I have cause to repeatedly use the Paste Special -> As Unformatted Text function in Microsoft Word 2002. However, it is not terribly convenient to paste then adjust using the Smart Tag or paste using the Edit -> Paste Special dialog box.
So, add I have added a macro called PasteSpecial and assigned it to a keyboard shortcut.
- Select Tools -> Macros
- Type PasteSpecial into the Macro Name box and click Create
- Replace the auto-generated code with that below
' ' PasteSpecial Macro ' Sub PasteSpecial() Selection.PasteSpecial DataType:=wdPasteText End Sub
- Save
- Select Tools -> Customize -> Keyboard…
- Select the category Macros, then PasteSpecial from the Macros list
- Click in Press New Shortcut Key and press your desired keyboard shortcut. I have used Ctrl+Shift+V which is normally assigned to paste format, something I don’t think I’ve ever used from the keyboard.
Of course, the thing now is will I remember my new keyboard shortcut? What’s the betting I carry on using the mouse to paste unformatted text!?
Posted by happy on June 22, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Cheers!
Posted by snowmanjack on May 15, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Excellent. Tried to do this myself years ago, but must have been missing the ‘wdPasteText’ part, so have been using a button to ‘Paste Special,’ but still always had to choose “Unformatted text.” This will be an awesome timesaver with the keyboard shortcut. Thanks so much!
Posted by Dawood Mamedoff on May 11, 2009 at 8:40 am
Thanks, great post!!
For the very beginners I’d advice watching this video tutorial to complete the task:
http://www.myhowtoos.com/en/excel-howtoos/83-how-to-paste-as-unformatted-text-using-a-shortcut-in-ms-word
Posted by Kel on May 9, 2009 at 3:11 am
Thanks, you rock :)
Posted by tandemrandom.com » Create a Hotkey to Paste Plain Text in Microsoft Word [How-to] on May 8, 2009 at 2:50 am
[...] Reader MisterSlimm points out that he wrote the exact same macro a couple of years ago—we aren’t sure if the submitted tip was actually based on his [...]
Posted by McColley.net » Blog Archive » Create a Hotkey to Paste Plain Text in Microsoft Word [How-to] on May 7, 2009 at 6:05 am
[...] Reader MisterSlimm points out that he wrote the exact same macro a couple of years ago—we aren’t sure if the submitted tip was actually based on his [...]
Posted by Create a Hotkey to Paste Plain Text in Microsoft Word [How-to] - 1925th Edition | Technology Revealed on May 7, 2009 at 4:28 am
[...] Reader MisterSlimm points out that he wrote the exact same macro a couple of years ago—we aren’t sure if the submitted tip was actually based on his [...]
Posted by Create a Hotkey to Paste Plain Text in Microsoft Word [How-to] « Coolbeans on May 7, 2009 at 3:53 am
[...] Reader MisterSlimm points out that he wrote the exact same macro a couple of years ago—we aren’t sure if the submitted tip was actually based on his [...]
Posted by Martin on April 18, 2009 at 8:47 am
This is Absolutely what I was looking for.
This keyboard shortcut is used is program “My notes keeper” and I use it all the time. I could not figure out how to do it in Word. It’s working great. You made my day.
Posted by Jeremy on April 2, 2009 at 2:04 am
Schweet
Posted by Eva on March 25, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Thanks for the info, better than what is found on Microsoft help or microsoft’s site
Posted by FrankZ on March 17, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Thanks. It rocks!
Posted by edspammer on March 10, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Thanks a lot. Just what I needed.
@Berty: try using Firefox with the “Copy plain text” or “Extended copy menu” extensions. That lets you copy text from webpages without any formatting, which is probably the quickest way to do what you’re doing.
Posted by Bopaiah on February 20, 2009 at 8:35 pm
Cool… Every little helps.. N this little piece of code has saved hell lot of my time….
Kudos….
Posted by JackpineJody on January 28, 2009 at 8:36 pm
Thanks! I too gave up after many tries, but your code did the trick! Much appreciated!
Posted by JED on January 22, 2009 at 10:42 am
ps. Why on earth the default action is to Paste as HTML ???
Posted by JED on January 22, 2009 at 10:40 am
Just override old short cut (Ctrl+V) linked to the macro you created and the pain is away!
Thanks for sharing the code.
Posted by DMesher on January 13, 2009 at 5:13 pm
This is great. Thanks for sharing.
Posted by Paul Brackett on January 3, 2009 at 5:10 am
I had to edit the Visual Basic code to remove the redundant “Paste Special” line. Now the Paste Special line works great. Using WinXPSP2, Word2003 on an HP PC.
Paul
Posted by Olivier Beaujean on December 8, 2008 at 12:07 pm
In Office 2007, I found two ways to solve this:
1. adding the “paste special” button in the Quick Access Toolbar. To do so :
- in the top left section, click on the little arrow to open the customer quick access toolbar menu
- then select the “more commands” option
- choose commands from Home Tab
- Add “Paste Special”
(but then you still have to click)
2. There is a shortcut built-in to access the paste special menu : ALT-CTRL-V
Posted by Sheldon on October 19, 2008 at 6:37 am
Can you add “paste as unformatted text” to the right-click menu? The old Word allowed one to modify the right-click menu, but I don’t know how to do it with 2007.
Posted by Sebastian on March 4, 2009 at 11:26 am
Hi Sheldon, how did you modify the right click menu in the old Word versions? Would be very interested to know… thanx!
Posted by bev davies on October 7, 2008 at 2:36 pm
hi wat u up to?
Posted by bev davies on October 7, 2008 at 2:35 pm
hi wat u doin mate
i love my familyand u
Posted by Jennifer on September 29, 2008 at 4:53 pm
The new version of Word for Mac apparently doesn’t support VBA anymore, so I have to use AppleScript to create a macro. Does anyone know how I’d create this same macro in AppleScript? I know how to open the program, but not what to type! Thanks.
Posted by tobi on September 6, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Hi,
this is just superb! It helps more than a lot!!!
many thanks
Tobi
Posted by Grant on September 3, 2008 at 8:00 pm
This is just what I was looking for. A wise man once told me, if you’re working in a program and find yourself thinking, “There’s got to be a better way…then there usually is.” Thanks for providing that better way.
Posted by Kate on August 13, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Thank you SO much for this.
Posted by guy on July 27, 2008 at 2:23 am
Genial! I’m so happy. :-)
Posted by nole on July 22, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Great! Paste unformatted really should be the default settings in Word… Thanks!
Posted by Word 2003 Macro to Paste Unformatted Text — Tech On A Budget on July 21, 2008 at 8:56 am
[...] with web formatting). I didn’t know the command for an unformatted text. Fortunately, I found this blog entry that explains how to do this. You can see the incorrect macro command commented out in the Word [...]
Posted by GGia on July 20, 2008 at 5:28 pm
You have saved me much time and effort. Thank you!
Posted by Nick on July 7, 2008 at 4:27 am
Thanks! Works like a charm. Much appreciated.
Posted by Hugh on June 7, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Thanks! I tried to record a macro using the “paste special” “unformatted text” menu but it of course completely ignored it. I tried to modify the code but that was not right either. So I went to google and searched on “how can I write a Word macro to paste unformatted text” and got your web page! I have essentially a 250 page table that got corrupted and I am pasting cell by cell unformatted to avoid carrying any bugs with the pasted text. Thanks again.
Posted by Amir Amay on May 12, 2008 at 8:24 am
Cool! Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
Posted by Edwin Dando on April 24, 2008 at 12:25 am
Awesome. Thank you so much. Really, really handy…
Posted by Bob on April 20, 2008 at 6:55 pm
THANKS!!!
I tried to make a macro like this years ago and gave up in disgust due to programming confusion. You have saved my mouse hand hours of indignity!
Now will someone write a wordprocessor as that’s as good at word-processing as Firefox is for web-browsing!?
Posted by misterslimm on April 3, 2008 at 12:21 pm
@IG: Thanks for the comment. Oddly, the apostrophes were produced using the key to the left of the Enter key. In my blogging software they appear as straight apostrophes, on this post they appear as straight apostrophes, when cut-and-paste, voila, curly apostrophes. Bizarre. I have no idea how to produce a culy apostrophe using the keyboard, I’d never even seen the character before!
I’ve updated the post to use WordPress’s funky sourcecode feature and hopefully that should sort it out.
Posted by IG on April 2, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Regarding the apostrophe problem on Macs: On a Mac, you type the “comment” mark in Visual Basic by hitting the “single quote” key to the left of the Return key. In Word’s Visual Basic, this produces a straight up-and-down typewriter-style apostrophe. The code posted above contains slanted single quote marks instead. To keep the comments, just replace those slanted (or curly, which they transformed into in my version of Word) single quotes with the character to the left of the return key.
Posted by Joff on March 27, 2008 at 8:25 am
Yes, “Praise be to Slimm” If get error simply delete first 3 lines of code (ie skip the text marked ‘ )
Posted by JB on November 13, 2007 at 11:44 pm
I’m weeping tears of gratitude for this, and for all the time I’ve lost over the years cutting and “pasting special” using the edit menu. Oh little paste-special macro, where have you been all my computing life?
Thanks, Mister Slimm.
Posted by misterslimm on October 31, 2007 at 6:59 pm
@Gosh
I don’t have a Mac so I am guessing. The apostrophe denotes that the remainder of the line is a comment and the error you are getting shows that it doesn’t realise that the line is a comment. Perhaps on the Mac an apostrophe doesn’t denote this. Change the apostrophe on each line to the comment marker or, if you don’t know what that is, just delete the comments altogether.
Posted by gosh on October 31, 2007 at 9:41 am
Hi –
I was so happy to find this. But I get a compile error “Expected: Expression” It then prompts the macro editor and highlights the first less than symbol before the first summary.
So sad.
I use a IbookG4 Mac 2004 edition.
Can you help out at all! This would DRASTICALLY IMPROVE my life as I cut and paste pretty much all day long!
THANK YOU!!!
Posted by misterslimm on August 9, 2007 at 9:46 pm
Thanks. I’ve fixed the comment section so pasting into the Visual Basic Environment should now work.
Posted by Berty on August 9, 2007 at 8:03 pm
Slimm,
Awesome! Thanks for the tip.
I often copy select quotes from different web sites or feeds and put them in a Word document. I hate having to select Edit, then Paste Special, then etc…
This has made my life incredibly easier.
I did, however, run into a compile error. I eliminated the comments at the beginning and it worked fine (it may have something to do with quotes, or the fact that I cut and pasted your post into the macro instead of typing it in). I don’t think I will be creating anymore macros on my own and I’m not too concerned.
Thanks again. You are menthol.