Whenever you paste text, images, or tables into a Microsoft Word document, a small icon shaped like a clipboard instantly appears at the end of the pasted content. This is the “Paste Options” button, designed to let you quickly change whether the pasted text keeps its original formatting, merges with the destination formatting, or pastes as plain text. While occasionally useful, many users already know the keyboard shortcuts for these paste types, making this hovering clipboard an annoying visual distraction that frequently obscures the text you just pasted. If you find it intrusive, you can completely hide it.
How to Hide the Paste Options Button
You can turn off this hovering button directly within Word’s Advanced settings menu.
- Open Microsoft Word.
- Click on the File tab located in the top-left corner of the window.
- Look at the very bottom of the left-hand blue sidebar and click on Options. (You may need to click ‘More…’ first to reveal Options).
- The “Word Options” dialogue box will appear. In the left-hand menu pane, click on Advanced.
- Scroll down the list of settings until you locate the section titled Cut, copy, and paste.
- Look for the checkbox labelled Show Paste Options button when content is pasted.
- Click this checkbox to uncheck it.
- Click the OK button at the bottom right of the window to save your changes.
From now on, whenever you paste content into your documents, the text will appear cleanly without the hovering clipboard icon. If you ever need to paste as plain text without the button, simply remember to use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + V.