Often when Steve is writing a Word document, he sees an icon of a clipboard and piece of paper. It normally appears just to the right of an edit. If he clicks the icon, it provides three or four choices. Steve finds this icon very annoying, as it often covers a word he's working on and he can't get rid of it. Steve never uses this icon and wonders if there is any way of turning off this "feature" so the icon never appears.
The icon to which Steve is referring is most likely the Paste Options box, as it has a small clipboard displayed on it. The Paste Options box appears when you paste something into a document, just to the right of whatever it is that you pasted. (See Figure 1.)
Figure 1. The Paste Options box.
The icon drives some people nuts, but (believe it or not) it can actually be quite helpful. For instance, if you are pasting information that you copied from another document and you don't want to transfer the formatting to the current document, there is an option for that type of paste within the drop-down.
The other thing to keep in mind is that you can get rid of the Paste Options box by immediately pressing the Esc key after it appears. (Some folks think you need to do some other edit in order to make it go away; not so—a simple Esc press should do the trick.)
If you are bound and determined to get rid of it, you can configure Word to not display it. Follow these steps:
Figure 2. The Cut, Copy, and Paste section of the Word Options dialog box.
The Paste Options box should no longer appear as you copy and paste information on your system.
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2021-03-04 23:59:04
Hello Central
Hi,
This advice does not work for me. My Word (365) does not have File > Options. Or at least there is no Options anywhere in any menu that I can find.
2020-05-08 18:08:24
ERC
Thank you so much! That clip board tiny thingy infuriates me! Much appreciated!
2020-04-10 17:59:32
LIA
THANK YOU, GOD, THANK YOU, ALLEN! That stupid icon has been turning me crazy for years. I use a Mac, but now the icons seems to be gone. Great job! Thank you again! I HATE THAT STUPID ICON. The default option should be without it, rather with it.
2019-06-07 10:39:44
Hilary
Thank you!!! I was getting so annoyed with the clipboard and I now know how to get rid of it.
2018-05-08 18:25:04
Kat
Thank you so much for the ESC key trick. Saved my life.
2016-06-18 11:00:19
David George
This was useful--thanks. I did not know about the ESC key trick. I don't want to disable it (I use it sometimes), but I've always typed something then deleted it (I thought you need to do some other edit in order to make it go away).
2016-06-18 06:41:13
Harry
Great tip - very helpful.
Congratulations to you and your family on your son getting married. I can tell it makes you proud.
Harry
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