Strip all formatting in cut and paste!

[andy54321]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel In Word's preferences, I've always deselected, "Include formatted text in Clipboard," yet the formatting always seems to show up when I cut and paste, which I hate.

I cut and paste many, many times a day and I NEVER want the formatting carried into Word.

I get alarmed when the formatting comes over, so I avoid the dropdown, post-paste "Keep Text Only" option. I also know there's some wacky keystroke combination to strip formatting when cutting and pasting—but it rarely seems to work.

So I usually just grab text from wherever, open TextEdit, paste there, then cut and paste back into Word. I also end up writing in TextEdit a lot, mostly because all of the formatting in Word is riddled with so much un-Apple-like complexity.

But my main point: It'd be cool if there was a preference in Word that truly allowed me to strip formatting when I cut and paste.

 

[CyberTaz]

Well, just a couple of points that may help somewhat, interjected below;

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor:
Intel In Word's preferences, I've always deselected, "Include formatted
text in Clipboard," yet the formatting always seems to show up when I cut
and paste, which I hate.

That setting only pertains to content copied in a Word document. Word has no
control over what gets put on the clipboard when you cut/copy while in a
different program.

I cut and paste many, many times a day and I NEVER want the formatting
carried into Word.

I get alarmed when the formatting comes over, so I avoid the dropdown,
post-paste "Keep Text Only" option. I also know there's some wacky
keystroke combination to strip formatting when cutting and pasting-but it
rarely seems to work.

Use Edit> Paste Special> Unformatted Text to do your pasting. Although Word
can't determine what another app puts into the clipboard it can determine
what you want to retrieve.

So I usually just grab text from wherever, open TextEdit, paste there,
then cut and paste back into Word. I also end up writing in TextEdit a
lot, mostly because all of the formatting in Word is riddled with so much
un-Apple-like complexity.

I'm not sure what you mean by "un-Apple-like", but Word is a styles-based
application & one of the first professional caliber word processing programs
created for the Mac... In fact, Word *originated* on the Mac, as did Excel &
PowerPoint. No disrespect, but formatting in Word need not be any more
complex than the user chooses to make it

But my main point: It'd be cool if there was a preference in Word that
truly allowed me to strip formatting when I cut and paste.

Unfortunately there is no setting to make pasting as Unformatted Text the
default option, but there has been much clamor for such a setting. Take a
moment to use Help> Send Feedback to add your voice to the choir... the more
demand the more likely the inclusion. Perhaps the next release will offer
such an option. In the meantime, there is an Apple Script which has been
offered in this group which you are free to use. I can't put my finger on it
right now, but if you search the group using the term 'paste special' or
'unformatted text' you should be able to find it without much difficulty...
Or perhaps someone else will come along & dump it in here before I have an
opportunity to find it (my Macs are at home).

 

[Phillip Jones, C.E.T.]

Uhm, I was around during early day of Macintosh.
MS came out with a rip-off of Appleworks called MicrosoftWorks That was
the first MS program available for Mac. In fact Office didn't come out
on Mac called something like Office 4.2. Which composed of Word 6.0,
Excel 5.0. My first Mac was a SE/30. Word and excel was well entrenched
of the PC side of the world. Word came out on Mac To kill off MacWrite
and MacWrite Pro, and Excel was introduced to kill off Lotus 123. MS was
very successful at both. And MS works killed of any serious work on
Appleworks for Mac. There was applworks for mac for several years but it
never was serious contender. iWork if you look at it is just a fancied
up rework of AppleWorks substituting Keynote in place to the internet
connection.