This solution seems to only work in certain places. For example, it's not working in MS Word. Also, why is it "shift command V" in some places and "shift option command V" in others?
MS Office doesn't even follow MS Office norms across MS Office applications. Ctrl-Shift-V only works in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. It isn't in Outlook and OneNote.
People seem to be under the impression that Ctrl-Shift-V is a Windows feature, when in reality it is part of three specific applications and then the wild-west everywhere else.
My point being: I'm unsurprised MS gets the MacOS norms wrong when they cannot even get it right on Windows.
The overall Windows ecosystem is so inconsistent that I have trouble faulting any individual application for not following "norms", because they can barely even be called norms.
(Don't get me wrong, macOS is slowly getting there too, it gets worse every year.)
So I solved this issue using a brute force manner a few years ago using aText (but any text substitution software should work, including Keyboard Maestro).
When I type the characters 'zv' it substitutes for the clipboard. This gets around any smartness with formatted text and apps trying to be clever. I also chose zv because the substring is unlikely to appear naturally when being typed anywhere. (I prefix most of my substitutions with jj but wanted as few characters for this as possible).
I also use Keyboard Maestro to get around apps and websites that block pasting (like password validation fields).
Macros:
- type from clipboard: instead of pasting, it simulates each character as a keystroke
- insert then type: same thing but shows a text input window
- insert then type (50ms/200ms): same thing, but also simulates latency in case certain apps can't handle unthrottled keyboard input (found this when typing into remote terminals sometimes for whatever reason)
Also check out Pasteboard Viewer.app to see what the MacOS pasteboard actually contains (it can contain text and formatted text and images and lets the app choose what to paste, which can be very confusing).
Amazes me how many hacks like this are required just to use a computer the way I want.
I think those vary by version. For example, Word for Mac 2019 has “Merge formatting when pasting from PowerPoint” and “Adjust formatting when pasting from Excel” checkboxes. Don’t ask me what the difference between “Merge” and “Adjust” is.
> Also, why is it "shift command V" in some places and "shift option command V" in others?
It’s a relatively late addition to ‘standard’ commands. I guess the search for an unused combo that’s reasonably logical led to different results in different applications.
I encountered this recently. I tried what was suggested in the link and it didn’t work when I pasted into my browser (pasting into Protonmail). The core ”issue” is the copy action puts the formatted version into the pasteboard (as well as the plain version) and the app can choose to retain the formatting if it likes and not all apps even offer two menu items to give you the choice.
Also O&O's ShutUp10 [1] which also works on Windows 11. It's not as complete as some of the scripts on Github but also only changes things known to not affect the usability of the OS. And it has a happy-clicky UI and prompts the person to make a snapshot first. I can attest to it quieting down the telemetry on W10/11 for my gaming machine. I still play certain games on Windows
These tools should be run after any big patches from Microsoft as they may change settings. ShutUp10 will show a diff of what features were reset.
