pasting word text into mail produces formatting-type gibberish

Using OS 10.5.8, copying text from Word 2008 (v. 12.3.1) and pasting into Mail (v. 3.6 (936)) produces much formatting gibberish, such as:

where the copied text follows the "-->" above. I've tried all the usual things, like "Paste and Match Style" in Mail, but get the same results. Sometimes, I've even seen similar gibberish inserted into the quoted thread when replying to an email. I've replaced the mail prefs file, but that doesn't seem to do anything other than require one to completely reestablish all the mail account settings (Ugh).

Pasting the same text cpied from word into TextEdit appears normal, no extraneous gibberish. Same holds true with pasting into documents created/running under other apps.

This is a relatively new OS 10.5.8 install, complete with all software updates.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance of your suggestions.

Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Dec 23, 2011 4:10 PM

18 replies

Mountain Mac Author

Level 3

726 points

Dec 24, 2011 4:01 PM in response to BDAqua

BDAqua,

I don't recall even seeing "Paste and Match Style" in Mail in prior OS versions.

I always have had my preferences set to send Plain Text (all OSes). On the rare occassion that I need to convert to Rich Text, Mail prompts me for the OK.

I can't say what happens when I reply to or forwarded somebody elses email. But Mail does seem to act differently than before (OS 10.4 and earlier).

I was hoping that this was something that others experienced and that there was some preferrences or other setting in Mail (or even Word 2008) that I had somehow overlooked.

Your posts don't indicate what OS(es) you use. Perchance have you seen this in earlier OSes, or even OS 10.6?

Dec 24, 2011 4:03 PM in response to Mountain Mac

Currently I'm using Tiger. Don't use Apple Mail. I use Yahoo Mail.

 Cheers, Tom 😉

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Dec 24, 2011 4:21 PM in response to Mountain Mac

All OSes from 7.5.5 to 10.7.x, the Paste & Match style has been removed at least in 10.7.x, can't remember 10.6, but 10.4.11 has it, as well as Paste as Quotation & Paste as HTML.

I never use Word myself, though I do have a few versions of it... I guess I could crank it up & experiment, but without it being maybe the same version as yours it likely couldn't be trusted as working the same. 🙂

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

pasting word text into mail produces formatting-type gibberish