LOSE THE FORMATTING, KEEP THE WINGDINGS
by Neil J. Rubenking

QUESTION:
I have been having an annoying problem when I cut and paste text from one Microsoft Word or Publisher document into another that has a different font. I want to paste the text into the second document without taking the formatting along. So I paste as unformatted text.   

This works well, unless I happen to have some Wingdings inserted in various places. Then I paste as unformatted text, and Word inserts dopey little boxes, or worse, it changes the symbols to I’s and J’s wherever it feels like it. If I proofread before I cut and paste, I don’t catch the errors until the document gets printed. Would there be a way to cut and paste without taking along the formatting, but retaining those cute Wingdings? —Alvin Hoover

ANSWER:
If you choose Paste Special and select Unformatted Text, everything will be converted to whatever font is in use at the insertion point. Some Wingding characters may not have any corresponding character in that font; those are the “dopey little boxes.”

Other popular Wingding characters match ordinary letters—for example, J, K, and L are smileys. Fortunately, there’s a simple solution. Instead of using Paste Special, just paste in the text normally. Then click on the floating Paste Options icon and choose Match Destination Formatting. This will match the pasted text to the current document’s formatting without wrecking your Wingdings.