Tips and Tales
How to Paste Stuff the Way YOU Want in Microsoft® Word 2007
How many times have you pasted text into your Word document only to find that it doesn't display the way you want it to? Don't even get us started on bulleted lists! We admit, we've crossed our fingers a few times when we've pressed Ctrl + V.
Word 2007 (and Word 2003) actually give you a lot of control over how text and graphics are pasted. The secret lies with the Paste Options button ( ). This handy little gizmo should appear when you paste something in a document. If it doesn't, do one of the following to turn it on:
- In Word 2007, click the Office Button and select Word Options > Advanced. Scroll to the Cut, Copy, and Paste section and select the Show Paste Options Buttons check box.
- In Word 2003, select Tools > Options and click the Edit tab. In the Cut and Paste Options section, select the Show Paste Options Buttons check box.
The Paste Options button provides several selections, some of which appear only under certain conditions. Here's how to figure out which option to use:
Keep Source Formatting: select to preserve the look of the source text (i.e., the text you are pasting) after it is pasted. Make sure to include the paragraph mark (¶) when you copy or cut the source text. The ¶ holds the formatting information for each paragraph, such as font face and size, indentation, and line spacing. (If you don't see ¶ in your document, turn on Show Paragraphs).
Here's the part that might have you scratching your head--even though the source formatting is retained, the source style name is not. All pasted content will be in Normal style in its new location, regardless of what the style was originally. This is not necessarily a good thing...
Use Destination Styles: select to apply the style of the paragraph where you are pasting the information. This option is available if the style name in both the source and destination documents is the same.
Keep Text Only: select to remove all original formatting (including additional formatting not included in a style like bold or italics). A few things to keep in mind when using this option:
- Graphics will not paste into the destination document. Use either Keep Source Formatting or Match Destination Formatting if the selection to be pasted includes graphics.
- Table contents will be converted to tabbed paragraphs. Use either Keep Source Formatting or Match Destination Formatting to keep table content intact.
- This option may or may not retain list bullets or numbers. In Word 2007, you can retain them when using this option by going to Office Button > Word Options > Advanced. Under Cut, Copy, and Paste, select Keep Bullets and Numbers When Pasting Text With Keep Text Only Option.
Match Destination Formatting (Word 2007): select to apply to the pasted content the style of the paragraph where you are pasting the information. This option will retain any additional formatting (bold, italics, etc.) of the source content not included in the source style.
Apply Style or Formatting (Word 2003): select to open the Styles Pane and select the style to apply to the pasted text.
Set Default Paste (Word 2007): select to open Office Button > Advanced and set your default Cut, Copy, and Paste options.
You can always overrule these defaults by selecting a different option on the Paste Options button.
When pasting list items in Word 2007, the Paste Options button offers some additional choices:
Continue List: select to continue list numbering from whatever number or letter precedes the pasted content.
Paste as a New List: select to restart numbering or lettering of the pasted content.
Merge With Existing List: select to paste a bulleted list into a numbered list, replacing the bullets with numbers (and vice versa).
Paste List Without Merging: select to paste a bulleted list into a numbered list, retaining the bullets (and vice versa). You may need to restart the numbering (right-click in the list and select Restart at 1).
Ideas?
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