How to Copy and Paste in WordPress without Formatting Issues

Copying and pasting content into WordPress can sometimes cause formatting issues.

When you copy from a desktop app or a web page, you often paste unwanted formatting, too.

This can clash with your WordPress theme’s fonts and colors, making your content look inconsistent.

We struggled with this in the past, so in this article, we will show you how to copy and paste into WordPress without bringing over any unwanted formatting or styles.

Understanding Copying and Pasting in WordPress

Copying and pasting means copying text from one place to another without needing to type it all out again.

To copy text from a document or webpage, you need to highlight it using your mouse. Then, simply right-click and select ‘Copy’ from the menu.

Or, you can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+C (Command+C on a Mac) to copy the highlighted text.

To paste the text into WordPress, just right-click and select ‘Paste’ from the menu.

You can also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+V (Command+V on a Mac) to paste the copied text:

When you copy text, the formatting of the text is copied with it. The problem is that sometimes you will end up with formatting you don’t want.

This unwanted formatting can affect how your text displays on other devices.

Some WordPress users choose to avoid copying and pasting altogether. Instead, they draft their posts straight into their WordPress website.

However, you may prefer to draft using a separate tool, such as Microsoft Word or Google Docs. This lets you work offline and can make it easier to share your work for comments and revisions before publication.

It’s also essential to avoid adding unnecessary formatting because it impacts your page size, which means slower site speed.

That’s why we have created this ultimate guide on how to copy & paste text in WordPress properly. You can use the links to jump straight to the sections you need:

How to Copy and Paste from Word to WordPress (Block Editor)

Copying text from Microsoft Word is quite straightforward.

For years, WordPress has allowed you to copy rich (formatted) text from Word documents straight into the editor. This is a big advantage if you like to write and format your posts in Microsoft Word.

Copying your post from Word into WordPress lets you keep elements like headings, bold and italic text, links, and lists. It will discard any styling options like colors, spacing, etc.

Here is a document that we are going to copy from Word into WordPress:

This document is formatted with two Heading 2 subheadings for subsections of the post. There is bold and italic text, a bulleted list, and a link.

We will simply copy all the content from the Word document and paste it into the WordPress block editor.

Note that some formatting has not been copied over. The image has been left out, but WordPress has created an image block in the correct place.

Tip: Always use the ‘Heading styles’ in Word to create your subheadings. Don’t highlight the text and increase the font size manually.

Want to confirm that your text has been copied over correctly? Follow our instructions later in this article on checking for and fixing formatting errors.

How to Copy and Paste from Google Docs to WordPress (Block Editor)

Google Docs is a very popular word-processing tool. Just like with Word, it’s easy to copy and paste from Google Docs into the WordPress block editor.

Here is our piece of text in Google Docs. It’s identical to the document we used in Microsoft Word above.

You can copy the text in Google Docs by using the CTRL+C keys on your keyboard or by selecting the ‘Copy’ option from the right-click menu.

After that, you can simply paste the text inside the block editor. WordPress will automatically use the correct heading sizes and blocks for the content.

This time, the image will also appear in WordPress.

However, it will not be uploaded to the WordPress media library and will be displayed directly from your Google Drive account.

You need to download and upload images manually to your WordPress website.

Copying and Pasting Using the Classic Editor

Are you struggling with formatting errors after copying and pasting text into WordPress? Then, you are likely using the old classic editor.

The classic editor handles Word documents well and shouldn’t add any unnecessary code. However, it doesn’t do a good job with the text copied from Google Docs.

Here’s how our text from Google Docs looks when pasting it into the classic editor:

The headings, link, bold, and italic text all look correct.

However, some unnecessary extra formatting has been added that isn’t visible.

How to Check and Fix Copy and Paste Formatting Errors

Let’s now look at how to check for and fix formatting errors.

All the text in your WordPress posts is formatted using HTML (hypertext markup language). HTML tags go around the words that are formatted in a particular way.

For instance, bold text in WordPress posts looks like this in HTML code:

There is <strong>bold text</strong> in this sentence.

The words ‘bold text’ will appear in bold.

You need to check the HTML code of your post to check for and fix formatting errors after copying and pasting.

Checking the HTML Code in the Block Editor

In the block editor, it’s easy to view the HTML code of any block. First, click on the block. Then, click the three vertical dots to the right of the block’s menu.

You will see a dropdown menu. Here, you just need to click the ‘Edit as HTML’ option:

You will now see the HTML code for the block. With the block editor, you should normally find that no unwanted formatting has been added.

Here, the paragraph correctly begins with the opening <p> tag and ends with the closing </p> tag.

The sentence in bold is also correct. It begins at the <strong> tag and ends with the closing </strong> tag.

To switch back to the normal view of your block, simply click the three vertical dots again.

Then, go ahead and select the ‘Edit visually’ option.

Checking the HTML Code in the Classic Editor

In the classic editor, it’s easy to view the HTML code of a post by clicking on the ‘Text’ tab at the top of the box containing the text of the post.

This is the HTML code for our post copied from Google Docs:

The span tags here are extra, unnecessary code.

Also, the bold text and italic text are formatted using the <b> tag instead of <strong> and the <i> tag instead of <em>. It is generally considered best to use the <strong> and <em> tags as these give your words semantic meaning, not just visual styling.

By comparison, here is the code produced when copying from Word instead of Google Docs in the classic editor. There are no unnecessary formatting tags, and the bold and italics have been correctly rendered.

If you’ve copied your post from Google Docs, you will need to go through the HTML code and manually correct the formatting. In this case, that means:

• Removing all the <span style="font-weight: 400;"> and </span> tags.
• Changing all the <li style="font-weight: 400;"> to just <li>.
• Changing <b> and </b> to <strong> and </strong>.
• Changing <i> and </i> to <em> and </em>.

To speed up the process, you first need to copy and paste the HTML code into a text editor.

Then, simply use Find and Replace to change incorrect formatting. Here’s an example using Notepad. We are finding all instances of <li style="font-weight: 400;"> and replacing them with <li>:

Once you’ve replaced all the incorrect formatting, simply copy and paste the text back into the Text view of the classic editor.

It should look like this.

Copying and Pasting Plain Text

Plain text is text without any formatting. To avoid any possibility of incorrect formatting, you may prefer to copy and paste plain text.

This is also a very useful option if you are copying a section of text from another website. For instance, you might include a quote from someone else in your content.

Copying and Pasting Plain Text in the Block Editor

The WordPress block editor does not have a button or option to paste plain text. However, it’s easy to do this yourself.

The quickest method is to use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+V (PC) or Command+Shift+V (Mac) to paste your text. This will automatically paste in the plain text format.

Alternatively, some browsers offer the option to paste as plain text.

If you are using Google Chrome, simply right-click and select the ‘Paste as plain text’ option:

Both methods will work to paste plain text into a single Paragraph block.

Copying and Pasting Plain Text in the Classic Editor

To paste plain text into the classic editor, you must first click the Toolbar Toggle button:

Now, you just need to click the ‘Paste as text’ icon.

It looks like a clipboard with the letter T on it:

Any text that you paste will now be pasted in plain text mode, with the formatting removed.

Here’s how that looks when we paste the text from our Google Docs. The headings, bold, italics, bullet points, and link have all been removed:

Pro Tip: Copy, Paste, and Clone Entire WordPress Sites

While the above beginner’s guide teaches you the basics of copying and pasting, WordPress also offers many advanced copying, pasting, and cloning features.

For example, you can easily clone an entire WordPress site in 7 easy steps.

There’s also a way to create a duplicate WordPress page or post with a single click.

If you are using the block editor, then you can also create reusable blocks that you can use across multiple posts.

We hope this article helped you learn how to copy and paste into WordPress. You might also like our tips on mastering the WordPress content editor and our expert picks for the must-have WordPress plugins for all websites.

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