What is the “Paste from Word” button anyway?

The ‘Paste from Word’ button is a button found in the second row of icons in the WordPress WYSIWYG editor that preserves your formatting while at the same time filters out problematic code when pasting content into WordPress from a rich-text program such as Word.

Why is it important?

When copying and pasting into WordPress (from Word, from an email, from anywhere), it is important to ALWAYS use the ‘Paste as Text’ or the ‘Paste from Word’ button in the WordPress editor. When we copy from any rich-text environment, a lot of extra (hidden) code can come along with what we are copying. When that is pasted into the WordPress editor and published to the website, this code can cause the website to display incorrectly or not at all, particularly in Internet Explorer.

Where can I find the ‘Paste from Word’ button?

If your Visual editor’s toolbar has just one row of buttons, press the one labeled Show/Hide Kitchen Sink (usually the last one in the top row). Then in the second row, you’ll see a clipboard icon with the Word logo on it. Press this button, and a screen will pop-up where you can paste the contents of your Word file.

Special Note: Inserting Tables into the WordPress Editor

The ‘Paste from Word’ button is very useful for inserting a table into your post or page.

After creating a table in Word, select the entire table using the selector icon in the top left corner of the table. Click Ctrl+C or right-click and Copy the table.

Then using the ‘Paste from Word’ button in WordPress, paste (Ctrl+V) the table into the pop-up window. Then click Insert into Post.