How to Paste Special in Microsoft Word
If you have ever tried copying and pasting to another document or application in which the formatting is different, you may have found yourself with mismatched text. You can use paste special to make the task of pasting text go more smoothly by choosing which formatting you want to keep (source or destination) or stripping the text of any formatting at all.
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Instructions
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Start Microsoft Word and open an existing file or start a new document.
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Copy the text you want to paste from another Word file or other application.
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Place your cursor in your open Word document where you want to paste the copied text.
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Right-click and choose "Paste" from the shortcut menu. You can also use the keyboard shortcut of CTRL+V to paste the text into the new location. After you paste, a clipboard will appear at the end of the pasted text.
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Hover your mouse over the clipboard until an arrow appears to the right of the clipboard.
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Click on the clipboard arrow to show a drop-down menu. These are your paste special options.
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Choose "Keep Source Formatting" to keep the formatting that was in the original document. "Match Destination Formatting" matches the formatting of the pasted text to the surrounding formatting within the document to which you are pasting. "Keep Text Only" pastes the text you have copied while ignoring any type of formatting.
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