About the Word to HTML Converter
Copying from a word processor carries an enormous amount of private markup with it. Word exports class="MsoNormal" on every paragraph, style attributes measured in points and centimetres, empty o:p elements, conditional comments aimed at Internet Explorer, and font tags that predate CSS. Pasted into a content management system this looks acceptable for a day and then fights the site stylesheet forever.
The cleaner throws all of it away and keeps the meaning. Word outline levels and heading styles are recognised and rewritten as real h1 to h6 elements. Bullet and numbered paragraphs, which Word emits as ordinary paragraphs beginning with a symbol character and a run of non breaking spaces, are grouped back into ul and ol lists with the marker removed from each item. Bold and italic become strong and em, link addresses and image sources are preserved, table spans are kept, and every other attribute is dropped. Empty paragraphs and spans left behind by the export are deleted, and the result is indented so it reads well in a code editor.
Plain text is accepted too: if what you paste has no tags at all, blank lines are read as paragraph breaks and the output is a set of p elements. Keep alignment is worth choosing when the original document centred a heading or right aligned a figure caption and that matters to the page. This tool is aimed squarely at word processor output; for a general purpose scrub of any messy markup, including builder and newsletter HTML, use the HTML Cleaner instead.
How to use
- Copy the section you want from Word, Google Docs or Pages, and paste it into the left pane.
- Leave Rebuild bullet lists on so the symbol characters become real list items.
- Choose Keep alignment under Inline styles if centred or right aligned blocks matter.
- Press Copy and paste the clean markup into your CMS or template.
Common questions
- Can I upload a .docx file?
- Not directly. Open the document, select the part you want and copy it, then paste here. The clipboard already carries the HTML that Word generates.
- Why did my numbered list restart at one?
- Word stores list numbering in its own metadata, not in the text. The rebuilt list uses ordinary ol numbering, so a continued list starts again unless you set a start attribute.
- Are fonts and colours removed?
- Yes, deliberately. Typography belongs in your stylesheet, and keeping Calibri at 11 point is what makes pasted content look wrong on a site.
- Does it work with Google Docs?
- Yes. Docs uses a different set of wrapper classes and inline styles, and the same attribute scrub removes them along with the Word ones.