Word to Clean HTML
Strip Microsoft Word and Google Docs formatting bloat, leaving semantic HTML. Paste from Word, get clean HTML.
Removes: inline styles · class attributes · span wrappers · MSO XML · · smart quotes
Input (Word/Google Docs HTML)
Characters: 0
Clean HTML output
Characters: 0Bloat Removed: 0%
Why Word HTML needs cleaning
When you copy content from Microsoft Word or Google Docs and paste it into a CMS, the HTML often contains hundreds of inline styles, MSO namespace XML, empty spans, and non-breaking spaces. This tool strips all Microsoft Office and Google Docs-specific markup, leaving you with semantic HTML tags (headings, paragraphs, lists, bold, italic) — without any bloat.
Built and maintained by Meet Shah · Last updated
What this tool is used for
- Cleaning markup pasted from a word processor before putting it in a CMS.
- Stripping the inline style bloat that Word and Google Docs generate.
- Removing conditional comments and namespace attributes from pasted HTML.
- Producing usable markup from a document handed over as HTML.
- Reducing a pasted page to semantic elements before editing.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What exactly does Word add?
- A great deal: `<o:p>`, `<w:>` and `<v:>` namespaced elements, `<!--[if gte mso 9]>` conditional comments, `MsoNormal` classes, and an inline `style` attribute on almost every element. A one-paragraph paste can arrive as several kilobytes of markup.
- Why does pasting into a CMS break the styling?
- Because those inline styles win over your stylesheet. Word hard-codes its own font family, size and colour on each element, so pasted text keeps looking like Word inside your site's design — and stays that way when your design changes.
- Are the empty spans really a problem?
- Yes. Word wraps nearly every run in a `<span>` to carry formatting, and once the styles are stripped the spans are pure noise — they bloat the document, break simple text extraction, and interfere with editors that try to normalise selections.
- Does cleaning lose my formatting?
- It removes Word's *presentation* and keeps the structure: headings, paragraphs, lists, bold and italic survive as elements. That is the point — semantic markup that your own CSS can style, rather than a frozen copy of one document's appearance.
- Is "paste as plain text" not simpler?
- It is, and it also destroys every heading, list and link. This sits between the two: keep the meaning, drop the styling. Use plain text when the source structure is worthless anyway.
- Why do smart quotes and dashes survive the clean?
- Because they are content, not markup — Word converted them as you typed, and they are now genuine characters in the text. Removing them is a separate editorial decision, which is why a cleaner leaves them alone.
Common errors and gotchas
- Stripping formatting that carried meaning, such as emphasis inside a quotation.
- Removing all classes when the destination's own stylesheet relies on some of them.
- Assuming the result is safe HTML, since cleaning is not sanitising.
- Losing table structure, which word processors express with heavy nested markup.
- Cleaning the markup but leaving smart quotes and non-breaking spaces in the text.
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