Have you ever worked on a lengthy Word document, pasting text from other documents / programs, to then find your final document is a mishmash of different styles and formatting? Well there’s a simple way to avoid this.
Here’s how:
- Paste the text at the appropriate point within your document;
- A clipboard icon with Paste Options will appear;
- Click the clipboard icon and select the Keep Text Only option.
As the name suggests, only your text will be pasted. This means any direct formatting originally applied to the text (e.g. bold font) will be lost, and you’ll need to reapply this as the next step. But it also means you’ll avoid introducing any unwanted styles or formatting.
Word will always use a couple of defaults when text is pasted within a document: Keep Source Formatting and Use Destination Styles. So if you’d prefer a more permanent solution to your pasting woes, you’ll need to bypass these.
Here’s how:
- Select File > Options;
- Click Advanced;
- Scroll down to Cut, copy, and paste;
- Use the dropdown menus beside each of the options to select your preferences.
Only you can decide what works best for you but, for me, I (almost without fail) stick with the Keep Text Only option as I find it’s the easiest way to keep styles and formatting consistent throughout my document.