Clear Text Formatting on a Mac

Essentially, when you copy text in OS X, Apple generously copies all the formatting along with it. This "feature" can actually cause all kinds of problems including mixed fonts, sizes and styles. Under the Edit menu, when cutting and pasting, there are built-in system-wide tools to remove and match text formatting in OS X to help with this issue (see above).

Lifehacker has an AppleScript to remove formatting and instructions on how to add it to your collection of scripts.

This solution is particularly geared at those who write code, such as html, but can be useful for all users, including educators trying to avoid gremlins in their word processing projects.

Unfortunately, this solution does not appear to remove invisibles like line or paragraph breaks. You can do this in Word or Pages using the "Show Invisibles" command under "View" and then using the "Find and Replace" feature:

Another solution is an online tool for removing paragraph and/or line breaks at TextFixer.com, a highly recommended site for online text formatting tools, called the Line Break Removal Tool.

Enjoy!