When using technology, there are a lot of things going on behind the scenes that aren’t always obvious. One of those relates to how you copy and paste content into your blog or website, and why you should always use plain text for this task.
This is one of those things I don’t think many people realize. I was hired this week for an hourly fix-it website job, because someone noticed her blog posts looked all wonky for no apparent reason. They weren’t sticking to the WordPress theme she chose.
Well, as it turns out, she was creating her blog posts in Word, and creating all kinds of formatting as she wrote her blog posts. That formatting carried over when she pasted into WordPress, causing some pretty odd looking things to happen.
Even more frustrating, the only cure for such a situation is to go into each blog post, one by one, and remove the extra formatting code in HTML view.
In other words, it’s not fun.
I actually advised her it would probably be faster to copy and paste as plain text than to go through and edit each of those blog posts one by one.
Pasting from other programs can bring undesired results
Though you may not realize it, copying and pasting text from a program like Microsoft Word often can bring in extra formatting, weird code, and styling that will overrule your website’s templates and style. This can also affect web accessibility (the ability of those with limitations from using assistive devices like screen readers), and maybe even mobile responsiveness.
When you copy and paste text directly from Microsoft Word, Apple Pages, or similar software, it often brings along hidden formatting, styles, and codes specific to those programs. Pasting as plain text means stripping away all the formatting and pasting only the raw text into your blog post editor.
How do you paste as plain text only?
When you get ready to paste into the text editor of your blog there are usually two paste buttons. One says Paste. The other says “Paste as plain text”. This is the one you want.
Alternatively, you can also right mouse click on the text editor, and select “Paste as Plain Text” in the dropdown that appears.
Pretty easy!
Here’s why you always want to paste as plain text.
Clean and Consistent Formatting
As I mentioned, pasting from Word can introduce formatting inconsistencies that disrupt the look and feel of your website. Plain text ensures a clean and uniform appearance. Your website will look the way you designed it to look, without MS Word messing with your template styles.
Not only does the page look better, with no odd line breaks or off-looking fonts, clean text reduces unnecessary code, resulting in faster page loading times, which users appreciate.
Search engines like Google prefer clean text as it allows them to better understand your content. Thus, pasting plain text instead of formatted text can help your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.
Plain Text can mean Better Mobile Responsiveness
When we design for the web, we have to take into consideration the size of each device someone might look at your website on. Blog posts or pages that have formatting imported through copy and paste from Microsoft Word can interrupt that responsiveness your web designer worked hard to develop.
Instead, plain text ensures that your content looks consistent across various devices and browsers, preventing display issues.
Plain Text can help with Accessibility
Plain text is more compatible with screen readers, ensuring that your content is accessible to individuals with disabilities.
In the realm of website ownership, the little things often make the biggest difference. Pasting text as plain text may seem like a small change, but it can have a significant impact on the quality of your content, user experience, and website performance. By choosing plain text, you ensure clean formatting, faster loading times, and enhanced readability, benefiting both your audience and your search engine visibility.
Think of plain text as an empty canvas for your content, allowing your words to shine without unnecessary distractions. It’s a simple practice that can lead to cleaner, more user-friendly, and better-performing content. So, the next time you’re pasting text into your blog, consider pasting it as plain text for a smoother and more effective website experience.
