When you copy any text and paste it into your WordPress page or post, it’s most likely that the underlying style codes will be copied too. These codes will override the style sheet that is set out in your web design and show each article with different fonts, colours and sizes. This could also happen when you copy and paste text from e-mails (or other sources). 

So what if it’s completely different? Will the sky fall on my head?

Perhaps. Perhaps not.

Personally I prefer the information I’m reading to look uniform and neat, but then I’m rather pedantic. Other people might enjoy reading posts that look different to each other, with a mish-mash of fonts, colours and text sizes.

It could come across as being free-minded and fun-loving, but it could also be (mis)interpreted as being scatter-brained and that you’ve lost sight of the ball. Hmm.

Hang on a mo’ … before you get the wrong idea – I am not saying that your writing should be boring or not show any imagination! It’s just better if the styling is done in a uniform way and with purpose. Take a look at How to Style Your Text to get great looking website pages.

So how do I copy and paste text without the underlying codes?

In the text document or e-mail, highlight the text that you’d like to use in your article. Press <Ctrl+C> to copy the text to your computer’s clipboard. Then instead of pasting it directly into WordPress, you need to make a quick detour.

In Vista, go to the Windows Start button, All Programs, Accessories and choose Notepad (you can normally find Accessories quite easily in the other versions of Windows).

Then you’ll get a blank screen in Notepad. Press <Ctrl+V> to paste the text. You’ll see the text appear in the blank window. Then, to make sure you’ve selected everything, press <Ctrl+A> to select all. Press <Ctrl+C> to copy it again.

Now go to your WordPress post (or page) and place your cursor (left-click with your mouse) in the spot where you’d like to insert the text. Then press <Ctrl+V> to paste it. Voila!

Your text has been copied without any underlying codes. Now you can style the text to suit your website.

Hang on a minute … there were pictures too, but now they’re gone!

Okay, you’re on to me.

Notepad is a basic text editor and doesn’t know what to do with pictures. You on the other hand are bright and intelligent and can insert an image yourself through WordPress.

Or it might work if you copy the picture itself and paste it into the right spot.

Might … what kind of training is this?

The path of the image plays a role in whether it will appear in your post or not. Sometimes the route to the pictures can’t be found, then instead, you’ll see that dreaded white box with a little red X, which should rather say, “Sorry, would you mind trying something else?’ in a friendlier tone, don’t you think?

Tip: consider the size of the picture in relation to the width of your text column. You might receive a lovely big photograph by e-mail, but if you to try to squeeze it into a narrow column of text, it could just fall off the side and only show half the picture. Refer to How to add a picture for further details.