Most folks already know how to use the Word commands Ctrl-C to copy, Ctrl-V to paste, and Ctrl-X to cut content out (for later pasting), but many times I find that when I paste, the text arrives not quite as expected…it has all the original formatting it had from the other location. For example, if I’m copying some text from the heading of a section that I want to paste into the middle of a paragraph, it is still big, bold, underlined, whatever it was in the heading, not the way the rest of the pgph appears.
As this is a discussion of shortcuts, I’m not going to go through the click-on-the-ribbon option, but it is available if you’re a mouse kinda person. I’m going to show you how to do it without taking your hands off the keyboard! As I’ve said before, if I have to let go of the keyboard, grab the mouse, wiggle it around, push it to where I want, click on something, then go back to the keyboard, I’ve wasted too much time that could be better spent on creating something wonderful.
As you edit in Word, you’ll find that many of the clicks on the ribbon can be replaced by typing, and if you watch as you do the ribbon click, you’ll see little boxes pop up that show the keypresses needed to do that same function, BUT there are more keyboard commands that aren’t listed—ones from the older versions of Word.
Shortcut:
Here’s one that I often use: after you Copy (or Cut) some text, move the cursor to where you want it to be, then tap Alt, E, S, U, U. (Holding Alt will sometimes give a different set of commands, so be certain to only TAP the Alt key, down and up, THEN type the other keys.) That key sequence will bring up the old Paste Special dialogue box and select the Unformatted Text option. Hit the Enter key, and the text is pasted in, conforming to the format of the surrounding text. That’s it!
Once you start using this shortcut, you’ll find it extremely helpful, in fact I use this method almost every time I’m pasting…just to avoid getting strange stuff included. It even works if copying from some other program…such as a web browser. There are some really bizarre formatting things going on out there, and this method will help you get around them.
Update:
After this was posted, a reader pointed out another method for pasting text only. After copying and positioning the cursor, hit the Menu key, T, and Enter. Even shorter! Try it out.