Quick tip: Paste from Word

Many bloggers write their posts in a program like Microsoft Word and then copy and paste them into WordPress.

This is a good way to keep a backup copy on your own computer, but Microsoft Word does some weird things with your text behind-the-scenes, and the results when you paste it into your blog can be odd. It varies depending on what kind of content you’ve written, but common issues include:

• The font is different from the rest of the blog (the specific font used, the size, or both)
• There are lots of extra spaces
• When you view your post, it ends unexpectedly without showing the whole thing

Fortunately, WordPress has a special “Paste from Word” button that gets rid of the extra junk that Word puts in. To get to it, you just click the “Show/Hide Kitchen Sink” button (yes, it’s really called that… but it looks like paint chips to me…) and the “Paste from Word” button shows up.

The short video below shows the button in action (there’s no sound, so don’t worry about turning your speakers up).