Copying text from one source to the web using Notepad.

Last Updated on February 18, 2023

When copying text from any source for use on a website (whether you’re using an HTML editor like DreamWeaver or if you’re using a content management system) it’s important that instead of copying from the source directly to the website you go through notepad, so;

1. Copy from source (word, PDF or whatever)
2. Paste into Notepad
3. Copy from Notepad
4. Paste into website editor.

The reason for this is that a lot of sources (MS Word especially) attach a TON of junk code to all text, and when you paste directly from a source to website the junk code also gets copied across and confuses things horribly (most noticeably the layout). Notepad strips the text back to plain text, therefore removing the junk code. It’s a bit like you’re washing your content!

This is standard practice for all websites, and it’s not a bad idea to get into the habit of copying and pasting through Notepad when transferring text from anywhere to anywhere else.