Copying and pasting content into the WYSIWYG editor

This article explores how to copy and paste content into the WYSIWYG editor from other sources. Content created outside of your digital workplace's native editor often uses styles that may not be recognizable to the editor or styles that may not be visually consistent with your existing digital workplace. As a result, it is often desirable to remove these styles when pasting content into your digital workplace.

Sections in this article:

Dealing with images

Rather than copying and pasting an image (whether by itself or as part of a larger body of content), you should do one of the following:

  • If you plan to use this image in a single location: 
    1. Save the image to your computer.
    2. Insert the downloaded image into the WYSIWYG editor.
  • If you plan on using this image multiple times throughout your digital workplace: 
    1. Save the image to your computer.
    2. Upload the image to a Folder Channel in your digital workplace.
    3. Insert the image from the Folder Channel into the WYSIWYG editor.

Both of these methods avoid the image becoming broken should the source become unavailable.

Clear formatting

You can use the editor's  Clear Formatting tool to remove most styles from content that you have already pasted into the editor. While this tool does remove most formatting, it will sometimes leave some inline styles applied to elements.

How to copy and paste content into the WYSIWYG editor

From elsewhere in your digital workplace:

Paste the copied text into the editor using Ctrl+V. The editor will strip the styling from the pasted text while preserving any links, lists, images, and tables.

However, if you want to duplicate an entire piece of content and keep any styles, it is often better to copy and paste using the content's source code. To do this:

  1. Go to the content to be copied.
  2. Select Actions.
  3. Select Edit.
  4. On the editor's toolbar, select More Misc and then Code View.
  5. Select all the text (Ctrl+A).
  6. Copy the text (Ctrl+C).
  7. Go to where you want to paste the text.
  8. On the editor's toolbar, select More Misc and then Code View.
  9. Paste the text (Ctrl+V).

From Microsoft Office desktop applications:

When pasting content from Microsoft Office desktop applications (e.g., Word, Outlook) into the editor, you have the option to Clean or Keep its formatting. 

  • Select Clean to paste content without any style information. 
  • Select Keep to paste content with style information.

Most of the time, you will want to select Clean as it results in the content being visually consistent with your digital workplace. However, you will need to edit the content to resize any images and reapply styles such as font colors.

From any location (e.g., Microsoft O365, Google Docs, other web pages, etc.):

Paste the copied text into the editor using Ctrl+V. The editor will strip the styling from the pasted text while preserving any links, lists, images, and tables.

Another alternative is to paste using Ctrl+Shift+V. Pasting this way removes all styles, links, images, and tables.