Why is HTML from Microsoft Word so bad?

Word exports a faithful record of its own layout engine rather than markup meant for the web. You get inline styles for every run of text, mso- prefixed CSS, conditional comments, namespace tags, and class names that reference a stylesheet you never receive. None of it is useful on a website, and it overrides your own design.

Will my links and formatting survive?

Yes. Anything structural stays: links keep their href, bold and italic remain as and , and list nesting is preserved. What goes is presentation that should come from your own stylesheet instead.

HTML Cleaner

Clean messy HTML online — strip inline styles, classes, comments, and Microsoft Word or Google Docs junk. Get semantic markup that inherits your site's styles.

100% in your browser — your code never leaves this tab. No sign-up, no limits.

Tools

HTML Cleaner

Strip Word & Google Docs junk

Messy HTML

Paste HTML, drop a file, or

Clean Output

Output updates live as you type

Client-side · Ctrl+S downloads · Ctrl+M frees Tab

HTML Cleaner — Frequently Asked Questions

Copying from a word processor into a rich text editor carries the source formatting with it. The page then renders with fonts and sizes from a document rather than from your design system, and the difference is obvious the moment the site theme changes.

The cleaner is deliberately conservative about structure.

Kept

Headings, paragraphs, lists, tables, links, images, and semantic emphasis.

Removed

Inline styles, classes, ids, comments, Office tags, and deprecated presentational elements.

Word exports a faithful record of its own layout engine rather than markup meant for the web. You get inline styles for every run of text, mso- prefixed CSS, conditional comments, <o:p> namespace tags, and class names that reference a stylesheet you never receive. None of it is useful on a website, and it overrides your own design.

Inline style attributes, class and id attributes, comments including Word conditional comments, Office namespace elements, deprecated presentational tags such as <font> and <center>, and empty paragraphs used purely as spacing. Headings, paragraphs, lists, links, emphasis, and tables are preserved.

Yes. Anything structural stays: links keep their href, bold and italic remain as <strong> and <em>, and list nesting is preserved. What goes is presentation that should come from your own stylesheet instead.

That is the point. Once inline styling is gone, the markup inherits whatever your site defines. Pasted into your own pages it will pick up your fonts, colours, and spacing rather than fighting them.

That is the most common use. Running content through the cleaner first stops your CMS database filling with Word styling that later proves difficult to strip out consistently.

HTML Tools

Write markup with a live preview, then beautify it, minify it, validate the structure, or convert it to Markdown, JSX or plain text. Nothing is uploaded and nothing is stored on a server, so pasting client work or an unreleased page is not a decision you have to think about.