How to Create a Custom Keyboard Shortcut to Paste Unformatted Text in Microsoft Word

One of the most common frustrations when working in Microsoft Word is pasting text from a website or another document, only to find that it brings along all its original formatting. Suddenly, your clean document is ruined by giant blue headings, weird background highlights, and mismatched fonts.

To avoid this, you likely use the “Paste Special” menu or click the tiny clipboard icon that appears after pasting to select “Keep Text Only.” While this works, doing it dozens of times a day is incredibly tedious. A much faster approach is to map the “Paste Text Only” command to a custom keyboard shortcut, completely replacing the standard Ctrl+V (or Cmd+V on a Mac) behaviour.

This guide explains how to create a custom keyboard shortcut to always paste unformatted text in Microsoft Word.

Method 1: Change the Default Paste Settings (Windows & Mac)

Before diving into custom keyboard shortcuts, you should know that you can actually instruct Word to automatically paste unformatted text every single time you use the standard Ctrl+V shortcut. This is the best option if you almost never want to preserve formatting.

1. Open Microsoft Word.
2. On Windows: Click File > Options. Click Advanced in the left sidebar.
   On Mac: Click Word > Settings (or Preferences) in the top menu bar, then click Edit.
3. Scroll down to the Cut, copy, and paste section.
4. You will see a series of dropdown menus for different pasting scenarios (e.g., Pasting within the same document, Pasting between documents, Pasting from other programs).
5. Change the dropdown for Pasting from other programs to Keep Text Only.
6. Click OK.

Now, whenever you copy text from a web browser and press Ctrl+V, it will automatically strip the formatting.

Method 2: Assign a Dedicated Keyboard Shortcut (Windows)

If you want to preserve the standard Ctrl+V behavior for copying formatted tables or images between Word documents, but want a dedicated shortcut (like Ctrl+Shift+V) specifically for unformatted text, you must customise the ribbon.

1. Click File > Options.
2. Click Customize Ribbon in the left sidebar.
3. At the bottom of the left column, next to “Keyboard shortcuts:”, click the Customize… button.
4. In the “Categories” list on the left, scroll down and select All Commands.
5. In the “Commands” list on the right, scroll down and select PasteTextOnly.
6. Click inside the Press new shortcut key box.
7. Press the keyboard combination you want to use (e.g., Ctrl + Shift + V or Alt + V).
8. Look at the “Currently assigned to:” text below the box to ensure you are not overwriting an important shortcut.
9. Click the Assign button in the bottom left corner.
10. Click Close, then OK.

Method 3: Assign a Dedicated Keyboard Shortcut (Mac)

macOS handles custom keyboard shortcuts at the operating system level, rather than strictly inside the Microsoft Word application settings.

1. Open System Settings from the Apple menu ().
2. Click on Keyboard in the left sidebar.
3. Click the Keyboard Shortcuts… button.
4. In the left sidebar of the popup window, select App Shortcuts.
5. Click the + (plus) button to create a new shortcut.
6. In the “Application” dropdown, select Microsoft Word.
7. In the “Menu Title” box, type exactly: Paste and Match Formatting (this must exactly match the wording used in the Word Edit menu).
8. Click inside the “Keyboard Shortcut” box and press your desired combination (e.g., Command + Shift + V).
9. Click Done.

By taking a few minutes to configure this shortcut, you will save yourself countless hours of manually reformatting copied text in your documents.