This little-known keyboard shortcut will save you a lot of time!

If you spend a lot of time in front of your PC and need a lot of copying, cutting, and pasting items, here's good news for you! There is a keyboard shortcut that will save you many hours!

What is a shortcut to copy-paste quickly and in a handy way?

When spending long hours working in front of the computer, the desire is to make the process as quick and efficient as possible. This is where keyboard shortcuts come in handy, especially when dealing with extensive text, Excel tables, Google Documents, and more.

The most well-known and frequently used shortcuts are the classic Copy (CTRL + C or Command + C on Mac) and Paste (CTRL + V or Command + V on Mac) shortcuts. They are universal, working seamlessly on both Microsoft's Windows and Apple's macOS systems, as well as in commonly used applications such as web browsers (Google Chrome, Safari, Mozilla, etc.) and word processors like Word or Google Docs. These shortcuts also apply to other apps within the office suites from Microsoft and Google.

However, the Ctrl C/Ctrl V or "copy/paste" shortcut has its limitations. It can only contain a single item, requiring us to remember what we've copied and its context. Another drawback is that when using Ctrl + V to paste something, the formatting may not match that of the document you're working on. Parameters such as size, line spacing, font, and others can vary, necessitating adjustments to the pasted text/item, which can be time-consuming.

Fortunately, there is a similar yet handy and quick shortcut to cut and paste something the way you want. Simply use the key combination CTRL + V + Shift on Windows (or Option + Shift + Command + V on Mac).

What's great about this key combination is that when used to paste content into the document, the element automatically adopts the style of the surrounding text. This saves a considerable amount of time when working on multiple documents, ensuring the result is impeccable with no format mismatch.

If you often use Google Sheets, note that the Ctrl+Shift+V combination pastes the numerical values from the clipboard instead of a formula.

What to do if my version of Microsoft Office doesn't support this combination?

If your version of Microsoft Word (or other Office programs) doesn't support this shortcut, you can use this trick: use the CTRL + Alt + V and select "Unformatted Text" or, in your Office document, right-click on the place you'd like to paste text and select the "Paste as Plain Text" option on the right-click menu. If you prefer to always paste the plain text in Word whenever you paste information, you can modify the default settings to make the standard Ctrl-V shortcut automatically default to plain text: Go to File > Options > Advanced. For each category under Cut, Copy, and Paste, select the Keep Text Only option, and click OK.