Pardon me if everyone knows this, but in case some don’t, here’s a useful tip for cutting-and-pasting formatted text from the Web or .pdf documents into MS Word. As Word users know, cutting-and-pasting normally retains the original formatting of the text, creating a mess when you paste it into Word. Here’s how to avoid that: After you have saved the block of formatted text into memory, move your mouse to the search engine box in the corner of your browser and click on the box. Next, while holding down the Control button (for a PC) or the Command button (for a MAC), type V-A-C. Then go into MS Word and paste the text into the document. All the formatting will have been stripped.
This method works because the search engine box automatically strips formatting from the text. Command-V-A-C just pastes the formatted version into the search engine box, highlights all of it, and then saves the unformatted version in memory. Anyway, it’s a good time-saving tool for readers who often cut-and-paste into MS Word and get annoyed when MS Word retains the formatting from the original source.
UPDATE: Thanks to commenters who have offered other easier ways to do the same thing (some of which I have tried in the past but don’t work for some versions of Word, and some I haven’t tried yet).