Copying Content from Word into WordPress

Microsoft Word (and other desktop publishing apps) often embed their own styles into documents.  When content is copy/pasted into WordPress these styles are also copied and will cause problems when viewing online.

It doesn’t matter what you are using, whether it’s Open Office, Pages on Mac, or even copying and pasting content from another website. If you paste formated text into a WYSIWYG editor you will end up with a mess.

The problem is that when you copy text from Word and then paste it into WordPress, a bunch of extra HTML code gets inserted into the text. You won’t be able to see the extra code in the WordPress visual editor, but if you switch to the WordPress HTML editor and know a bit of HTML, you’ll notice lots of extra code throughout your blog post that has no reason to be there other than to cause formatting problems on your blog.

Simple Solution to Copying Content

Option 1 (plain text editor)

  1. Copy the text first into a plain text editor like NotePad or TextEdit.
  2. Select All and Copy the text again from the plain text editor.
  3. Paste into the Edit Post/Page area of WordPress.

Option 2 (HTML View)

  1. Copy the text from Word (or other desktop publishing application)
  2. In the Edit Post/Page area of WordPress select the HTML tab (next to Visual on the top right of the screen)
  3. Paste the text you have copied into the text box.
  4. Go back to the Visual tab and format the text as needed.

Option 3 (Paste from Word)

  1. Copy the text from Word (or other desktop publishing application)
  2. On the Edit Post/Page menu bar press the Show/Hide Kitchen Sink button (kitchen_sink) to show more options
  3. From this new row of options press the Paste from Word button (paste_word) and window will pop-up to allow Word text to be pasted in.
  4. Select the Insert button and perform further text formatting as needed.

 

Of course, the Creative Web Design 123 Help Desk is available for any WordPress questions you may have. We’re open 10:00 am – 6:00 pm Monday – Friday, and you can reach us at 647-403-2052, or fill the contact form here.