How to Remove the Annoying Paste Box From Microsoft Word

66 Comments

1. groovinJackman  

   Nice – this was a lot less cumbersome than removing the mini-toolbar:

   https://www.groovypost.com/howto/how-to/how-to-disable-the-right-click-mini-toolbar-in-word-2007-and-word-2010/
2. Laurie  

   Thank you for this one. I find myself “plagued” all the time. I’m so glad there is someone like groovy post figuring out all this stuff for me! I look forward to the daily emails and save them for future reference.
   • MrGroove  

     Hi Laurie! All of us here at groovyPost thank you for the great feedback! We work hard to put something out everyday so thanks for taking the time to drop a note. We read EVERY comment. Also, feel free to comment on articles you love so we know what you groovyReaders want us to write about. Were geeks so we love to write about anything Tech. Might as well be what you guys are interested in!

     -Steve
     • Ziggy  

       Wow! I’ve never seen so many thank you’s for such a simple, nifty little tip like this in my many years of surfing the net. So, I’m going to add my thank you to this deceptively and ingenious tip…Thank you… Thank you… Thank you… And keep up those brilliant ideas which keep me tracking back to GroovyPost, time and time again!.
   • Gabrielle  

     Thank you so much Austin. I was being driven nuts by the appearance of this Paste Option box every time I made a correction to my Dragonspeak text. Half my time was taken up removing it and then getting back to business. Your instructions were clear and I followed them easily. (I’m a blonde!)
     I’m grateful for your knowledge and your willingness to share it.
3. Cliff  

   Thanks, exactly what I was looking for!
4. Erica  

   thank god! This is SO ANNOYING! It got in my way ALL THE TIME. Thanks!
   • CC  

     Ditto!!
5. Yukes  

   Thank you thank you!!
6. Happy Editor  

   Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! This was REALLY annoying!!!!
7. Lois  

   THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!
8. FountainpenLady  

   One person’s godsend is another person’s pox. WORD does try to be so much. So cool and for that its dedicated teams have my gratitude, especially now that the references function, e.g. citations, etc., is growing up in Office 2010. The software has a long way to go, however, before providing scholar-friendly word-processing with the tools of a Nota Bene. But nine out of 10 receiving institutions only take WORD .docs formats. So, like a fly in the room, there are constant pop-ups and flashes of margin readings, etc. Thanks for swatting at least one down.
   Here’s a tough question. How does one get the references’ master list to print out or even copy?
   Thanks very much.
9. heidisierra  

   Thank you!!
10. Tony Thomas  

    When i copy and paste i want the original format of the internet with the hyperlink but my word document only shows keep text only format and checked.
    (File/options/advanced/cut,copy and paste) it is all set on (Keep source formatting(Default)). and still i see only the keep text only format on the paste option.
11. Chris  

    Thank you so much, I get really tired of Microsoft doing all this unnecessary crap that just annoys you more than being helpful. All this extra stuff and clutter should be disabled by default in my opinion.
12. Robert  

    I usually use Notepad++. but occasionally have to use Word. Word sure seems bloated and distracting. Thanks for helping me quiet Word down a little.

    Thank you!
13. Cathy  

    I did this and it STILL SHOWS UP! Grrrrrrrr.
    • CC  

      I had to do it a couple of times. :/
14. JoJo  

    Thank you so much!!! Very helpful.
    • Steve Krause  

      You bet! Glad it helped you out. Thanks for the comment.

      Sent from my Mobile
15. Bruce  

    It stops the paste options from showing up when you alt v but when right clicking and selecting paste, the option bar still shows up. Any idea on how to remove the paste option when right clicking to paste?
16. Janis Jocklin  

    THANK YOU!!!
    • Steve Krause  

      heheh you bet Janis! Welcome to groovyPost, thanks for the feedback!
17. Ferd  

    Yes, very irritating thing, that paste bar. The thing that fascinates me the most is that this paste bar is implemented like this. That it lingers on to do more pastes i can understand, but after 2 or 3 seconds it should be clear the user wants to move on. Probably it is simply forgotten to program a time limit.
18. Daniel  

    Thank you. This was getting to be a new Clippy….
19. Mark  

    From Belgium thanks too, what a annoying thingie from MS, it must be in their way too when they design it? Whatever, I can go back to work again without this annoying menu in my screen. Have a nice day
20. Wojtek Sokolowski  

    Thanks a lot. This was helpful. The “nanny corporation” approach that Micro$oft et al. take is really annoying. Why don’t they turn all their “options” off by default and let the user decide which one he or she needs?
21. Gary  

    Thank you!
22. amy  

    Thank you!
23. Paul  

    Thank you!
    • Steve Krause  

      You bet! Glad the tip helped you out!
24. Matt  

    Thanks for the tip.

    I find the Paste Bar useful at times and don’t want it to go away permanently. When it does get in my way, I find that pressing the escape key will make it go away.
    • Kailasa  

      Thanks Matt!
      I didn’t want to completely disable this function as this article describes…just wanted to get rid of the icon once I didn’t need it. (In older versions of Word it would disappear after the next text entry/selection/etc.
      Thank you for solving my problem!!!
25. Michael  

    thank you for this

    been getting in the way for years and just today i bothered to look up how to do something about it.
26. Nancy  

    Yes, thank you, thank you!!
27. Michael  

    i just wonder if you can help me with similar topic,”how to disable paste option in access 2010″? because there is no advanced option…..thank you.
28. RJ  

    Thank you so much! That icon was driving me nuts!
29. Adrian  

    Thank you so much for this. I finally took care of this after having been annoyed by it for so long. I can’t understand why they would put that feature.
    Anyways, thank you so much!!
30. Phil  

    Thanks so much for posting this. Helped me out considerably.
    • sharon paddock  

      Cannot thank you enough! : )
31. Sandra de Roos  

    Thanks for making this annoying thing go away so quickly!
32. PersembeBaligi  

    Thank you so much. I cannot describe the relieve that I’m in right now…
33. Catherine  

    THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You can’t even imagine how delighted I am now that I found how to remove this stupid pop-up that lingers forever right where I want to edit my text.
    God bless!
34. Connor  

    Oh my God! Thank you! I’ve been ready to throw something at my monitor ’cause I can’t see what the heck I’m editing half the time. You’re a lifesaver!
    • Steve Krause  

      Ha! Well I’m glad you found our tip vs. lose a monitor! Really happy you found our site! Thanks for the comment.
35. someguy  

    Looking for for alternate ways to remove it, see same instructions on many other sites.

    Paste Options still show up even with everything unchecked, seen other comments about this.
36. Oranges  

    Thank you for this helpful advice!
37. randy  

    Thank you! That was helpful. Why can’t the Word “Help” section be that easy?
38. Praveen  

    Thanks alot
39. Rosie  

    Many thanks for this. I’m trying to fix a fiddly list and not an expert Word user. This was driving me nuts! It was covering bits of text I needed to select.
40. SG  

    Thank you. You are my friend from now on.
41. Magnus  

    Thank you!!!!
42. Soraya  

    OMG THANK YOU.. I should have googled this YEARS AGO!!!
    • Steve Krause  

      You know what’s funny? I used this tip back with Word 2013 then forgot about it. Just fixed it again myself on 2016!

      Glad this tip helped you out! Be sure to share the link back here with your friends!

      -S
      groovyPost.com
43. timmyjoe42  

    Excellent. Helped me out. I’m not sure why MicroSoft feels the need to have this turned on AND to always have it pop up right where my cursor is so I can’t see where I am typing.
    • Steve Krause  

      Agreed. It’s pretty much “always” in my way.
44. Jason Kelly  

    REALLY annoying!Very helpful Thank you!
45. Jennifer  

    Any tips on doing it for Powerpoint 2016 for Mac? I can’t find the options you show in the instructions. This paste options box is driving me crazy!!
    • Bob  

      Please reply if you find a solution. I have the same problem. Arrrgh!
46. Julie  

    Oh my gosh! Thank you so much! This has been driving me crazy for months! Finally got fed up with it today and decided to fix the problem once and for all! You are awesome!!!
    • Bob  

      Please reply if you find a solution. I have the same problem.
47. Jeffrey Riggs  

    Thank you Thank You THANK YOU. Would the person from Microsoft that “enabled this” please comment? I often wonder on “WHY” with so many things you do. An explanation would help, so we don’t think bad of MicroSoft.
48. Mary Brady  

    I can’t thank you enough!!
49. Pamela Mukhopadhyay  

    THANK YOU THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!
50. Adam Smith  

    THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
51. Kate Bluestone  

    THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This drove me insane in excel. It covered a cell or two and wouldn’t go away! You just made my life less stressful :)