Applies to: Windows – Keyboard Shortcuts

Ahoy all ye pirates^! Lookin’ to copy ‘n paste without style? We show ye how to get ye Copy ‘n Paste shipshape.

Pirate/English translation: We show you how to Copy and Paste without taking the style of the text with you…

So we all know how to copy and paste… right? Well I thought I knew, but I was wrong.
Keyboard shortcuts:

  • Ctrl + A : Select all – or you can just select the text / item you want…
  • Ctrl + C : Copy selected item (text, image, etc…)
  • Ctrl + V : Paste item which is in your clipboard

All seems normal, but look what happens when I paste some formatted text into a document…
copypaste1
I was so annoyed at this the other day, I spent ages formatting some text and images that had all got mangled similar to the above.
If only I had known then, that adding one simple key press into my… errrrrr… key pressing would solve the problem…

  • Ctrl + Shift + V : Pastes the item in your clipboard, without formatting!
  • Or right click and choose “Paste as plain text” or “Paste without formatting”.
    And now the pasted text looks more like this…

copypaste3
Annoyingly I don’t think this works across all programs and devices, but on my Windows 10 machine it works in Google Chrome, OpenOffice / LibraOffice and I believe Microsoft Office…

Happy Talk like a pirate day!

Spy wit’ ye eye ye before I sail out^
Mike
^19th SeptembARrrrr be speak like a scurvy pirate day! http://talklikeapirate.com/

And from my childhood, Monkey Island’s worst Pirates ever… (click the image to play)