Have you ever copied some text from a web page or a document and then wanted to paste it as simple text into another application without getting all the formatting from the original source? It can be a problem. Simple copying-and-pasting of formatted text often inserts extra “garbage characters” into the output. In fact, there is a simple solution. Simple, that is, if you know about it.

The problem arises when copying and pasting formatted text from one application to another. It doesn’t always work as you’d expect. For instance, you might copy a few lines from a web page and then want to paste it to Facebook. Surprise! All sorts of “unwanted characters” may appear. The same might happen if you are copying text from a word processing document or from a PDF file and you wish to paste it into an email message.

The unwanted characters typically are formatting commands built into the originating program. The problem is that not all programs use the same formatting commands. For example, what might be a command to “use bold text” in one program could insert curly braces {} into the receiving program.

If you search online, you will find a number of programs that will strip out formatting commands from text. One popular program for Windows users is called PureText and can be found at http://www.stevemiller.net/puretext. While somewhat simple to use, I would suggest that even this program is unnecessary. There is a simpler solution that works well on all operating systems. You probably already have everything you need installed on your computer right now.

All you need is a super dumb ASCII text editor. In this case, the dumber, the better. If your present text editor has commands to use bold, italics, underline, or various fonts, it isn’t dumb enough. A “dumb” ASCII text editor doesn’t know what formatting commands are, so it ignores all formatting and automatically strips out any formatting commands in the text. Once the text has been “sanitized” with the extra characters stripped out, it can safely be copied-and-pasted elsewhere.

Whether or not you realize it, you probably already have a super-dumb ASCII text editor installed in your computer.

Windows

The dumbest ASCII text editor I have ever seen is Windows Notepad. In this case, that’s a good thing. We want it to be unintelligent and unable to add any new commands. There are dozens of ASCII text editors available for Windows, but Notepad is my favorite when stripping out unwanted stuff. Notepad is already installed on every Windows computer.

For the rest of this article, I suggest Windows users should be using Windows Notepad as their “text sanitizer.”

Macintosh

Macintosh systems contain more editing and formatting tools than do Windows systems. In this case, that is a bad thing. Every Macintosh system built in recent years has TextEdit included at no extra cost. TextEdit can be used to strip out formatting, especially if you avoid Styles and other commands. However, it isn’t a true “dumb” text editor as it has some intelligence. You can use TextEdit to strip out formatting, but I suspect you will find it to be a frustrating exercise. There are better tools available.

My favorite Macintosh dumb ASCII text editor is TextWrangler. To be sure, this sophisticated program has a lot of features, but text formatting isn’t one of them! If you switch to TextWrangler, I bet you will never go back to TextEdit.

TextWrangler is a free program that can be downloaded from the Apple App Store or from Bare Bones Software at http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler.

For the remainder of this article, everything I write applies equally to Windows NotePad and to TextWrangler on a Macintosh. You can find other simple text editors for Windows or for Macintosh, but the two I mentioned are simple to use, free, and work well for me.

All Operating Systems

First, find the text you wish to copy. Highlight that text, and then use Control-C to copy that text to the operating system’s Clipboard (Mac owners will use Command-C).

Switch to NotePad or to TextWrangler.

Paste your text into the text editor by using Control-V (Mac owners will use Command-V).

Note that the text you want has been pasted into NotePad/TextWrangler without formatting. You have already achieved the goal!

Next, in NotePad or TextWrangler, highlight the text again, and copy it to the Clipboard by using Control-C again (Mac owners will use Command-C).

Now switch to the program where you want to use the final text, and place your cursor into the desired place of insertion. Then press Control-V (Mac owners will use Command-V). Your text, without formatting, is now inserted into the final place you want. You are done.

Simple, eh?

Here are a few other notes:

1. If you wish to copy EVERYTHING on a page, use Control-A (Mac owners will use Command-A) to highlight ALL text, then use Control-C/Command-C.

2. You can also use the pulldown menus in most programs to do the same thing. In the menus, click on EDIT and then on CUT, COPY, SELECT ALL, or PASTE, as needed.

3. However, I would suggest it is easier and much faster to simply memorize the keyboard shortcuts: X to cut, C to copy, V to paste, and A to select “All.”

You don’t need any fancy programs to strip out formatting. You already have everything you need.

“Programs? We don’t need no stinking programs! We’ve got dumb editors!”

What does this have to do with bypassing Plagarism ?

Yawns...

Another typical copy qnd paste am sure the op self no understand...

Simply DISABLE "Java script enabled" on your browser before going to the Web page can make you copy and paste with same text format instead of this thesis