Paste Without Formatting / Paste and Match Style

Question

Level 1

39 points

Paste Without Formatting / Paste and Match Style

I read a recent article about system wide Pasting without formatting (or to existing formatting) configured from within System Preferences: Keyboard & Mouse. The article states that titling the action with "Paste Without Formatting" and then assigning the tradition cmd+V would override it and paste without formatting.

This I consider blind faith, telling an OS to do something based on a title is not the way to gain my confidence, and I wouldn't be here if it worked. I expected a menu to select from existing scripts that did this job, and it doesn't work.

Several others have complained about it not working and are on the same OS specs as myself, can anybody please confirm this works? It could well be that I hve a conflicting program or a reboot is required.

http://applenews24.info/tuaw-tip-paste-without-formatting-by-default/

Thanks.

MacBook (white), Mac OS X (10.5.7), 4GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

Posted on Jul 10, 2009 4:18 PM

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Answer 1

nerowolfe

Level 6

13,090 points

Jul 10, 2009 4:27 PM in response to Hamper

Hamper wrote:
I read a recent article about system wide Pasting without formatting (or to existing formatting) configured from within System Preferences: Keyboard & Mouse. The article states that titling the action with "Paste Without Formatting" and then assigning the tradition cmd+V would override it and paste without formatting.

This I consider blind faith, telling an OS to do something based on a title is not the way to gain my confidence, and I wouldn't be here if it worked. I expected a menu to select from existing scripts that did this job, and it doesn't work.

You misread the article. All it does is provide a shortcut for Cmd-v - nothing more.
The title of the shortcut has nothing to do with causing the action to occur.
If using Cmd-c for copy and Cmd-v for pasting does not work, then you need another solution.
Using a shortcut for Cmd-v, in my opinion is ridiculous in the first place. Cmd-v is a shortcut.

If you do not want any reformatting, how could you possibly copy an HTML document and paste in into a text editor? It makes no sense. Most times when something is pasted into a different app, it must be reformatted to obey the restrictions imposed by the new app.

Message was edited by: nerowolfe

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Answer 2

baltwo

Level 9

62,396 points

Jul 10, 2009 4:31 PM in response to Hamper

You confirmed that it doesn't work, as did others. What more do you want? Do note that keyboard shortcuts only work with menu items that exist; i.e., you can't use that prefPane to create ones that don't currently exist in the app, including Finder. A quick check indicates that TextEdit already has a shortcut for Paste and Match Style: CMDOPT+SHIFTV.

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Answer 3

Hamper Author

Level 1

39 points

Jul 10, 2009 4:32 PM in response to nerowolfe

Hang on, so what your saying is that I can't override the traditional cmd+V to paste without formatting? Is it possible another way?

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Answer 4

nerowolfe

Level 6

13,090 points

Jul 10, 2009 4:57 PM in response to Hamper

Hamper wrote:
Hang on, so what your saying is that I can't override the traditional cmd+V to paste without formatting? Is it possible another way?

Creating a "long cut" to perform Cmd-v will not change what Cmd-v does.

You still have not described exactly what you are looking to do.
If you are using TextEdit as the receptacle for the paste operation, try
Option-Shift-Cmd-v
or use the edit menu and select "Paste and Match Style"
For other apps, it's up to you to figure out how to preserve style.

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Answer 5

Hamper Author

Level 1

39 points

Jul 10, 2009 4:59 PM in response to nerowolfe

Well that was just it, I thought this was a system wide thing that would apply it to all apps, it really does look like that from the article. I thought it meant paste into any app without formatting. That's what I want.

Is there a mini app that can do this that I could hide away and start at boot, or a script to override cmd+v, thanks...

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Answer 6

baltwo

Level 9

62,396 points

Jul 10, 2009 5:06 PM in response to Hamper

Trying to muck with Apple's standard cut, copy, paste, and bold shortcuts is an exercise in futility, especially since they've provided a shortcut for Paste and Match Style: CMDOPT+SHIFTV, in TextEdit. Those four shortcuts have been in place since day one and no one's going to override them.

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Answer 7

nerowolfe

Level 6

13,090 points

Jul 10, 2009 5:17 PM in response to baltwo

I would add that Cmd-a, c and v are the GUI equivalents of the Unix commands, ctl-a, c and v which have been around forever, or so it seems. I believe that they are the same in Windows as well.

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Answer 8

khassani

Level 3

952 points

Jul 10, 2009 5:28 PM in response to Hamper

It worked for me:

Go to System Preferences->Keyboard->Keyboard Shortcuts

Create a new shortcut for All Applications (or just the one that you want to modify). Menu Title: "Paste and Match Style" (this has to be exact). Keyboard Shortcut: command-V

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Answer 9

baltwo

Level 9

62,396 points

Jul 10, 2009 5:41 PM in response to khassani

Launch Preview and give it a shot. AFAICT, that won't work there, since it's not one of its menu items, but I might be mistaken—not an uncommon occurrence.

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Answer 10

Hamper Author

Level 1

39 points

Jul 10, 2009 6:33 PM in response to khassani

Hey thanks, now it works. It must have been the way it was written.

Thanks!

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Answer 11

khassani

Level 3

952 points

Jul 10, 2009 6:54 PM in response to baltwo

That is true. It is simply a shortcut for an existing function. If the application doesn't have that function, then it won't work for it.

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Answer 12

baltwo

Level 9

62,396 points

Jul 10, 2009 7:05 PM in response to khassani

That's what I thought, but Hamper wanted it to be global, which it isn't and why I posted. Anyway, apparently he's happy now, so I'll leave the topic.

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Answer 13

Hamper Author

Level 1

39 points

Jul 10, 2009 7:08 PM in response to baltwo

It works in GMail, which means I can forego that pesky extension in FF that wouldn't work past v1.5, pus its going to be useful for other apps

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Answer 14

Jul 23, 2009 11:08 AM in response to Hamper

I, too, misunderstood the tip, but would like to know if there is something to get around a common annoyance that I encounter: I copy some text, usually from a web page or an email, then paste it into a blank Word (2004) document. I would love for the lines to break according to my page margins, but it carries the old formatting--usually coming out very narrow on the page, or else breaking with a few words left over to the next line.
Two questions:
1. Is there a way to easily make this pasted text conform to the formatting on my Word document?

and
2. Is there a way to make copied tables from the web maintain their formatting in my Word document?

Thanks!

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Answer 15

Aug 15, 2009 1:57 PM in response to Hamper

There is also a neat little application called Plain Clip that will convert any clipboard text into unformatted text.

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