This doesn't happen a lot, but it happens enough to be annoying.



I copy a bulleted list from another program into a Word document. So far, so good.

I need to add a bullet point from a different list. So I copy that one paragraph, go to Word and try to paste it in. When I do this, I get the complete bulleted list pasted earlier, not the single paragraph.

I know Copy is working OK, because if I stay in the initial app and paste, I get the single paragraraph instead of the full list.

If I close the Word doc and reopen, paste functions normally.

Has anyone else run into this issue?

Well actually yes - but I'm not sure if it is in my head or real. I don't see it with bulleted lists specifically and it is more noticeable to me with the VBA editor being used in my experience.

In the last six months or so of living with Windows 11, I've noticed that there are times when the Ctrl-C command to copy doesn't actually do anything because when I go to paste, I get a previous clipboard item or nothing at all. I end up questioning myself and wondering if my keystroke was not firm enough, or I toggled windows too fast after copying.

Sometimes, going back and repeating slowly doesn't solve the problem and I end up needing to right click to choose Copy via the annoying image rather than the more obvious words we used to see.

It could just be because I'm getting old and jaded but my impression of the current versions of Windows and Office is that they are less robust and user friendly than earlier versions.

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Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia

See, I know that the text is being copied correectly--it pastes into other applications fine. It's only Word that is using the previously copied text.

Your experience implies there is an interplay between Windows clipboard and the Office clipboard which is not syncing.

Does this video help at all? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juQUnxxYBmo

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Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia

After you have pasted the resulting text into Word, do you see paragraph marks (¶) or line breaks ("bent" arrows) separating the items?

Does it make a difference if you paste as "Unformatted Text" instead? Doing that would add the content but not the bullet format.

If you want to, you can share a sample document with the forum, so that we can have a closer look.

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Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Update: Still don't have a definitive cause, but I'm pretty sure the problem is with Offices's paste function--more specifically, the (relatively) new version that stores multiple items in the clipboard.

I can't replicate consistently, but it appears that sometimes, when you already have a lot of items in the clipboard, and then attempt to copy text from a non-Office app into Word, Word gets stuck on the previously copied item.

Stephan, regarding your questions:

1. Doesn't matter if you do straight paste or text only.

2. Has only happened (so far) when copying text from outside of Office.

3. If you have the clipboard open when you copy, the newly copied text does appear in the clipboard.

Guessed, regarding your suggestion: I checked, and Windows did not have the multiple items in clipboard enabled. I have enabled it, and will do some additional testing tomorrow.

Thanks for all your input!

Thanks for the follow-up.

Since you suspect that the Office clipboard could be part of the problem, try turning it off for a while.

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Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional