The Paste Options button is often misunderstood, and so it often gets ignored. In general, people hate pop-ups; when something uninvited pops up on your screen, distracting you and often sitting on top of what you’re working on, blocking the very thing you want to see, it can be incredibly frustrating. But Microsoft Office’s pop ups are now built to help, rather than hinder (RIP Clippy).
In fact, many MS Office pop ups are now built to fade away when you opt not to take advantage of their assistance, which is why a feature like Paste Options is commonly ignored, instead of utilised.
In Office 2007 and Office 2010, the paste function has been greatly improved, making it easier to ensure you paste the content you require, in the format you require, first pop (up).
The Paste Options button appears below the newly pasted text, just after you paste it in your document. Click on the button to open a list of paste options.
The options displayed will depend on the type of content you are pasting, and the program you’re pasting from. Use this button to decide whether to paste the text using the original formatting, or to change the text formatting to match the surrounding text of the document you are pasting to.
If you’re pasting data from MS Excel, you can specify whether or not you wish to link the data (keeping a connection between the two files) or just display the data as a picture or text.
If the text is pasted correctly into your document, simply move your mouse away from the Paste Options button (or keep typing), and the button fades away.
If you find yourself clicking the same option every time (e.g. ‘Match Destination Formatting’ because you are using a template with standardised formatting), you can set this option as your default paste. Click the option you require, and then click the Set Default Paste… option to from the Paste Options pull down menu.