An excerpt from a great post solving problems new WordPress users face. Here’s a common and very messy one:
Problem:
The content within the pages need help with presentation. To make more attractive, I used tables in word to apply different colors and boxes before cutting and pasting. The end product however does not appear in my post.
Do not use Word to apply any styling, period. In fact, to make your life easier in web publishing, I urge you to strongly consider changing your workflow to exclude Word. In short, Word is a word processor for creating documents, not for creating HTML for use on the web (although it claims to have this ability). The problem your seeing is that Word adds all kinds of styling code that is specific to the Word software program and NOT valid HTML. When you plop that into an HTML editor (as the WP visual editor is), those Word-specific styles get ignored and you get what you’re seeing now.
Some solutions:
1. In the WP editor visual mode, look for a button that has a yellow folder and blue W (Word icon). This allows you to paste text from a Word doc and WP will attempt to remove all Word-specific coding.
2. Paste your Word text into a plain text editor first, then into WP editor (this removes the offending Word-specific code).
3. Write your content directly in WP instead, or use a plain text editor to write content and then apply your styling later in WP
via WordPress Tutorials – Common Questions from New Users.
Trisha Cupra ⋅
status ⋅
design, WordPress ⋅