I'll be honest... this tech tip is not rocket science. It's not even close. It is, however, one of the many features within Mac OS X that I use on a frequent basis that I am willing to bet most people overlook (especially those who have migrated from Windows, since this simple feature doesn't exist on Windows).
A little background
When you copy and paste text from one file or application to another, you're not only pasting the text, you're also pasting the formatting. "What's wrong with that, Kevin?" Well, let me tell you. Chances are, the document you are pasting that text into already has its own formatting. When you paste the text from another file into the new file, the formatting that you bring along with it most likely won't match. Below is an illustration of what I'm talking about:
In this example, I composed an email using my default mail font. Then I went to another document, copied the URL I wanted to paste in the email, then pasted that text in my email. You can clearly see that the font size and color don't match the rest of the email. This is where the OCD in me comes out and I (internally) go crazy.
Mac OS X has a system-wide feature that allows you to paste the text in your clipboard... without the formatting. Here's how it works:
First, copy the text you want to paste. Then, when you're ready to paste, go to Edit > Paste and Match Style (or Shift+Option+Command+V) from the menu bar.
The result in this example will look something like this:
