SOFTWARE ARTICLES

Formatting Driving You Nuts? Fix it with Notepad!

How many times do you copy normal-looking text from one application, and when you paste it into another, the formatting gets funky? It happens to me a lot in Outlook, when copying part of an e-mail message and pasting it into a contact item or appointment item. Or copying from almost anywhere and pasting into an e-mail.

If you're pasting into a sophisticated application like Word, there's an easy way to let the text pick up the destination's formatting. Either choose it from the SmartTag that pops up (in Word 2002 and 2003), or do it by selecting Edit/Paste Special.

But what if you're pasting text into a window (like Outlook, as we said before) where you don't have that option? It's good, old-fashioned Notepad to the rescue. Here's all you gotta do:

1. Select some text, then copy (Ctrl + C).
2. Start Notepad ( + R, type notepad, press Enter).
3. Paste the text. (Ctrl + V).
4. Either leave the text selected, or select it again (Ctrl + A to select all), then copy again (Ctrl + C).
5. Switch to the program or window where you want the text to go, then paste (Ctrl + V). The text will pick up the formatting that's already there.

The reason this works is that Notepad handles only text; it has no capability to apply formatting. When you paste into it, the formatting gets stripped out (if you paste text that has graphics mixed in, it will strip out the graphics, too). When you paste into your second program (Outlook calendar, for example), it goes in as default text, with default formatting.