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Copy and paste text from Word to WordPress

When you copy text from a Word doc, it may copy any formatting (colours, font size, font styles, font family, etc.) within that document.

Since websites already have their own styles — when you paste this text into your website, it can look out of place.

If you’re working on a project in Basecamp, I highly recommend using the Docs & Files section to create content. It won’t have any of the hidden formatting Word adds.

To copy from Word to content areas on your site

Option 1. Remove formatting from Word when you copy

In Word, you can go to Word > Preferences > General then clear the check for Include formatted text in Clipboard. This is a global setting, so any cut/copy will render unformatted text.

Option 2. Paste text without formatting

Mac users
Instead of using Command+V, you can press Option+Shift+Command+V to paste text without any formatting.

Windows users
If you use Google Chrome, when pasting, you can use Ctrl + Shift + V for plain text.

Option 3. Make plain text first

  • Copy your content from Word to a plain text document (Notepad on Windows or TextEdit on Mac).
  • Then copy from the plain text document to your WordPress site.

TextEdit on Mac has a plain text or rich text format option. Make sure you are using the plain text format.

To fix existing sizes issues

  • Copy the text from WordPress into a plain text document.
  • Then copy from your plain text back into your WordPress site.