M.soft chat is down at the moment and I have been waiting hours for a call; I wonder if anyone here can help.

In other programmes Ctrl/Shift V will past data into a document without retaining the formatting; I cannot set this as a default in word. It should be possible, but whatever I do with the advanced Cut and Paste options (i.e. changing to Keep Text Only in any of the options (or indeed Merge Text) the original formatting is retained.

The ONLY way (and I really have tried all possible combinations) is to use the Paste button and choose Keep Text Only option. But why can this not be set as a default (The instructions say it can.)

I may be doing something foolish and would appreciate any help

File > Options > Advanced

Thank you.

Yes, I have tried that setting but still get the original formatting coming through.

Which setting?
There are different settings for different sources. I showed you my settings which are to retain formatting except when pasting from an external program source (web page).

Where are you getting the text you are pasting?

Thanks for coming back to me.

First of all, I was wrong; I thought I had copied your settings exactly but now note that you have "show paste options button when content is pasted" checked. On mine it was not and, when I check it, find I can copy from the web or other documents and the formatting rules stipulated will be obeyed.

Not sure why this is - so much of Word is a mystery to me, but I am now out of the hole, and very grateful for your help.

(Still maintain that Ctrl-Shift V works well and am surprised that Microsoft do not use it.)

There is no standard for Ctrl-Shift-V; in some programs it's a shortcut for pasting with formatting.

In Word, if you've copied formatted content, Ctrl-Alt-V gives you the choice of paste format.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]