Windows only: We've covered a variety of tools for converting PDF files, but if you need to bulk convert a folder full of them, Zilla PDF to TXT Converter gets the job done quickly.

More ways to convert rich text to plain text on the clipboard If your OS X app doesn't have a paste without formatting option, readers came up with a number of suggestions.

They follow up with tips on turning some or all emails to plain text. If you're generally emailing inside a closed circle with Outlook users, HTML-formatted emails are probably fine.