get rid of the random ransom note

Mac Users! Tired of seeing an ugly "ransom note" effect when you copy and paste some text, and the system "helpfully" tries to keep the old font and color info? Try this:

• Open up System Preferences | Keyboard
• Go to Shortcuts (tab) | App Shortcuts (left column) | All Applications (right column)
• Hit the + button
• Enter "Paste and Match Style" (exactly as it appears in the Edit menu dropdown) for "Menu Title" and then hit cmd-V in the "Keyboard Shortcut" box, then click "Add"

Voila. Any app that supports "Paste and Match Style" will now just paste the damn text as text, and you can stop pasting into an intermediate text app (or in my case, browser address box) to avoid your document from devolving into a crazy pastiche of colors and fonts. (Why this isn't more of a clipboard-level default, I'll never know. It's hardly ever helpful - just feels like OS developers trying to show off.)

2024 Update

• go to System Settings
• type "Keyboard" and open
• scroll down to Keyboard Shortcuts...
• Go to App Shortcuts (left column) | All Applications
• Follow final two steps above