8 ms·

In many, but not all programs on windows you can paste plain text by using ctrl+shift+v. Outlook desktop is one of the few places where this hotkey does not wo

In many, but not all programs on windows you can paste plain text by using ctrl+shift+v. Outlook desktop is one of the few places where this hotkey does not work. Before I knew there was a native hotkey combo, I created a autohotkey script that would do that and had a mini-tutorial that showed how. https://forum.digikey.com/t/add-a-digi-key-search-hotkey-everywhere-slack-excel-outlook-kicad-and-more/13405 https://forum.digikey.com/t/add-a-digi-key-search-hotkey-eve...

ZeWaka 4y ago
It's incredibly annoying in Outlook. Every other Microsoft product I've used like Word supports the key-combo, but of course Outlook has to be different.
- rhino369 4y ago
  In word, Cntrl Shift V just applies formatting. You have to Ctrl V wait hit Cntrl again and then hit T.
  - haltcase 4y ago
    And then there's Excel, where you need to do the same but it's Control + V instead of Control + T.
    - Too 4y ago
      In Excel you can press F2 before pasting. That takes focus of the cell one level deeper to the input-box, where only plain text is allowed.
  - kleiba 4y ago
    Yes, but you can make it work as described by changing a setting in Word.
- icelancer 4y ago
  My company switched to Office over Google and this is by far the worst thing I've come across, and that's saying a lot.
- TurkishPoptart 4y ago
  Fucking Microsoft. Why can't things be simple and standardized?
  - naikrovek 4y ago
    backwards compatibility. people who have been using those applications for decades do not want those shortcuts to change for any reason.
    - unbalancedevh 4y ago
      Haha, I wish they'd thought of that before they implemented the ribbon to replace the menu bar. I can't imagine how many hours of productivity were lost for people dealing with that change.
      - naikrovek 4y ago
        they did think of that... you'll be happy to know that a lot of the ribbon is going away in favor of small buttons with icons on them, and people are losing their minds over it. so no matter what Microsoft do, millions of people are gonna bitch about it and complain for years and years.
  - floxy 4y ago
    Like the reason ctrl+f in Outlook is to "forward", rather than "find". https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20140715-00/?p=503 https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20140715-00/?p=50...
    - brokenmachine 4y ago
      I've made this "mistake" more times than I'd be willing to admit.
SilasX 4y ago
Oh wow I had always gotten into the habit of copying into a simple text editor first if I wanted to strip out the formatting.
- pbhjpbhj 4y ago
  I often copy to Notepad on Windows, but careful, some characters get silently dropped.
hanoz 4y ago
> In many, but not all programs on windows you can paste plain text by using ctrl+shift+v. Sometimes that trick just stops working for no reason at all, then there's nothing else for it but to paste into notepad.exe and re-copy.
- jimlikeslimes 4y ago
  Just to kind of address the Outlook issue, you can also set the default paste setting to be text only. (sigh) we have to do this.
  - conductr 4y ago
    You have to consider the average user though. They have an image and 4 fonts in their signature, one of which is Comic Sans
  - rhco 4y ago
    This is one of my many peeves with Outlooks UX. You can do Ctrl+Alt+V, which gives you an option to paste unformatted, but it's much more finger-intensive than the other shortcut.
    - zinekeller 4y ago
      This is one of those rare times that you can trace it directly to Bill Gates. Another one is Ctrl+F as send and not find (https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20140715-00/?p=503 https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20140715-00/?p=50...)
bryanrasmussen 4y ago
On Mac you can do shift+option+command+v to paste with formatting removed.
- wintermutestwin 4y ago
  Thanks so much for this - I can't imagine how much time I have wasted jumping through goofy hoops trying to change the formatting in gmail. If only there was a way to set this as the default and format pasting as the shift setting. FWIW, shift+command+v works for me...
  - olalonde 4y ago
    I used to paste to use the URL bar to paste without formatting and copy again. This is a game changer.
  - em500 4y ago
    > If only there was a way to set this as the default and format pasting as the shift setting. https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/copy-paste-text-without-formatting-mac/ https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/copy-paste-text-without-format... (MS Office requires a slightly different procedure: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/287159/is-there-a-way-to-make-paste-as-text-only-the-default-action-in-office-2016 https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/287159/is-there-a-...)
  - bryanrasmussen 4y ago
    hah you're right, I don't know why I had that option in there, maybe snuck into my muscle memory from something else. maybe it was in one of the older macs I had to use recently, or some combination with voiceover that I was running.
- tbrock 4y ago
  I think you just need to add shift, option is not necessary.
  - itcrowd 4y ago
haxorito 4y ago
I’d say it’s all backwards default copy-paste should be just text and then you can go overboard with adding +shift to combination or +alt
s0rce 4y ago
I hate outlook blocking that. No idea why you would implement that not working.
soheil 4y ago
Any way is to paste inside a non-textrich area like the browser address bar and then immediately copy the content again to get rid of the styling.
- jhot 4y ago
  I do this all the time. Cmd+tab into browser, cmd+t, cmd+v, cmd+a, cmd+c, cmd+w, cmd+tab to where I need to paste, cmd+v But now that I've seen you can add shift to remove formatting, I'll have to try to remember to do that instead.
  - soheil 4y ago
    I also do this sometimes: cmd+tab, cmd+l, cmd+v, cmd+a, cmd+c, cmd+z, cmd+tab Fewer pages blinking away
astolarz 4y ago
In Outlook, go to Options > Mail > Editor Options > Advanced > Cut, Copy, Paste > change the drop downs for the various scenarios to "Keep Text Only" to always strip formatting.
benhurmarcel 4y ago
On Windows I like to use this: https://stevemiller.net/puretext/ https://stevemiller.net/puretext/
mhdhn 4y ago
It's worse in the smartphone world, at least on iOS. There isn't any notion of paste-plain-text. If I want that, eg in Mail app, I have to use the app Plain Text. It feels like crap.

ZeWaka 4y ago

It's incredibly annoying in Outlook. Every other Microsoft product I've used like Word supports the key-combo, but of course Outlook has to be different.

rhino369 4y ago
In word, Cntrl Shift V just applies formatting. You have to Ctrl V wait hit Cntrl again and then hit T.
- haltcase 4y ago
  And then there's Excel, where you need to do the same but it's Control + V instead of Control + T.
  - Too 4y ago
    In Excel you can press F2 before pasting. That takes focus of the cell one level deeper to the input-box, where only plain text is allowed.
- kleiba 4y ago
  Yes, but you can make it work as described by changing a setting in Word.
icelancer 4y ago
My company switched to Office over Google and this is by far the worst thing I've come across, and that's saying a lot.
TurkishPoptart 4y ago
Fucking Microsoft. Why can't things be simple and standardized?
- naikrovek 4y ago
  backwards compatibility. people who have been using those applications for decades do not want those shortcuts to change for any reason.
  - unbalancedevh 4y ago
    Haha, I wish they'd thought of that before they implemented the ribbon to replace the menu bar. I can't imagine how many hours of productivity were lost for people dealing with that change.
    - naikrovek 4y ago
      they did think of that... you'll be happy to know that a lot of the ribbon is going away in favor of small buttons with icons on them, and people are losing their minds over it. so no matter what Microsoft do, millions of people are gonna bitch about it and complain for years and years.
- floxy 4y ago
  Like the reason ctrl+f in Outlook is to "forward", rather than "find". https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20140715-00/?p=503 https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20140715-00/?p=50...
  - brokenmachine 4y ago
    I've made this "mistake" more times than I'd be willing to admit.

SilasX 4y ago

Oh wow I had always gotten into the habit of copying into a simple text editor first if I wanted to strip out the formatting.

pbhjpbhj 4y ago
I often copy to Notepad on Windows, but careful, some characters get silently dropped.

hanoz 4y ago

> In many, but not all programs on windows you can paste plain text by using ctrl+shift+v. Sometimes that trick just stops working for no reason at all, then there's nothing else for it but to paste into notepad.exe and re-copy.

jimlikeslimes 4y ago
Just to kind of address the Outlook issue, you can also set the default paste setting to be text only. (sigh) we have to do this.
- conductr 4y ago
  You have to consider the average user though. They have an image and 4 fonts in their signature, one of which is Comic Sans
- rhco 4y ago
  This is one of my many peeves with Outlooks UX. You can do Ctrl+Alt+V, which gives you an option to paste unformatted, but it's much more finger-intensive than the other shortcut.
  - zinekeller 4y ago
    This is one of those rare times that you can trace it directly to Bill Gates. Another one is Ctrl+F as send and not find (https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20140715-00/?p=503 https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20140715-00/?p=50...)

bryanrasmussen 4y ago

On Mac you can do shift+option+command+v to paste with formatting removed.

wintermutestwin 4y ago
Thanks so much for this - I can't imagine how much time I have wasted jumping through goofy hoops trying to change the formatting in gmail. If only there was a way to set this as the default and format pasting as the shift setting. FWIW, shift+command+v works for me...
- olalonde 4y ago
  I used to paste to use the URL bar to paste without formatting and copy again. This is a game changer.
- em500 4y ago
  > If only there was a way to set this as the default and format pasting as the shift setting. https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/copy-paste-text-without-formatting-mac/ https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/copy-paste-text-without-format... (MS Office requires a slightly different procedure: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/287159/is-there-a-way-to-make-paste-as-text-only-the-default-action-in-office-2016 https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/287159/is-there-a-...)
- bryanrasmussen 4y ago
  hah you're right, I don't know why I had that option in there, maybe snuck into my muscle memory from something else. maybe it was in one of the older macs I had to use recently, or some combination with voiceover that I was running.
tbrock 4y ago
I think you just need to add shift, option is not necessary.
- itcrowd 4y ago

haxorito 4y ago

I’d say it’s all backwards default copy-paste should be just text and then you can go overboard with adding +shift to combination or +alt

s0rce 4y ago

I hate outlook blocking that. No idea why you would implement that not working.

soheil 4y ago

Any way is to paste inside a non-textrich area like the browser address bar and then immediately copy the content again to get rid of the styling.

jhot 4y ago
I do this all the time. Cmd+tab into browser, cmd+t, cmd+v, cmd+a, cmd+c, cmd+w, cmd+tab to where I need to paste, cmd+v But now that I've seen you can add shift to remove formatting, I'll have to try to remember to do that instead.
- soheil 4y ago
  I also do this sometimes: cmd+tab, cmd+l, cmd+v, cmd+a, cmd+c, cmd+z, cmd+tab Fewer pages blinking away

astolarz 4y ago

In Outlook, go to Options > Mail > Editor Options > Advanced > Cut, Copy, Paste > change the drop downs for the various scenarios to "Keep Text Only" to always strip formatting.

benhurmarcel 4y ago

On Windows I like to use this: https://stevemiller.net/puretext/ https://stevemiller.net/puretext/

mhdhn 4y ago

It's worse in the smartphone world, at least on iOS. There isn't any notion of paste-plain-text. If I want that, eg in Mail app, I have to use the app Plain Text. It feels like crap.