Copying Web Pages to Word - What Happened?

Me | 10/16/2003 | Me

[Elijah27]

Okay, I've searched and haven't found the answer I'm looking for, so I thought I'd turn to fellow Freepers for a solution. I know that I once could copy/paste web pages directly into Word (using Office XP version) and retain [most of] the formatting, etc. In fact, if I use Word as my e-mail editor, it still works the same way.

Now, however, if I paste from a web page into a Word doc I get lots of field codes (like {HYPERLINK}, etc.). I've been wanting to put together a collection of articles I want to keep in hard copy and pasting as text only and then reformatting is getting quite cumbersome.

I've tried pasting into WordPad then into Word and that is much better; the font formatting is retained but the hyperlinks still come in as field codes. I've also looked at things such as HTML2RTF but it seems to me that there should be a simpler method other than a 3rd-party program. This used to work just fine; is there a switch under Options somewhere that I'm missing?

[Elijah27]

Any suggestions are appreciated; this shouldn't be so difficult a task...guess I should toss Word? ;-)

[glock rocks]

try hitting ALT-F9 to toggle field-codes for the whole document.

Then toss Word.

[freedomlover]

You're not logged in.

[steplock]

I haven't used word in quite a while, but if you are saving html articles, why not just save it in html format? It's much smaller file size.

The only thing about saving HTML format is that it usually creates a sub-folder for icons, pictures etc. You can delete what you don't want from that folder.

[glock rocks]

On second thought, if you're just interested in saving the text from the article, select Edit, Paste Special, Text, OK. and all the fancy formatting and hyperlinks and stuff will be ignored.

Then toss Word.

[Elijah27]

I'm creating a notebook of articles including a table of contents, hopefully a cross-referenced appendix, etc., using Word's "outline" mode and a few other goodies. This notebook will be fairly large and I wanted to be able to make sure that the print layout would be pretty accurate; I've had problems with printouts from pure HTML and the layout. But you're right...it would be much smaller!

[Elijah27]

Actually, that's what I have been doing, but I actually want to keep most of the formatting (footnotes, bold, italics, etc.); so I've been going back and redoing what was already done.

[Elijah27]

It appears that ALT-F9 works...what command does that correspond to in the menu? I've looked all through the settings and must be looking right past it...

[John Jorsett]

I'm not a Word expert, but have you tried opening the URL in WOrd (just paste the whole URL in the 'open' dialog box), editing out what you don't want, then saving as a .doc file?

[Elijah27]

Yes, same thing happened to me when doing that; however, the "field codes" command corrects that as well. It appears that had I done a print preview while seeing all these codes I would've discovered that the actual printout would still resemble the original web page, NOT the codes themselves. These little things are highly annoying. :-)

[glock rocks]

I'm not sure what menu item it corresponds to... the mind forgets, but the fingers don't :o)

[John Jorsett]

Ah. I didn't realize you might not be in print preview. I'm almost never in any other mode.

[NotQuiteCricket]

Someone set us up the bomb.

[VOA]

bump

[wildbill]

I found a free utility called Pure Text that works well for me. You simply copy the text onto the clipboard and then hit the Pure Text icon. It deletes all the HTML but leaves in the other formatting for paragraphs, etc.

Saves a LOT of space and you don't have to go back online to read your copy or to print.

[glock rocks]

I found it in the menu.

Go to Tools, Options...

On the View tab, the top right checkbox is Field Codes.

When this box is checked, you get the {HYPERLINK} stuff you were talking about. Uncheck the box, and the world is again a happy place.

[Elijah27]

Thanks! I might give that a shot, too! Any links for it?

[BJungNan]

Interesting. I have the same problem when copying an email from my web based mail service to word (word 98). All kinds of code and odd formating shows up. Exactly the same as you are talking about.

[mrobison]

It's probable you have a non-encased unit in the sub-neutron rectifier of your CPU. Normally, this is indicative of a complete disgronificator failure. Not to worry though - you can fix it with kitchen utensils.

My alternative suggestion: Put the computer back in its carton, take it to Toys-R-Us, then tell them you want to exchange it for an XBox.