Word Paste Options: Ctrl+V, Ctrl+Shift+V and Keep Text Only

When you copy text from a webpage or chat and paste it into a document, the pasted section often has a different font, size, and color. To fix this, you can either reselect the text and reset the style manually or use one of three Paste options.

The Ctrl+V shortcut keeps the original formatting of the pasted text. This includes bold, italics, and underline, all of which become part of the text. Ctrl+Shift+V, on the other hand, pastes the text without any of its formatting. This is useful when copying from a website or messenger so that the document maintains its own styling.

After pasting, a small Paste Options button appears next to the text. Clicking it presents three choices: Keep Source Formatting, Merge Formatting, or Keep Text Only. These buttons allow you to change how the paste was applied.

If you're moving a styled block between two of your own documents, plain Ctrl+V is usually the best choice, as the text should look the same in both documents. For quotes, addresses, or notes pulled from a browser, Ctrl+Shift+V saves a cleanup step by removing unwanted formatting.

However, if you're unsure, it's safest to paste normally first and then use the Paste Options button. This is quicker than undoing and pasting again. It's also worth noting that pasting text only doesn't mean the text arrives without any formatting at all. It takes on the formatting of the character immediately before your cursor. Therefore, turn off any unwanted formatting beforehand.

A final note: older desktop versions of Word used Ctrl+Shift+V to paste formatting, not plain text. If the shortcut behaves unexpectedly on your machine, the Paste Options button can still provide the same choices. If you're scripting Word using VBA, the plain-text paste can be achieved with a single call: Selection . PasteSpecial DataType : = wdPasteText. For those generating documents with python-docx, the issue is largely avoided since each run carries only the formatting you explicitly set.