How to Paste Without Formatting on Windows

A web paragraph carries fonts, colors, links, and list markup. Ctrl+V asks the destination to pick a rich format from that bundle. Paste without formatting asks for characters only, then lets the destination’s current style win. Windows does not implement that request in one system-wide shortcut. Each app invents its own chord. This guide maps the official ones and the fallbacks that always work.

The clipboard itself can hold plain text, HTML, and RTF at the same time. History may store text and HTML (and bitmaps) among its 25 items, 4 MB each. Clicking a Win+V card can still paste rich HTML into Word even when the preview looked plain. Forcing text-only is a paste-time choice.

The idea in one table

Microsoft Word Support documents three paste options: Keep Source Formatting, Merge Formatting, and Keep Text Only. Keep Text Only “discards all formatting and nontext elements such as pictures or tables.” The text then takes on the style of the paragraph at the cursor.

Microsoft’s 365 Insider announcement documented Ctrl+Shift+V as Paste Text Only in Word for Windows, Word for Mac, and Word for the web. Older perpetual Word builds may not have that binding. Those builds still have Paste Special and the ribbon.

Google’s Docs shortcut list is unambiguous: Paste without formatting is Ctrl+Shift+V.

Word: the office default problem

Word’s factory default for Ctrl+V from other programs is Keep Source Formatting. That is why a paste from Edge arrives in Calibri-that-is-not-Calibri, or in Arial 11pt blue.

One-off

1. Place the cursor.
2. Prefer Ctrl+Shift+V if this Word build supports Paste Text Only.
3. If the paste is still styled, use Home > Paste > Keep Text Only (clipboard with a capital A).
4. Or Ctrl+Alt+V, choose Unformatted Text, OK.

After a normal Ctrl+V, the small Paste Options widget appears. Press T for Keep Text Only while it is visible.

Make it the default

1. File > Options > Advanced.
2. Find Cut, copy, and paste.
3. Set Pasting from other programs to Keep Text Only.
4. Optionally set Pasting between documents the same way.
5. The Keep bullets and numbers when pasting text with Keep Text Only checkbox (called out in Microsoft’s paste article) can be cleared if list markers should die with the rest of the formatting.

This default is a Word setting, not a Windows setting. Excel and Outlook have their own paste defaults.

If Ctrl+Shift+V does nothing in Word

The shortcut may be unassigned in that build or stolen by an add-in. Assign it:

1. File > Options > Customize Ribbon > Keyboard shortcuts: Customize.
2. Category All Commands.
3. Command PasteTextOnly.
4. Assign Ctrl+Shift+V.
5. Save the template when prompted.

That troubleshooting path is expanded in Ctrl+Shift+V Does Not Work Everywhere.

Google Docs and the browser

In Google Docs on Windows:

• Ctrl+V — paste with source formatting (as Docs interprets the HTML).
• Ctrl+Shift+V — paste without formatting.

The same chord pastes plain text in Gmail’s compose box and in many web editors. It can fail when the browser or an extension binds Ctrl+Shift+V to something else (Chrome “Paste as plain text” is usually fine; some browsers map the chord to “Paste and go”). If Docs’ menu item Edit > Paste without formatting is enabled but the key does nothing, look at the browser’s shortcut settings first.

Docs is still a web app. It cannot change how Notepad or desktop Outlook paste.

Outlook, Teams, Slack, Excel

Notice the collision: in a browser, Ctrl+Shift+V means “plain.” In Windows Terminal, Ctrl+Shift+V means “paste” because Ctrl+V was historically “literal next character.” One chord, two jobs. That is why a single muscle memory will never be universal.

The Notepad scrub (always available)

When the destination has no text-only command:

1. Paste into Notepad.
2. Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C.
3. Paste into the destination.

The second copy publishes CF_UNICODETEXT without HTML or RTF. Windows clipboard history will show a new, plain card if history is on. Hidden extras such as soft hyphens may survive this scrub because they are characters, not styles. Cleaning those is Strip Tracking and Soft Hyphens From Copied Text.

What “without formatting” does not remove

Keep Text Only drops fonts, colors, tables-as-tables, and pictures. It does not always drop:

• Line breaks that were real newlines in the source (PDF wraps, poem lines)
• Soft hyphens (U+00AD) and zero-width characters
• Smart quotes and em dashes already in the character stream
• Bullet symbols that were typed as • rather than list markup
• Tracking query strings inside a URL that is now just text

Mystery fonts after a rich paste are explained in Why Pasted Text Brings Mystery Fonts With It. Copying cleanly at the source reduces the work: How to Copy Plain Text From a Website.

History, managers, and expanders

Win+V is not a format picker. It stores what was copied. Clicking a card is closer to Ctrl+V than to Keep Text Only. If a strictly plain paste is required, use the destination’s text-only command after choosing the card, or scrub through Notepad and copy again.

A clipboard manager that offers “paste as plain text” is doing the destination’s job at the manager. That can be convenient. It is still not a text expander. Expanders (PhraseExpress, TextExpander, Espanso) insert named snippets when an abbreviation is typed. They are the right tool for signatures and canned replies, not for stripping last Tuesday’s HTML. The category split is Clipboard Manager vs Text Expander vs Notes App.

Edge-Drop can stage recent copies, including text cards. It does not replace Word’s Keep Text Only, and it should not be sold as an autotext engine. For reusable wording, use an expander. For one-off cleanup, use the paste commands in this article.

A default policy that stays out of trouble

1. In Word, set Pasting from other programs to Keep Text Only.
2. Learn Ctrl+Shift+V for Docs, the browser, and Teams.
3. Learn Ctrl+Alt+V for Office Paste Special when the first two fail.
4. Keep Notepad (or Windows Notepad on 11) pinned for the scrub.
5. Turn on clipboard history for retrieving the wrong paste’s source text, not for storing manuscripts. Limits still apply: 25 items, 4 MB, restart wipe except pins.

Enable history: How to Enable Clipboard History in Windows 11. Rich versus plain formats: How Windows Treats Rich Text Versus Plain Text.

The click-path is in How to Duplicate a Paragraph Without Reformatting It.

Related reading

• A Sensible Daily Copy-Paste Workflow
• Stop Using the Clipboard as Your To-Do List
• Context Switching Tax of Modal Clipboard Popups
• How Many Copies Do Knowledge Workers Make a Day?

Sources

• Control the formatting when you paste text (Microsoft Word Support) — Keep Source, Merge, Keep Text Only; bullets-and-numbers checkbox.
• Paste Text Only shortcut in Word (Microsoft 365 Insider) — Ctrl+Shift+V / Cmd+Shift+V as Paste Text Only.
• Keyboard shortcuts for Google Docs — official Ctrl+Shift+V = Paste without formatting.
• Using the clipboard (Microsoft Support) — history stores text/HTML/bitmap; 25 items; 4 MB; restart wipe.
• How Windows treats formats (standard clipboard formats, Microsoft Learn) — why one copy can expose both Unicode text and richer flavors.

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