Hi-
Does anyone know if it’s possible to easily clear a style from text that has been copied from another word processing application?
Example: I paste some text that I imported from another application (e.g., MS Word) which has the text formatted in Cambria 12 point; however, when I paste it doesn’t automatically change to the default style I’m using in Scrivener (i.e., Lucida Grande 12 point). Is there any way to easily and quickly format that newly pasted/imported text to my default style in Scrivener. For example, in OmniOutliner, you can CTRL-Click and select “Clear Style” to do this.
Put your caret in each of the documents in turn and from the menus choose Documents : Convert : Formatting to Default Text Style. I’ve set up a keystroke Ctrl-Cmd-D for this. For each new document if you paste it in, do a “Paste and Match Style” rather than a simple “Paste”. I’ve actually remapped the key bindings so that the normal Cmd-P keystroke does a “Paste and Match Style”
Opt-Cmd-Shift-V will paste text without formatting (officially it’s Paste and Match Style - also available under the Edit menu).
Another alternative, if the text has already been pasted, is to select some text with the formatting you want and Copy Style (Opt-Cmd-C), then select the text you want to change and Paste Style (Opt-Cmd-V). You can also select these via the Text->Font menu.
Note: You won’t catch me re-mapping Ctrl-Cmd-D - that combo brings up the dictionary definition of the word under the cursor, with the option to bring up thesaurus. Yet another very good reason for not using Word…
I have re-mapped it because at least half the documents I edit are bilingual texts, produced in Chinese Word running under Windows, and although the Chinese text is there, it is invisible apart from numbers and any Roman characters until I have converted to default. I have to do this several times a day, whereas I hardly ever look things up in the thesaurus, so having Ctrl-Cmd-D mapped to convert to default format saves me time and patience. So personal preference.