When you copy a paragraph of text from a website, an email, or another document, and paste it into Microsoft Word using Ctrl+V, Word’s default behavior is to try and match the formatting of your current document. It will automatically strip away the original fonts, colors, and sizes, and aggressively apply your document’s default “Normal” style to the pasted text.
While this is great for keeping a document looking consistent, it is incredibly frustrating if you are copying a meticulously formatted block of code, a colorful data table, or specific legal text where the original bolding and font choices are absolutely critical to the meaning of the text.
Instead of manually clicking the “Keep Source Formatting” clipboard icon every single time you paste, you can permanently change Word’s default pasting behavior.
How to Default to “Keep Source Formatting”
You can change the global paste rules deep within the Word Options menu.
- 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 find the section labeled Cut, copy, and paste.
- You will see several drop-down menus for different pasting scenarios:
- Pasting within the same document
- Pasting between documents
- Pasting from other programs
- For any scenario where you want to preserve the original look, click the drop-down menu and change it from “Merge Formatting” or “Keep Text Only” to Keep Source Formatting.
- Click OK to save your changes.
From now on, whenever you press Ctrl+V, Microsoft Word will immediately respect the original styling of the copied text. The colors, fonts, and bolding will remain perfectly intact, saving you from having to use the little paste options popup menu.