Windows, disable rich-text copy

On my work PC, when I copy+paste some text between two applications, the rich-text formatting from the first application is preserved when the second receives it. For example, if I am copying from an Outlook message that contains size 10 Tahoma to a Word document which is formatted in Size 12 Arial, the pasted text will be size 10 Tahoma.

I don't want this to happen. I never want the second application to format the text to what it was at the source of the copy.

I suspect this is an OS level setting, because on my home PC, this does not happen at all.

I could configure each application to receive only plain text from pasting, but the optimal solution I believe would be disabling any RTF data in the clipboard itself. Right now my solution is to first copy to notepad to "sanitize" the clipboard text of any RTF data, then copy it to the second application. But this is somewhat tedious.

user13137

Posted 2011-01-26T21:28:59.323

Reputation: 730

When you copy-paste in Word, you can select text only, source format or destination format. And you can also set a default paste mode. In 2010, at least. – Ariane – 2013-04-13T01:55:41.013

Answers

Take a look at PureText. I don't think there is a specific "OS-level setting" for disabling rich text in the clipboard, but the goal of PureText is to do exactly that.

It also gives you the flexibility of setting custom hotkeys for converting text to plain text format. By changing the hotkey to Ctrl-v, you can paste and convert the text in one shot.

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Compatible with Windows 95 and up. PureText is freeware.

John T

Posted 2011-01-26T21:28:59.323

Reputation: 149 037

it won't let me use ctrl+v. i'd really like it to be seamless. great suggestion though – user13137 – 2011-01-26T21:44:23.487

Try Ctrl-C so it converts upon copying. I don't recall which one I used with puretext a while back, but I know one of those combinations will convert it at the same time. – John T – 2011-01-26T21:52:30.563

if it's set to ctrl+c it will paste instead of copy – user13137 – 2011-01-26T21:57:33.063

@user13137 no, just uncheck the "also perform the following actions..." which tells it to paste. – John T – 2011-01-26T22:04:11.333

but then it doesn't copy either – user13137 – 2011-01-26T22:20:14.410

It has to let you use one of those combinations, because that's how I used to have it set up on my system :P – John T – 2011-01-26T22:54:02.180

Press Ctrl+Alt+V in Word to Paste Special, i.e. paste without formatting.

Daniel Beck

Posted 2011-01-26T21:28:59.323

Reputation: 98 421

Many applications nowadays support ctrl+shift+v as "past as plain text". – Nyerguds – 2016-12-08T13:26:26.633

i was looking for a general solution (agnostic to application receiving), but thank you – user13137 – 2011-01-26T21:59:34.187

@user You could try to check your other applications (Word was probably a bad example :-) ). Maybe they support a similar shortcut. While not as thorough as a system-wide setting, it'd be a bit more flexible. – Daniel Beck – 2011-01-26T22:02:09.973

I use Notepad to drop all the formatting

Copy (Ctrl-C) the stuff you want
Open Notepad
Paste (Ctrl-V) into Notepad
Select all (Ctrl-A) from Notepad
Paste (Ctrl-V) into destination

Mike

Posted 2011-01-26T21:28:59.323

Reputation: 11

+1. Step 2b - ctrl-a in case note pad already open with earlier similar op :) – tgkprog – 2015-05-15T07:21:11.443

for single-line pieces of text, I use a variant which is to use windows+r at step 2. you can use the "run" box as a text field and after copying it back out again, press escape to dismiss it without the text being saved in the command history. – Andy – 2016-06-08T15:41:39.130

Use auto hot key, put a hook on clipboadrd change, get clipboard contents to a var, clear the clipboard and then set it back to clipboard. so the RTF will be lost.

Downside - looks like wont be able to copy files too. but can switch off script when you need to do that

see http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/misc/Clipboard.htm

tgkprog

Posted 2011-01-26T21:28:59.323

Reputation: 206