Sometimes it looks this bad...!
[This is part of the Developing Great Blog Content Series.]
If you’re like me and you use another application to draft blog posts outside of WordPress (I use Evernote) then you have to, at some point, copy-and-paste your blog post into the WordPress editor so that you can tweak it, add a few pictures, and then publish.
And unless you’re using a blog publishing system that connects directly to your blog and considers formatting issues, styling, and other elements you’ll probably be copying in un-wanted information (meta information, styling, code) that will mess up your blog post. In fact, it could even have more damaging effects as to impact your meta data in your blog post and limiting the SEO value!
For example, many bloggers draft in Microsoft Word and if you copy-and-paste the content directly you’ll get something like this:
Looks familiar, right?
If you copy and paste this content directly into the Visual Editor you might find it brings in a lot of garbage syntax. It might add “divs,” “spans,” different font treatments and even more nastiness!
So what do you need to remember to do? All you have to do is make sure you copy-and-paste your draft into Paste as Plain Text button in your WordPress Visual Editor:
That was easy!
Put your text in the pop-up window and then click Insert:
Quick and easy.
This way your content will be stripped of un-wanted styling from whatever app you’re using.
Done and done! Although there is a Paste as Word button I’ve found that it’s not nearly as successful as simply using the Paste as Plain Text.
Hope that helps!
[This is part of the Developing Great Blog Content Series.]
Great you post this today. I’ve had many times problems when pasting from Evernote. My problem is I don’t get the correct paragraph settings. I get zero line brakes. I realized that I have to then select all the text in the wordpress editor and apply the paragraph setting and all is good!
Will check tomorrow and see if there’s anything else I could fix! Thanks for your time and dedication!
sure thing jorge!
I usually copy and paste directly into the HTML editor in wordpress and I have no issues copying from Evernote. Maybe I’m just weird but I like using the HTML editor instead of the visual editor.
i actually use the visual editor a lot…!
Some of the easiest and straight forward things just get overlooked. haha I never tried this tool and it’s staring right in front of me on every post I write.
Evernote is a growing tool in drafting my blog posts. But bringing it over created some problems. Thanks for providing the solution.
sure thing greg!
Thanks SO MUCH John! Ah, so simple, and it was right in front of me this whole time.
You. Are. A. Rockstar.
You haven’t found the paste as Word to be successful? You mean when using Evernote or when using Word?
I write in Word and paste directly via the Word Paste tool. It keeps formatting, links, and everything – really convenient for me.
i can work but i’ve had limited success.
Hi John,
Great tip. Though I write directly in WP editor I find that it gets inconvenient when posts become large. I will check out evernote.
you want to be careful when you do this because sometimes, for some odd reason, you can get logged out over time while in the middle of a draft…! had this happen a number of times… and i lose my work!
John,
I’ve had this happen to me as well and I’ve wanted to bang my head against the wall. I literally had a really good writing rhythm going and all of the sudden Fire Fox crashes on me in the middle of saving. That being said, I don’t use it anymore but as I posted down below, I use Windows Live Writer.
good for you matt, that’s smart.
Can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to explain this to clients, staff, etc. Surprised how many still won’t listen and do it anyway.
you’re right… for sure.
Great tip John. Just curious what the benefit is of drafting a blog post in another program vs. just writing in wordpress? I haven’t explored writing in evernote yet, but I am easily swayed.
see my comment above to ashvini…
with another app you can save your work (or have it auto-save) and lose your work.
I’ve recently been introduced to Ommwriter. Very simple and slick. And it saves/Exports it out to a simple text file.
But I’m also a huge Evernote dude, so…. Thanks.
sure thing dustin!
As usual John, you always deliver excellent info…Thanks!
sure thing bro!
John you saved my day. Simple and effective tip. It is a shame that it didn’t strike me even though I was look at that little “paste as text” icon all the time
Jane.
I wish I would have known this about 1K blog posts ago! Thanks for providing this information.
I have Evernote, but have no idea what to do with it and how to use it. Have you ever posted on how to use this?
http://tentblogger.com/evernote/ are some preliminary thoughts.
Another way to accomplish this is to use CTRL+SHIFT+V to paste as plain text.
thanks mark. depends on your operating system, right?
Is there a way to do that in Blogger?
i don’t believe so…
Hi John,
I guess I just started out typing directly from my blog. I use Evernote as place to store all my posts. I’ve been doing this from the start of my blog because I’m afraid of bringing unwanted code from another site.
Is there an advantage of writing post somewhere else? I know if I don’t have internet access I can use Wordpad or Notepad.
sally,
there is an advantage. i’ll write some more on this topic today.
Good one John – I hadn’t seen that button before as I tend to use the HTML editor. I do use Evernote for idea’s but write in Pages… I haven’t experienced the extra characters when cutting & pasting but definitely have lost the line spacing etc so your post will probably solve that little issue. Thanks.
sure thing rich!
John,
This is something that a lot of people probably do not know about.
I actually learned this the hard way by screwing up my posts all of the time as I was using MS Word to compile my posts and then copying and pasting them. One thing that I am learning from your blog is to not overlook things when thinking of a blog post to write. For instance I learned this quite some time ago but never thought to write about it. Now I am going to be posting a post and making a video every time I learn something new. As well as share what I’ve learned over the past 5 years (I’ve got a lot of writing to do) That being said, I don’t have this issue as while I am a Windows user, I’m not a huge fan of Microsoft but I’m really enjoying using Windows Live Writer. It is so much faster and easier than using the WP Post Dashboard. That being said, I’d better go as I’m to compile a post about it.
Thanks for writing such great content.
sure thing matt! that’s awesome you’re creating content based on what you learn… a great model!
I like the “Paste from Word” button – I think it saves my line-spacing… although I might be wrong.
I usually draft everything outside of WP and paste it in. Although, for excerpts, meta descriptions, I find it best to paste from Word into a txt editor and then put that in WP – otherwise it gives me all that apo@s melarky.
Great info on this site John – Keep it up!
sure thing neil!
Hello John,
I’ve never used this functionality of WP, I just go in and remove all the random randomness. Duh for me!
Thank you for sharing this and explaining it so well.
Sara
sure thing sara! this is my goal… to make it as easy as possible!
Huh. I did not know that icon was there. I always work in the HTML screen because I don’t like the way the visual screen shifts my stuff around. But I’ll try this next time. Normally, I copy from Word into Notepad to strip the unwanted stylin out, but this will save a step.
Thanks! ~ Milli
it’s all about your workflow and making it fast and effective!
Sorry to ask a dumb question but I am a wordpress beginner struggling with studiopress genesis theme. I have been trying to paste word content into the page meta description. Whether I paste into the text box or the word box, it places the text into the main body of the article. What am I doing wrong to get it to paste in the SEO meta description please? I cannot get rid of the & ampersand whatever I do
i’m sorry to hear that. are you not able to get help via studiopress’s own support forums?
if you’re looking for a great support team look no further than 8bit’s team over at http://standardtheme.com!
I’m still confused
do you not have help from the theme owners?
what is theme owners?
the one’s who created your theme.
Very cool stuff John!
learned two things:
1. Write in Evernote (I use Jarte)
2. Use the Copy as Plain Text Button (I c&P into HTML tab)
perfect – thanks!
sure thing frank! sounds like a good workflow!
it dosn’t help me much i’ll have to find a website that puts it into a step by step so it’s easier to understand because I’m only 12
uh. how is this not step-by-step? what is confusing?
Hi,
This does not work for me. I have tried all kind of un formatting including your explaination. But still, only text I write directly into the page field comes out correctly. The pasted text has all lines overlapping each other. Line Height is set to 50% which works fine when writing myself, directly. Hope I make myself clear.
odd. can you show me what you’re doing? pictures? video?
Great info, i will try it next time!