Have you ever noticed that when you copy the text contents from a website or anywhere that has formatting and paste it to a new Word document file, it will carry along the formatting? Here is an example that I experience everyday in forum because by default it has Rich-Text Editor enabled. I tried copying a text content from the blog site that has bold and also a hyperlink.
When I paste it in the forum’s rich-text editor reply box, you’d notice that it is pasting the exact same thing with the bold, color and hyperlink formatting included. If you paste it in Microsoft Word, the same thing would happen. This feature is convenient because it allows computer newbies to paste what they see without knowing the HTML or forum BBCode. The annoying part of this feature is sometimes we don’t really need all these formatting. There are two ways which I normally do to paste a copied text without the formatting that is by pasting it to notepad, then select all, copy again and then paste. If it is a short text, I’d paste it to the browser’s URL bar, copy and paste it.
Now I don’t need to go through all those steps to paste a formatted text without the formatting.
PureText makes this simple by adding a new Windows hot-key that allows you to paste text to any application without formatting. After running PureText.exe, you will see a “PT” tray icon appear near the clock on your task bar. You can click on this icon to remove formatting from the text that is currently on the clipboard. You can right-click on the icon to display a menu with more options. The easiest way to use PureText is to simply use its hot-key to paste text instead of using the standard CTRL+V hot-key that is built into most Windows applications. The default hotkey is WINDOWS+V and it can be changed in Options.
PureText only removes rich formatting from text. This includes the font face, font style (bold, italics, etc.), font color, paragraph styles (left/right/center aligned), margins, character spacing, bullets, subscript, superscript, tables, charts, pictures, embedded objects, etc. However, it does not modify the actual text. It will not remove or fix new-lines, carriage returns, tabs, or other white-space. It will not fix word-wrap or clean up your paragraphs.
PureText is a free, small and portable tool that works on Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista. Running it in notification area takes only 4MB from your memory and doesn’t lag your computer in any way. The good thing about this tool is it doesn’t replace the paste command (CTRL+V) in Windows, but it gives an extra pasting method with a new hotkey (WINDOWS+V).
[ Download PureText ]
Some people still dont get it. This app is useful if you are IT person, to save time instead of open and close notepad hundreds time a month or even week.
If you need that just occasionally, just use notepad.
For MS Word 2007
Press ALT + F, click WORD OPTIONS, select ADVANCED on the left pane. Under the – CUT, COPY, and PASTE –
change the four (4) items option.
from KEEP SOURCE FORMATTING (Default)
to KEEP TEXT ONLY.
That’s it. No downloads and so on. Hope this helps.
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Good stuff Thank you
Does this method help us to paste the text as it is copied into the forums ? Is there any method which will allow me to copy paste the exact thing to a forum. For Eg. a bold as bold without adding the BB code. I am sorry, I couldn’t follow what formatted and unformatted text means.
i always use notepad or simply the start/run box in windows
Hi Folks,
My email program Eudora is almost always open, and always has the “remove formatting” tab, probably also other email programs have this. Nonetheless may compare and see if this PureText is any quicker. Some programs that should have a “remove formatting” tab surprisingly do not (I just asked Keynote-NF to add this). There are a fair number of times you want to have something in straight .txt, such as posting in many forums.
Shalom,
Steven Avery
open office has built in applicatios while paste
Is there any software which gives unformatted Text but keeping the font alignment same, paragraph formats same. ^.^
Im searching for such tool.
BTW this tool is also good.
Nice research
I used to use notepad+++
Thank you Raymond!
I still think that notepad still the best. Simple, light text editor.
Hi,
When pasting on Word you don’t need any extra tool because word can do it, open Edit -> Paste Special and select Unformatted Text.
I almost never use Word, but in most word processors, even Microsoft’s monster, I just use Paste Special (sometimes it is called Paste As). Look in the Edit Drop Down box, choose Paste Special, then choose Unformatted Text.
Its working, Thanx
Thank you Raymond! This is just what I was looking for.
Quite often I cut and past formatted text from my Word documents into rich-text Yahoo! Mail. The pasted text in the email editor appears with the destination formatting before I send it, which is what I want. But when I look at the content after it’s sent, the pasted text has the source formatting. My solution has been to cut and paste to notepad, then cut and paste to the email. Now I just cut and then paste using the V-Windows hotkey.
I am not sure why anyone would still prefer using notepad over this since PureText saves you the steps of having to open up notepad and then cut and paste the extra time.
I don’t get it. It’s the exact opposite with my PC.
There are times when I want to reproduce the original format on some sections (like titles, subtitles or hyperlinks), I have to manually edit and modify the fonts’ size, color, effect, and everything — which can become a long, tedious chore.
By default, I can only paste text in one plain, unformatted font on any page of whatever word-processing software I desire to use.
I must have accidentally set one little something earlier in my endless tinkering and tweaking Windows.
And that “little something” in fact has such big use!
nice tip
:-)
Hi Reimond,
I usually use Open Office and [Ctrl + Shift + V] is the shortcut of copy without format information.
Excellent finding. Thanks for sharing.
For my job responsibility I have to copy lots of texts from multiple sources (eg. web pages) and then take it to notepad and then take it to word. But this solved my problem.
Thanks again.
Another great tip Raymond, thanks so much! I constantly have this problem and I’ve always just pasted the text to Notepad, AND THEN to the Word document. Surely saves me a step here and hopefully some time…
I still prefer the first method mention, cut and paste into notepad first.
Well do we really need a 3rd party software to remove formatting ? What I do is just copy and paste the text in notepad or any other text editor, then copy and paste to word from it.. simple :) and works fine
Mr. Raymond:
Thank you very much for posting this!!! It can save precious time with a little effort.
Best regards,
Jose Martinez.
Thanks for this soft, copy-past is frequent everyday and this program will help us to make it easier.
I use notepad :D