How to paste without formatting on Mac

Copy from a web page, paste into an email, and get someone else’s font, size and colour. Paste just the words.

Short answer

Many Mac apps have ⌥⇧⌘V “Paste and Match Style”, but not all. MacFixes makes a plain-text paste shortcut that works everywhere.

What macOS gives you

Edit → Paste and Match Style (⌥⇧⌘V) pastes text in the style of where you paste it, in many Apple and other apps. Apps that don’t include it — and some that use a different shortcut — leave you pasting formatting you didn’t want.

How MacFixes fixes it

  1. 1
    Add the fix
    Open MacFixes Settings → Clipboard and add “Paste as plain text”. Fixes are off until you add them.
  2. 2
    Allow Accessibility
    macOS asks for Accessibility permission so MacFixes can paste for you.
  3. 3
    Press ⌥⇧⌘V
    That’s the default, matching the macOS shortcut, so it now works in every app. You can change it.
This is one of 28 fixes in MacFixes.
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Questions

Does it change what I copied?

No. After pasting it puts your original clipboard back (on by default).

More fixes macOS doesn’t give you

See your clipboard history›Remove tracking from links you copy›Cut and paste files›