Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Extra Space after Quotation Mark when Pasting.

Extra Space after Quotation Mark when Pasting

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 26, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021

Richard cuts and pastes quotations quite a bit. If he types a quotation mark and then pastes text right after the quotation mark, Word automatically puts a space between the quotation mark and the text he's pasting. Richard then has to go back and delete the added space. He wonders how he can stop this behavior in Word.

Actually, the behavior is "by design" in Word. It is part of what Microsoft refers to as "smart cut and paste." It means that Word tries to figure out whether it should add or subtract a space from things you are cutting or pasting. This can, for some people and some purposes, cause confusing results.

You can turn off smart cut and paste (and thereby stop Word from adding the unwanted space after the quotation mark) by following these steps:

Display the Word Options dialog box. (In Word 2007 click the Office button and then click Word Options. In Word 2010 or a later version, display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.)
Click Advanced at the left side of the dialog box.
Scroll through the options until you see the Cut, Copy, and Paste section. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Advanced options of the Word Options dialog box.

Clear the Use Smart Cut and Paste check box.
Click on OK.

If you prefer, you could leave the check box selected (in step 4) and simply modify what things smart cut and paste does for you. You do that by clicking on the Settings button at the right of the option.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (8759) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Extra Space after Quotation Mark when Pasting.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Printing Only Selected Pages

I often need to print only select pages of a document, rather than the whole thing. Word makes it easy to be judicious in ...

Discover More

Correctly Numbering Footnotes in a Chapter

Word is very flexible when it comes to adding footnotes to your document. If you have multiple sections within that ...

Discover More

Indicating the Date Changes were Last Made

Do you want to keep track of when changes were made to your document? This tip looks at a couple of ways to do it, along ...

Discover More

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2013. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2013 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Symbols for Non-Printing Characters

Displaying non-printing characters can help you better understand the formatting and contents of your documents. What do ...

Discover More

Jumping to the End of the Document in Error

If you inadvertently move to the end of the document, you might be wondering how to get your insertion point back to ...

Discover More

Cut and Paste Formatting

What happens when you copy information from one document and paste it into another? It is possible for what you paste to ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is nine minus 1?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.