macOS Quick Tip: Copy and Paste Text Without Formatting

[Will Co]

Top tip. How did this one evade common knowledge for so long.

 

[StuBeck]

So many Windows users do things the hard way and paste into an intermediary first, such as 'Notepad'.

Love the thoughtfulness of approach favoured by macOS.

Eh, there is an option on Windows to paste while matching formatting that doesn't require this process or a 4 key shortcut.

 

[Dorv]

Yea seriously who asked for this. "Hmm yes let me import wildly different formatting in my mono formatted document"

It's useful within the same document. Especially in Excel.

Heck, maybe only in Excel.

 

[torontotim]

Not quite 'all formatting' is stripped.

In Outlook, the font size is removed, but bold/italics are retained.

Unsurprisingly in Notes, all formatting is indeed removed.

Nice tip, good feature (why the Shift key is necessary is beyond me), just not quite universally consistent.

 

[It’s always something]

Yes, “share” the selected text and then COPY. When you paste it will be “paste and match style”.

Wow, this is great! Thanks!

 

[hybrid_x]

You know where this doesn't work? Microsoft apps. Microsoft's "Paste special…" menu is the bane of my existence. Why they can't just make HTML, Rich Text, and Plain Text, or Paste without formatting direct keyboard commands is beyond me.

 

[It’s always something]

Unsurprisingly in Notes, all formatting is indeed removed.

Italics and boldface are preserved; so are links. The font is stripped, however. Such is my experience with copy/pasting from at least one other app into Notes on a regular basis on iPad.

 

[kevine]

Teaching how to fish: If you look at the menu commands, they'll show the keyboard shortcuts. For example:
EDIT->Paste and Match Style

This reveals the shortcut on the right of the menu item.

For those who hate the paste with formatting feature all together, you can go to
Settings->Keyboard->Keyboard Shortcuts->App Shortcuts and add "Paste and Match Style" as "Command + v"

You can also swap it so that "Option + Command v" pastes with formatting in case you ever want to use it.

Keep a log of changes like this in Notes in case you forget about these changes when going to a different Mac.

 

[xxFoxtail]

I’ll have to try this. The share sheet recognizes selected text? I did not know this.

Yeah, I can’t say it works for everything, though it probably does. For my job, I’ve had to copy text out of messages, email, websites, etc and paste it into a document. For a while I was using my only my iPhone with it, usually with a Bluetooth keyboard. Some days I was too lazy to use that keyboard and discovered the share sheet trick.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

So many Windows users do things the hard way and paste into an intermediary first, such as 'Notepad'.

Love the thoughtfulness of approach favoured by macOS.

That's not as bad as people who instead of pressing the SHIFT key to capitalize a single letter, press CAPS LOCK, type the letter and then press CAPS LOCK again. I have noticed a lot of people do this, no specific age range.

 

[JosephAW]

Nice tip, I’ve been doing this in word pages and quark but I didn’t know a systemwide, now we just need a key stroke for the iOS.

 

[mrr]

Thanks! I wish I learned this 20 years ago!

 

[DribbleCastle]

Thankfully, Chrome makes it simpler and leaves out the option. Less of a finger dance.

Chrome

• ⌘ + Shift + V

 

[wmmead]

Interestingly, the one app I have found where this trick does NOT work is the Slack app. Perhaps there are others.

 

[nottorp]

And how do I make plain text copy/paste the ****ing default?

I don't think i EVER needed this feature.

 

[Donkey Man]

Amazingly cumbersome way of doing such a thing - the Office way is much simpler through pop-up options that are just a click away whenever you paste text anywhere.

 

[benwiggy]

And how do I make plain text copy/paste the ****ing default?

You can switch the shortcut keys for the two commands; though if an app doesn't have Paste with Matching Style (usually cross-platform apps with very little Mac-ness), then you lose Command V.
You might be able to create a Shortcuts/Automator service that strips the style and pastes the text; and then assign Command V to that instead.

 

[hagar]

The trick in Windows is to use the formatting brush after pasting. Never understood why this obvious tool doesn’t exist in Apple apps.

 

[vegetassj4]

4 keys at once becasue who doesn't have six fingers or use a floor mounted keyboard for their toes?

 

[one more]

This also works on iPad and iPhone too.

How so?

 

[SoldOnApple]

This is something you pick up naturally when you need it, it even tells you what keys to press in most major apps these days.

 

[DocMultimedia]

Nice tip!

 

[daelin]

For more convenience, you can go to System Settings » Keyboard » Keyboard Shortcuts, and globally rebind “Paste without Formatting” to CMD+C or just SHIFT+CMD+C.

However, my preference is to just use CMD+? for things like this. Just hit the shortcut to fuzzy search the menu, down or ctrl+n to select the menu item, and hit return. Just like a command palette.

 

[dannyyankou]

There should be a system-wide option when you right click. On iPhone too when you copy text.

Should be an update in macOS 16 and iOS 19.

 

[Bodhitree]

Very handy — now I can stop pasting web text to Notes as an intermediary.