Pasting without Formatting?

[mcs37]

Dealing with the web a lot (as we do nowadays), every time I want to copy/paste something, I usually do this workflow to remove formatting:

1. Copy
2a. If single-line, paste into Safari search bar, OR into Chrome URL bar, then copy that
2b. If multi-line, fire up a terminal, type vi, hit i, paste, then copy that
3. Paste into target

Is there a command to simply paste unformatted that I'm not aware of? I see this "paste and match style" thing but it doesn't seem to be doing what I want, which is remove all formatting and just paste the text.

Thanks!

 

[GGJstudios]

You can also paste to TextEdit, then Format > Make Plain Text
If you're pasting somewhere where there is no formatting and you use Paste and Match Style, what you paste will have no formatting, either.

 

[Makosuke]

You didn't say what app you were trying to paste into; many have a specific Paste option for what you want to do.

Most Cocoa apps by default have the "Paste and Match Style" (command-shift-option-V) menu option that GGJstudios mentioned. Text Edit, for example. That will generally do what you want, which is get unstyled text into whatever you're pasting into.

Word and other Office apps have their own method (of course): "Paste Special..." (for which there is of course no keyboard shortcut) and then select "unformatted text."

Though I admit, sometimes when I want to be absolutely sure to strip everything I do the same copy-paste-copy-paste dance you describe, using TextWrangler as the intermediary location to strip formatting (since it's a bare text editor and allows no styling at all).