Help me hate MS Word less

November 22, 2005 5:44 PM

Does anyone know a good resource -- better than Microsoft itself -- for easily finding how to turn off specific "features" of Microsoft Word?

Specifically, I'd like to default my copy/paste options to unformatted text, but honestly, not a day goes by with that program when I don't discover something I want it to stop doing. And it usually takes me far to long to find out how to stop it. (I use the 2002 version of word, for Windows, if that matters.)
Also, just because I anticipate it coming: recommendations for alternative word processing programs really don't help answer this specific question, even if you're right about program X being better (and you probably are).

posted by .kobayashi. to Computers & Internet (12 answers total)

Best answer: I know it sounds bizarre, but you can create a macro that will do this, so that every time you hit CTRL-V the text will paste unformatted. You can also choose "paste special" from the menu and then choose some version of text only, but that's a pain in the ass. I've been teaching basic Word classes and I find that Google is the fastest way for me to solve most of my Word problems. Chances are if you are annoyed by something Word does, hundreds of other people have posted about it on their sites already and the Microsoft web site is sometimes useful [unlike Word help which sort of sucks]
posted by jessamyn at 5:55 PM on November 22, 2005

Best answer: Microsoft's own Word site is suprising useful. They have, for example, these instructions on creating a macro to paste unformatted text. There's also this book, which is supposed to be helpful, although I've not read it.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 6:01 PM on November 22, 2005

Best answer: Lifehacker posts some really good MS Office tips. If you browse through those I know a few of them focus on turning off annoying features.
posted by deafweatherman at 6:08 PM on November 22, 2005

As to that specific problem -- not the general one -- try Clipmate, available in a trial version here: http://www.thornsoft.com/index.htm.
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 6:13 PM on November 22, 2005

Best answer: annoyances.org
posted by intermod at 8:17 PM on November 22, 2005

http://word.mvps.org/
posted by crunchburger at 9:05 PM on November 22, 2005

hmm
posted by crunchburger at 9:05 PM on November 22, 2005

Another option I use is Hovtext. To quote, "HovText is a small freeware and open source Windows application that removes any formatting from the clipboard and it also works as a simple clipboard manager." Check it out at http://hovklan.com/hovtext/
posted by vac2003 at 10:39 PM on November 22, 2005

OMG... Thank you for posting this! This has been one of my biggest pet peeves for AGES!
posted by antifuse at 2:25 AM on November 23, 2005

The past unformatted text thing is a pain. Have you thought about using a different (but very MS Word-ish) word processor without all the bells and whistles? I've found AbiWord to be faster, lighter, and full featured (but without all the excess baggage of MS Word). Its default past format is plain text, as it should be. And it reads and writes Word's .doc format. It's also free and open source.
posted by wheat at 6:31 AM on November 23, 2005

I thought I was reading my own question that I must have written in my sleep when I stumbled to this thread. Finally some relief.
posted by gfroese at 1:16 PM on November 23, 2005

Response by poster: I wanted to follow-up on this thread to say that I didn't do anything with this for a while, because my computer skills are so-so at best, and somehow I feared creating a macro. But the link that jessamyn provided above is really thorough and foolproof. I got through it, no problems, and life with Word has been easier since. Thanks!
posted by .kobayashi. at 11:58 AM on April 5, 2006