How to Copy and Paste in WordPress Without Formatting Issues

Have you ever had that moment when you paste some text into WordPress, and your carefully planned post suddenly looks completely different?

The fonts don’t match, the spacing is off, and somehow, you’ve got multiple text styles that clash with your website’s design. We’ve been there too!

We know firsthand the frustration of copying text from various sources – whether it’s from Word, Google Docs, or even AI writing tools – only to watch WordPress transform it into something that doesn’t match your site’s styling.

The good news? After years of helping WordPress beginners (and handling our own copy-paste challenges), we’ve discovered several reliable ways to paste content without bringing along unwanted formatting.

In this guide, we’ll share these simple but effective techniques that will help you maintain consistent formatting throughout your posts.

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.

The problem is that when you copy text from applications like Word or Google Docs, you’re also copying hidden formatting code. This extra code can conflict with your WordPress theme’s styling, causing the text to look wrong.

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)
• How to Copy and Paste from Google Docs to WordPress (Block Editor)
• Copying and Pasting Using the Classic Editor
• How to Check and Fix Copy and Paste Formatting Errors
• Copying and Pasting Plain Text
• Pro Tip: Copy, Paste, and Clone Entire WordPress Sites
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

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. The modern block editor is great at this because it’s designed to automatically clean up most of the hidden code from pasted text.

It then converts everything into the correct, clean blocks for you. 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.

Copying and Pasting Using the Classic Editor

If you’re running into formatting errors after copying and pasting text, you might be using the older classic editor.

The classic editor can sometimes be more prone to formatting issues, especially when pasting content 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.

It’s better to use the <strong> and <em> tags. Using these tags helps search engines and screen readers understand which words are important, which is good for both SEO and accessibility.

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.

Thankfully, most web browsers have a built-in feature to paste text without its original formatting. There are two easy ways to use it.

The quickest method is to use a keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+V (on a PC) or Command+Shift+V (on a Mac).

Alternatively, you can often right-click in the editor and choose the ‘Paste as plain text’ option from the menu. This option is available in browsers like Google Chrome.

Both of these methods will paste the text cleanly 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.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Here are some common questions that our readers ask about copying and pasting without formatting issues in WordPress:

Why does my text look weird after pasting it into WordPress?

When you copy text from applications like Microsoft Word or Google Docs, you also copy hidden HTML formatting.

This extra code can often conflict with your WordPress theme’s styles, causing issues with fonts, spacing, and colors.

Can I paste directly from Google Docs into the WordPress block editor?

Yes, you can. The modern WordPress block editor is very good at cleaning up the code from Google Docs. It easily preserves things like headings, bold text, and lists while stripping out most of the problematic styling.

What’s the quickest way to paste text without any formatting?

The fastest method is to use a keyboard shortcut.

Pressing Ctrl+Shift+V (or Cmd+Shift+V on a Mac) will paste the text as plain text, without any of the original formatting.

Should I just write all my posts directly inside WordPress?

While writing directly in WordPress avoids copy-paste issues, many people prefer writing in other tools for offline access or collaboration features.

By using the techniques in this guide, you can easily use your favorite writing app without creating formatting problems.

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 tutorial on how to add collaboration in the WordPress block editor.

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