diff --git a/src/static/js/pad_editbar.js b/src/static/js/pad_editbar.js
index b06a2d36b..07ca5a22b 100644
--- a/src/static/js/pad_editbar.js
+++ b/src/static/js/pad_editbar.js
@@ -484,7 +484,27 @@ var padeditbar = (function()
     });
 
     toolbar.registerAceCommand("clearauthorship", function (cmd, ace) {
-      if ((!(ace.ace_getRep().selStart && ace.ace_getRep().selEnd)) || ace.ace_isCaret()) {
+      // If we have the whole document selected IE control A has been hit
+      var rep = ace.ace_getRep();
+      var lastChar = rep.lines.atIndex(rep.lines.length()-1).width-1;
+      var lastLineIndex = rep.lines.length()-1;
+      if(rep.selStart[0] === 0 && rep.selStart[1] === 0){
+        // nesting intentionally here to make things readable
+        if(rep.selEnd[0] === lastLineIndex && rep.selEnd[1] === lastChar){
+          var doPrompt = true;
+        }
+      }
+      /*
+      * NOTICE: This command isn't fired on Control Shift C.
+      * I intentionally didn't create duplicate code because if you are hitting
+      * Control Shift C we make the assumption you are a "power user"
+      * and as such we assume you don't need the prompt to bug you each time!
+      * This does make wonder if it's worth having a checkbox to avoid being
+      * prompted again but that's probably overkill for this contribution.
+      */
+
+      // if we don't have any text selected, we have a caret or we have already said to prompt
+      if ((!(rep.selStart && rep.selEnd)) || ace.ace_isCaret() || doPrompt) {
         if (window.confirm(html10n.get("pad.editbar.clearcolors"))) {
           ace.ace_performDocumentApplyAttributesToCharRange(0, ace.ace_getRep().alltext.length, [
             ['author', '']