Whenever you paste text from the internet or another document into Microsoft Word, a small, floating clipboard icon appears at the end of the pasted text. This is the “Paste Options” button. It hovers over your document, waiting for you to click it so you can choose whether to keep the source formatting, merge the formatting, or keep text only.
While this is useful for users who constantly switch between different formatting styles, it is a massive annoyance for heavy typists. The floating button visually obscures the text directly beneath it, making it difficult to read or edit the line you just pasted. If you already know how you want your text formatted—or if you rely on keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl + Shift + V to paste plain text anyway—this hovering button is completely useless. You can easily disable it to keep your document clean.
Disabling the Floating Paste Options Button
You can turn off this intrusive UI element by digging into Word’s advanced options menu.
- Open the Microsoft Word desktop application.
- Look at the main menu ribbon at the top of the screen and click on File (in the top-left corner).
- Scroll all the way down the blue sidebar on the left and click on Options (usually the very last item).
- A new “Word Options” window will appear. In the left-hand menu of this window, click on Advanced.
- Scroll down the main panel until you find a large section labelled Cut, copy, and paste (usually the second or third section down).
- Look through the list of checkboxes in this section for the setting labelled Show Paste Options button when content is pasted.
- Click the checkbox to uncheck it.
- Click the OK button at the bottom of the window to save your changes.
From this point forward, when you paste text into your document, it will simply appear. The intrusive floating clipboard icon will never show up again, allowing you to instantly resume typing or reading without visual obstruction.