Speed up pasting in Word with scripts
[Although I use it a lot at work, I don't usually post Word tips on Hawk Wings. This one, though, is too good to pass up.]
If you do a lot of cutting and pasting from one document to another in Word (2004 and 2008) and want your pasting to adopt the style of the new document, you will know what a pain in the butt it is.
Word expects you to go to the Edit menu, choose Paste Special and then select Unformatted Text in the next dialog box and click OK.
I couldn’t count the number of hours I’ve spent doing this. I came to accept it as an Office for Mac user’s fate; something that just had to be endured.
Joe Kissell, senior editor at TidBITS, has the shortcut I wish I had discovered years ago. In a TidBITS post 
he provides the scripts needed to reduce this convoluted process to a single keystroke.
As he points out, I could have automated this with the macro-recorder in Word 2004. Never thought of that!
But Word 2008 has lost its scripting support for Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) and ,along with that, the ability to record macros.
Instead, in Word 2008 you will need to use AppleScript.
Joe provides the steps for setting up the macro in Word 2004 and the applescript Word 2008 users will need to get the same result.
He even unlocks the mysteries of the way a file called Paste Plain Text\smV.scpt is automatically bound to a keystroke shortcut.
Check out his article and other newsy posts and tips at TidBITS.
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Tags: Apple Mail Tips, Office for Mac, pasting, Productivity, scripts, tidbits, VBA, word 2004, word 2008
January 23rd, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Thank you! That’s a really helpfull hint.
January 24th, 2008 at 3:59 am
Similar functionality can be achieved by using Keyboard Maestro ($20). I’ve been using it for years for tasks like those described above and for more mundane routines.
With Keyboard Maestro installed, a macro for this and other repetitive tasks can quickly be set up and configured with a user-defined keyboard shortcut.
If you’re the type of user who prefers the keyboard whenever possible instead of the mouse/trackpad, which I am, you’re likely to find that Keyboard Maestro can be a very powerful and useful program for creating macros with keyboard shortcuts.
On a day-to-day basis, it allows me to access my frequently opened programs, folders, and scripts. Other times I configure it to assist me when I have a repetitive task to perform. For example, I recently used it to open Filemaker, open the Find dialog box, wait while I performed a search, copy a Filemaker field, switch to InDesign, paste the text, then apply formatting to the text. For me, activating that many actions with one keystroke is great.
As a launcher and customizable macro maker, I’ve found it to be $20 well spent. Depending on your needs, you may feel differently.
January 24th, 2008 at 10:34 am
copypaste allows you to paste without formatting.
http://www.scriptsoftware.com/copypaste
January 24th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
I accomplish the same thing (in any app, not just Word) by using CuteClips (http://www.briksoftware.com/products/cuteclips/beta/). I set the hotkey as Cmd-Opt-V, and set it to “always paste plain” in preferences. That way, if I want to paste with formatting, I paste the usual way with Cmd-V, and if I want to paste plain, I use Cmd-Opt-V.
January 27th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Great ideas! I could have used them last week while editing a 30-page translation of one of my docs.
February 28th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Tim,
Thanks’ for posting this very helpful article and making me aware of this script. It truly is a time saver.
Cheers,
J