Word 2003 locks up when “pasting” from a web page

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All of a sudden when I copy a section of text from a web page and try to past it into Word 2003, the application locks up and I have to end the task with Task Manager. I’ve not added any software and the only updates have been from Microsoft that automatically download and install.

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Oddly enough, printer drivers and video drivers can cause this.

Allow me to make a suggestion which is both a workaround, and a really useful tool that i use many times a day:

Install the PureText tool – to allow pasting as plain, unformatted text.

Either google for “puretext” or go straight to http://www.stevemiller.net/puretext/
The program is extremely light-weight and unobtrusive (and free). Set it to start automatically with Windows, and set the Hotkey to Windows key-V.

Then instead of Ctrl-V or right-click-paste, press Windows key and V together. This will convert the clipboard to plain text and paste it.

When you are writing a Word document or email, you typically want the font and font size and colour etc of your work, you don’t want whatever the website happens to be in.

Hope this helps
P.S. I am using the Win 32 (x86) version no problems on a 64 bit Windows 7 machine, as well as at home on a 32 bit XP.

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Interesting. Thanks for the suggestions but here’s what happened. I use Firefox broswer, latest version and restarted it with all Add-ons disabled. Paste worked. I restarted FF again with Add-ons enables and Paste works fine. Must have been a nut loose on the keyboard.

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