Why is there a background on text pasted into Stickies?

Sorry, I should have realized this early, and I was not paying due attention to the previous posts.

In the Finder, do Edit->Show Clipboard and notice what is written at the bottom: in some cases it says

Clipboard Contents: rich text (RTF)

In other cases, it says

Clipboard Contents: text

So if the source is rich text, it will include whatever format there is.

The solution, though, is easy.

Use Paste and Match Style (the shortcut is Command-Shift-Option-V).

shilohspider wrote:

I'm taking notes from e-mails and making them as Stickies, like reference cards. But when I copy & paste from an e-mail or webpage into a Stickies window, it gives the text a highlight of white that I cannot remove.

I've seen other people post "oh just paste it into a Word doc, Text Edit, etc then copy/paste it into your Stickies". No, I should be able to copy & paste into Stickies without an extra step in a different application that I may or may not have (or want to pay for like Word). If I wanted to make something in Text Edit, Notes, or Word in the first place, I would have. But I want a Stickie note.

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/f3880deb-c434-42fa-ac67-d37b115c3665

You can try pasting to a plain.txt file first then copy and paste with the formatting stripped out.

Change preferences in TextEdit on Mac - Apple Support

TextEdit User Guide for Mac - Apple Support

The Notes.app has replaced the Stickies.app for the most part—with the benefit of sync across devices

Notes User Guide for Mac - Apple Support

you can submit your Apple Feedback Product Feedback - Apple

shilohspider wrote:

And when I convert it to Plain Text, it's removed.

This is a step I should not have to do, period.

Yes plain .txt as I indicated above... the point is you have to strip out the formatting.

You can set the Textedit .app to open in plain txt by default. This is how I always have it set.

It easy to use the key board short cut to change it to rich text on the fly , if needed.

Change preferences in TextEdit on Mac - Apple Support

You can you can submit your Apple Feedback http://www.apple.com/feedback 

I don't use Stickies, but I opened it, copied and pasted your post above. I do NOT see the behavior that you are describing.

Try restarting in Safe Mode. Does it show the same problem?

Restart normally. Are things back to normal, or does the problem recur?

You mean in the web interface for gmail? I tried this now and still do not get any background when I paste into Stickies.