The first thing you can do, and the simplest to implement, is to switch from using CTRL+V (Paste) to CTRL+SHIFT+V (Paste Plain Text). Problem solving is what we do best we’re not going to let you leave this column still using Notepad as a middle man! There are several tricks you can use, depending on the operating system/application you’re working in. Surely there is some way for me to copy and paste without the formatting that doesn’t involve copy/pasting every section of text twice? What should I do? My current solution, which I’ll be the first to admit is probably the worse, is to paste all the text into Notepad (because Notepad doesn’t preserve formatting) and then paste it into the final document where (if need be) I apply my own formatting before shipping it off to the boss. The problem is that the source text has all sorts of different formatting (different web sites, different news articles, publications in my industry, etc.) and I need to put it all in a summary digest for my boss. I have to cut and paste a lot of text every day. I have a little problem that I’m super confident you can help me with. I especially love the Ask HTG column and now I’ve got a question of my own to submit for it. I love reading all the articles on your web site about fixing problems and making thing more efficient.
![shortcut for pasting text only windows shortcut for pasting text only windows](https://www.thewindowsclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/CtrlShiftV.png)
![shortcut for pasting text only windows shortcut for pasting text only windows](https://jbawm.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/PureText-Option-Menu-300x288.png)
What if you’re frequently pasting text and you want to strip the formatting away in the process? Read on as we help a reader tweak his workflow to be faster and more streamlined. Most of the time we go to great pains to preserve formatting in our text and ensure it looks just the way we want it to.