When you copy text from a website or a PDF and paste it into Microsoft Word, the software utilizes a feature called “Keep Source Formatting” by default. This means Word automatically copies the font style, font color, and font size of the original website and aggressively injects it into your document.
If you are writing an essay in a standard 12-point Times New Roman font and you paste a quote from a webpage that was formatted in 24-point bold Arial, Word will completely destroy your document’s consistency by dropping the massive, bold text right into the middle of your paragraph. You are then forced to manually highlight the pasted text and painstakingly change the font size back to match the surrounding paragraph.
You can completely rewrite Word’s default pasting behavior, forcing it to instantly strip all incoming formatting and match the font size of your current document.
How to Stop Word from Changing Font Sizes on Paste
You must change the global Cut, Copy, and Paste defaults within Word Options.
- Open your document in Microsoft Word.
- Click on File in the top-left corner of the ribbon.
- Click on Options at the bottom of the left sidebar.
- In the Word Options window, select Advanced from the left-hand navigation pane.
- Scroll down the right pane until you reach the section labeled Cut, copy, and paste.
- Locate the dropdown menu labeled Pasting from other programs:.
- Click the dropdown and change the selection from “Keep Source Formatting” to Keep Text Only.
- (Optional) You should also change the Pasting between documents: dropdown to Keep Text Only.
- Click OK to save your changes.
From now on, whenever you press Ctrl+V, Microsoft Word will intercept the clipboard data, permanently delete the massive font sizes and weird colors from the source website, and paste the raw text using the exact font size and style of the paragraph you are currently typing in.