcut will turn the previously copied text to text only which means it converts it to the formatting currently set for the email.

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  2. Stefan Blom 338.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2024-08-22T19:11:56+00:00

    They just added this feature in ctrl+shift+paste is enabled in the last update to pasted unformated text.

    It's been a long process of changing (certain) keyboard shortcuts in Word. It was first mentioned in the blog post at https://insider.microsoft365.com/en-us/blog/paste-text-only-shortcut-in-word, I believe.

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-08-22T18:58:13+00:00

    They just added this feature in ctrl+shift+paste is enabled in the last update to pasted unformated text.

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-07-30T05:04:41+00:00

    For some reason this macro did not work for me.

    Following macro however works correctly:

    Sub PasteUnformatted() 

Selection.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseStart 

Selection.PasteAndFormat wdFormatPlainText 

End Sub

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  5. Suzanne S Barnhill 277.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2024-07-19T00:32:54+00:00

    The macro I use is this:]

    Sub PasteUnformatted()

    '

    ' PasteUnformatted Macro

    ' Macro created 6/2/2018 by Suzanne S. Barnhill

    '

    Selection.PasteSpecial Datatype:=wdPasteText

    End Sub

    Works like a charm.

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