Copying text from a website or email often brings unwanted fonts, colours and sizes along with it. Pasting as plain text makes the text match wherever you're pasting it.
Step by step
- Copy the text as normal with Ctrl+C.
- Click where you want to paste it.
- Press Ctrl+Shift+V to paste it as plain text.
Tips & troubleshooting
- In Word, you can also press Ctrl+V and then Ctrl to open the paste options, then press T for Keep Text Only.
- Ctrl+Shift+V also works in most web apps and browsers, including Outlook on the web and Chrome.
- To make plain text the default in Word, go to File, then Options, then Advanced, then Cut, copy and paste.
What plain-text paste removes
Pasting as text keeps the words and nothing else. Fonts, sizes, colours, bold and italic, highlighting and hyperlinks are all dropped, and the text takes on the formatting of the place you paste it. Tables become rows of text separated by tabs, numbered lists become ordinary paragraphs, and pictures are left behind. If you need to keep bold, italics and links but lose the foreign font, use Merge Formatting instead.
Word's four paste options
After a normal Ctrl+V, press Ctrl on its own to open the Paste Options button, then one letter.
- K, Keep Source Formatting: the text looks exactly as it did where you copied it.
- M, Merge Formatting: takes on your document's font and size but keeps emphasis such as bold and italic.
- T, Keep Text Only: the same result as Ctrl+Shift+V.
- U, Picture: pastes the content as an image, useful for a chart you don't want anyone to edit.
Make it the default
If you always want plain text when copying from websites and emails, change the setting once. In Word go to File, Options, Advanced and scroll to Cut, copy, and paste. There are separate choices for pasting within a document, between documents and from other programs. Set Pasting from other programs to Keep Text Only, and an ordinary Ctrl+V does the right thing from then on.
In other apps
- Excel: in current Microsoft 365 versions Ctrl+Shift+V pastes values only.
- Teams and Outlook on the web: Ctrl+Shift+V pastes plain text.
- Edge and Chrome: Ctrl+Shift+V pastes plain text into any web page or form.
- Older versions of Word: Ctrl+Shift+V pastes copied formatting instead. Use Ctrl+V, then Ctrl, then T.
- Mac: the Word shortcut is Cmd+Shift+V.