how do I change default for paste to paste plain text not rtf?

[Simeon]

When I do copy and paste (e.g. ctrl+c followed by ctrl+v it automatically
keeps the formatting (eg font, line-spacing etc.) of the copied bit, whereas
I almost always would prefer to lose the old formatting and insert the copied
text as plain text. To do this I have to do "paste special" and then "insert
as text" which is a pain. Can I change the default somehow so that it
normally inserts the copied bit as text and only keeps the formatting if I go
to paste special, etc.? Thanks for any help p.s. I am now using Office 2003
but I had the same problem in my previous version.

 

[Echo S]

Unfortunately, you cannot change the default paste action in Office
applications.

If you have "Paste Options buttons" turned on in Tools/Options, when you
paste you will see a little icon appear. Click on it, and you should have
some paste options, one of which is usually plain text.

 

[Gary Smith]

You can create a macro that pastes the unformatted text and assign it to
Crtl-V, but you'd have to do that in each application where you need it.
Another approach is to use this small free program, which supplies a
plain-text paste function to all applications.

http://stevemiller.net/puretext/