Forum Discussion
iblg
May 14, 2024Copper Contributor
Text will not copy from other programs to word (Mac)
I have recently encountered a problem with copying and pasting to and from Word.
Copying text into Word:
Text from other programs (including Firefox, Chrome, TextEdit, Notes, and Excel) will not paste into Microsoft Word.
Instead, what pastes when I hit Command+v (or right click and select "Paste") is the last text that I copied from a Microsoft Word document.
Interestingly, pasting without formatting works as expected.
Copying from Word into other programs:
At some point, I copied the following text in a Microsoft Word document:
The recent review of Edwards et al., (DOI: ...)
Now, whenever I try to copy (some other) text from Microsoft Word and paste it into Google Docs or Google Sheets, what pastes is the above text. If I attempt to paste the text into the body of an email in Gmail, the above text ("The recent review...") is what appears. Interestingly, if I paste the text into the To: or Subject: lines of the email, pasting works as expected. I can also paste into the url bar in browsers without issue.
Again, pasting without formatting is working as expected.
Text from other programs (TextEdit, Notes) copies and pastes into Google products as expected.
This issue began for me about a week ago. Any advice would be helpful.
Edit: I am running Mac OS 13.6.6 (Ventura). My computer has an Intel chip. This issue is present in Google Products on both Firefox 125.0.3 and Chrome 124.0.6367.119. My current Microsoft Word is 16.78.3.
- Charles_KenyonBronze Contributor
Hi,
You posted the converse situation where Word is not allowing you to paste from other programs. Here is that question
These two should really be combined.
I am not on a Mac.
I recommend editing the title of your questions to include that it is Word for the Mac.
Can you also include in your questions the name of your Operating System as well as the number.
This may be a problem with what Google is doing with material from the Word clipboard.
That you can paste plain text is a clue that may help in getting a resolution.
- JPDemersCopper Contributor
Hi there-
I've been having the same problem (Office for Mac 2019, under Sequoia OS). Word by default is only pasting text previously copied from another Word document, unless I specify that I want text only, in which case I do get the most recently-copied text that I'm trying to paste in.
Doesn't matter where the text I want to paste was copied from (Browser, email, pdf, etc.) It's as if there are two clipboards in use, one of which is specific to docx source files, and that's the one Word is pasting from by default.
Did you ever resolve this? I turned off "smart cut and paste" but that had no effect.
- iblgCopper Contributor
Charles_KenyonThank you for your time and attention. Indeed, I didn't see the first post go up, so I posted a second time. I have removed the other post.