Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Pasting Clean Text.

Pasting Clean Text

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 14, 2025)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


1

I paste a lot of text. (I mean a LOT of text.) When I am copying and pasting text within the same document, it is no problem. When I am copying text from other places, however, pasting that text into a Word document can have strange effects. This isn't a Word problem; it is something about the text I am copying and pasting that causes funky appearance of the text.

To get around this, I normally choose Edit | Paste Special and make sure that the text I am about to paste will be added to the document as unformatted text. Of course, since I paste so much text, continually choosing Edit | Paste Special can be bothersome.

The solution, for me, was to create a very short macro that does the pasting I want—as unformatted text. The following macro, PasteClean, does just that:

Sub PasteClean()
    Selection.PasteSpecial Link:=False, _
      DataType:=wdPasteText, _
      Placement:= wdInLine, _
      DisplayAsIcon:=False
End Sub

To make this macro an even more valuable editing tool, I assigned it to a custom tool on the toolbar. Now, when I want to paste a clean copy of what text is in the Clipboard, I simply click the tool and the macro does the rest.

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the WordTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1310) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Pasting Clean Text.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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What is eight more than 9?

2025-06-15 15:48:11

Steve Wells

I apologize in advance for this dealing mainly with pasting clean content into Outlook emails. Outlook used Word directly for email in Office 2003 and earlier. But just last week I was battling the problem of adapting a little Paste Clean macro for use in my Outlook 2019 emails. They use Word in an indirect approach.
So, if Allan wants to reject this for being the wrong app or post-2003, I understand. If he wants to take any or all of this to use elsewhere in Tips, with or without any credit to me, that’s fine, too. I’m just trying to help fellow users. It looks like it should be trivial to copy his code to modern Outlook and paste content into the email you are answering, but guess again. Thanks Microsoft. It requires a bunch of internal tie-ins to get it to work.

My routine follows. It must NOT be placed in the ThisOutlookSession module, rather into a new VBA module. I named mine: EditEmail. See important usage restrictions in my code comments. I attached this to a Quick Access Toolbar in an open email, where it sticks for future emails. (I have other routines that help in Outlook email messages’ QAT, so it does work.)
I have yet to implement a process to attach it to an _effective_ keyboard shortcut. Outlook doesn’t auto-load such shortcuts. It isn’t really a shortcut if, instead of clicking a toolbar button, you must explicitly load an activation routine to use it in an email or a reply/forward. Again, thanks Microsoft. Among many reasons I liked Word 2003.

Sub PasteUnformattedInOutlook()
' Paste unformatted text into an Outlook email message.

' Updated 2025/6/8 by Steve Wells. This is modified from code written for Word
' with additional structural elements provided by ChatGPT for use in Outlook.
' This requires that email composition/editing takes place in its own window
' separate from the email reading pane. The message must be formatted as HTML
' and be popped out for a Reply or Forward. A new email is already popped out.

' This captures the text content of the clipboard, stripping out any of: text
' formatting, images, charts, OLE, and any other non-text content. It pastes
' the resulting unformatted text at the current cursor location.

Dim mail As Outlook.MailItem
Dim insp As Outlook.Inspector
Dim wordDoc As Object ' Word.Document
Dim sel As Object ' Word.Selection

' Get the current email reply
Set insp = Application.ActiveInspector
If insp Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
If insp.CurrentItem.Class <> olMail Then Exit Sub
Set mail = insp.CurrentItem

' Ensure email is using HTML format
If mail.BodyFormat <> olFormatHTML Then
MsgBox "This requires that you set this mail to HTML format.", vbExclamation
Exit Sub
End If

' Get the Word editor and selection
Set wordDoc = insp.WordEditor
Set sel = wordDoc.Application.Selection

' Paste the clipboard as plain text (strips formatting and objects)
On Error GoTo PasteError
sel.PasteSpecial DataType:=2 ' wdFormatText
Exit Sub

PasteError:
MsgBox "The clipboard does not contain valid text content.", vbExclamation
End Sub


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