An app for those that use Notepad to strip text of formatting to get plain text

I heard Paul talking last week on Windows Weekly about using Notepad to strip text of all formatting, etc. and to make it plain text. I have used Notepad for that same reason among others for many years too.

I stumbled across a tiny, but very useful app on the Microsoft Store in Windows 10 last year, called PureText. The app simply strips copied text of all formatting and creates plain text. The app has worked fine for me.

The Microsoft Store version (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/puretext/9pkjv6319qtl) is 396 KB, way bigger than the 64-bit desktop version of 43 KB you can get directly from the dev (ttps://stevemiller.net/PureText/), but I still choose to just use the Store version knowing it can be updated without me having to do it manually.

In the app, I set up the hotkey combination CTRL + ` (the accent mark below the tilde on the key below the Esc key) so I can do the combination easily with one hand and that combination doesn’t interfere with any other software I’m running.

Check it out and I hope it helps.

Conversation 20 comments

  • jchampeau

    Premium Member
    30 April, 2019 - 12:34 pm

    <p>I've been using this for years and it works great.</p>

  • Lordbaal

    30 April, 2019 - 4:09 pm

    <p>And what's wrong with just using notepad?</p>

    • evox81

      Premium Member
      30 April, 2019 - 4:41 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#424483">In reply to Lordbaal:</a></em></blockquote><p>Although the difference is admittedly probably trivial, using notepad could easily take multiple times the amount of time this would.</p><p><br></p><p>Ctrl+` -&gt; Alt+Tab -&gt; Ctrl+V</p><p><br></p><p>versus</p><p><br></p><p>Ctrl+C -&gt; open notepad -&gt; wait for notepad -&gt; Ctrl+V -&gt; Ctrl+A -&gt; Ctrl+C -&gt; Alt+Tab -&gt; Ctrl+V</p>

      • Paul Thurrott

        Premium Member
        01 May, 2019 - 7:44 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#424505">In reply to evox81:</a></em></blockquote><p>Right. This automates it.</p>

      • NoFlames

        01 May, 2019 - 12:59 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#424505">In reply to evox81:</a></em></blockquote><p>I found the fastest method is to use the PureText shortcut in place of Ctrl+V and you save one more stroke.</p>

      • boots

        02 May, 2019 - 1:07 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#424505">In reply to evox81:</a></em></blockquote><p>"wait for notepad"!?</p><p>How slow is your computer?</p>

  • xperiencewindows

    30 April, 2019 - 4:26 pm

    <p>Agree about notepad. Why download a separate program just for this?</p><p><br></p><p>Also, sorry but 396KB is not 'way bigger' than 43KB lol.</p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      01 May, 2019 - 7:45 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#424489">In reply to xperiencewindows:</a></em></blockquote><p>Because it does something different: Automated conversion of formatted text to plain text on paste.</p>

      • xperiencewindows

        01 May, 2019 - 1:42 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#424679">In reply to paul-thurrott:</a></em></blockquote><p>Thanks, love you Paul</p>

    • sevenacids

      02 May, 2019 - 12:28 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#424489">In reply to xperiencewindows:</a></em></blockquote><p>Uhm, it's almost ten times bigger. Just because we're in the kilobyte range here doesn't make a difference. The point that a lot of today's software is bloated for no reason and at almost no benefit is still made. Just look at NVidia driver packages to get an example in the megabyte range.</p>

    • energy

      Premium Member
      23 December, 2019 - 10:57 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#424489">In reply to xperiencewindows:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Sorry, but the Store version is over 9 times larger. When I say “way bigger”, I’m talking relatively speaking, not quantity of data.</p><p> </p>

    • wright_is

      Premium Member
      09 January, 2020 - 5:13 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#424489">In reply to xperiencewindows:</a></em></blockquote><p>It is nearly 10 times the size… That is way bigger in my book.</p>

  • hrlngrv

    Premium Member
    30 April, 2019 - 5:12 pm

    <p>90% of what I <em>paste</em> I paste into Excel, and Excel has an option to paste (plain) text only.</p>

  • robotraccoon

    Premium Member
    01 May, 2019 - 9:07 am

    <p>Installed. Thanks for the tip.</p>

  • NoFlames

    01 May, 2019 - 12:44 pm

    <p>I installed and assigned your same shortcut. This will be useful, just need to break old habits of doing it the old way.</p><p><br></p>

  • tahj

    02 May, 2019 - 12:27 pm

    <p>I find this application interesting thanks for sharing.</p><p><br></p><p><a href="https://www.ucbrowser.vip/&quot; target="_blank">UC Browser</a><span style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">&nbsp;</span><a href="https://shareit.onl/&quot; target="_blank">SHAREit</a><span style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">&nbsp;</span><a href="https://mxplayer.pro/&quot; target="_blank">MX Player</a></p>

  • growide

    16 July, 2019 - 3:47 am

    <p><a href="http://growideindia.com&quot; target="_blank">Interesting</a> application.</p>

  • dftf

    09 January, 2020 - 8:06 am

    <p>If anyone is in the Insider Preview program, why not suggest to Microsoft to add a global option across Windows 10 in the right-click context menus to "Paste as Plain Text"?</p><p><br></p><p>Seems to me this would be exactly the kind of thing the program is there for?</p>

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