
How to paste unformatted text in Writer (LibreOffice) using Ctrl+V
April 9, 2024
By default, the Writer text editor in LibreOffice recognizes different clipboard contents depending on the program you copied the text from.
For example, if you copied a fragment from a site (web page), then in addition to the always present “Unformatted text” option, there will also be the insertion option “HyperText Markup Language (HTML)”.
If you copied a fragment from LibreOffice, you will be presented with:
- LibreOffice Text Document
- Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE link)
- HyperText Markup Language (HTML)
- Rich text formatting (RTF)
- Rich text formatting (Richtext)
- Unformatted text
If you copied a fragment from MS Word, then among the paste options you will find:
- Microsoft Word Document
- HyperText Markup Language (HTML)
- Rich text formatting (RTF)
- Graphics Device Interface (GDI) Metafile
For pictures from web pages:
- HyperText Markup Language (HTML)
- Bitmap Image (BMP)
You won’t find such flexibility of insertion and richness of choice even in Word.
But the fact of life is that most users usually only need to paste text without any formatting. But pressing Ctrl+v in LibreOffice pastes the formatted text. If you only need text without decoration, then you have to click the “Insert” button and select the “Unformatted text” option. This is inconvenient if used frequently.
How to set the “Unformatted text” insert as the default insert
By default, there is no action configured for the Ctrl+v key combination in LibreOffice. But when you press Ctrl+v, Writer selects one of the options. If we assign this keyboard shortcut to “Paste Unformatted Text”, then pasting text without formatting will be faster.
To do this, go to the menu “Tools” → “Customize”.
Go to the “Keyboard” tab and find the Ctrl+V key combination. Make sure there is no action assigned to it.
Below in the same window, find “Edit” → “Paste Unformatted Text”. Click the “Assign” button.
Now the “Ctrl+V” combination will appear in the “Keys” group.
Thanks to this, now every time you press Ctrl+v, text will be pasted without formatting.
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