TUAW Tip: Paste without formatting by default

Here's something I know affects plenty of users out there. Have you ever pasted text in a document or email message, only to have it formatted differently than all the text around it? Irritating, right?

There's an answer, thanks to the Keyboard & Mouse pane in System Preferences. If you click the Keyboard Shortcuts tab, you can assign "Paste Without Formatting" and/or "Paste and Match Style" to Command + V for all applications. Just click the plus

button under the list, type in the name of the appropriate menu items, and press ⌘-V in the Keyboard Shortcut box.

One note: Panic designer Neven Mrgan found that using this tip means you won't be able to paste images into iChat using Command + V. Dragging and dropping (or choosing Paste from the Edit menu) still works, though. Update: If you explicitly add ⌘-V in as a shortcut for Paste that's specific to iChat, you can restore the image paste capability without breaking the global shortcut.

Apps that don't have either of those menu items will still default to regular old "Paste" for the same key command. Paste away!

[Via @robotspacer, @chockenberry, and thaweesak.com.]

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Source: http://twitter.com/robotspacer/status/2518146079

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Here's something I know affects plenty of users out there. Have you ever pasted text in a document or email message, only to have it...

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Michael Levinson

Is there "Paste as Plaintext" as opposed to "Match Style" ?

September 24 2009 at 2:19 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Chris Richardson

Single most useful little tip ever. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

July 09 2009 at 7:02 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

weatherman

Wow, this is a very useful tip! It was very aggravating pasting URLs and text from word into an email. I'd have to change it to plain text and then rich text to get rid of the formatting.

July 08 2009 at 7:54 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Michael Hanscom

Thank you _so much_ for this tip! The default behavior is one of the most bizarre, brain-dead UI decisions in the Mac OS, and has been driving me nuts for ages. This is great!

July 08 2009 at 6:52 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

a.wickliffe

Yeah, doesn't work for me either. Too bad.

July 08 2009 at 2:29 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Dave G

Awesome, awesome, awesome keyboard tip. I ran in to the pasting issue yesterday booking a hotel and wanting to send it to a friend. No more extra fingers on the keyboard & trying to remember what each app's specific shortcut is for P&MS.

July 08 2009 at 2:24 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

genioe

Is there any chance to do the same thing with other keyboard settings? (eg languages)...
I've got the German Keyboard and Paste and Match Style doesn't work for me, but the tip sounds SO great!
Please help
Reader Mike

July 08 2009 at 1:39 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Matt J

Note that OmniOutliner uses "Paste With Current Style" as it's language, so you'll want to add a 3rd one for this if you use that app. I haven't checked to see if this is consistent among all Omni products or just Outliner.

July 08 2009 at 11:56 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Rick

Doesn't work for me. :(

iMac with 10.5.7

July 08 2009 at 10:12 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Rick's comment

Me neither, whats up with it?

The Command+Alt+Shift+v does though. :Shrugs:

July 08 2009 at 12:22 PM Report abuse Permalink +1 rate up rate down Reply

jm130500

You have a 17" iMac which means it's at least couple years old even if you bought one right before they were discontinued. Monitors fail...deal. I have been using the same LCD monitor for a couple years and every few months I have to adjust the settings to make it still look good. You could also have a video card issue instead of a problem with a monitor but the fact is your computer is getting old.

July 08 2009 at 9:38 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply