One tool for messy copy-paste
Text copied from websites, PDFs, Word documents, chat apps and CMS editors comes with hidden baggage: HTML tags, codes like , curly quotes that break code and CSV files, zero-width characters that ruin searches, and line breaks in the middle of sentences. The Text Cleaner removes all of that in a single pass so you get plain, predictable text.
What each option does
- Strip HTML tags removes tags such as
<p>and<span>, deletes scripts and styles completely, and turns paragraph and line-break tags into real line breaks. - Decode HTML entities converts codes like
&,"and'back into the characters they stand for. - Remove invisible characters deletes zero-width spaces, soft hyphens and byte-order marks, and converts non-breaking spaces to normal ones.
- Straighten smart quotes and dashes turns “curly quotes” into "straight quotes", en and em dashes into hyphens, and the ellipsis character into three dots.
- Join broken lines fixes text from PDFs and emails where each line ends with a hard break. Single line breaks become spaces; blank lines between paragraphs are kept.
- Remove URLs, email addresses or emoji deletes those items wherever they appear.
- Remove non-ASCII characters keeps only basic English letters, digits and symbols. Use it with care, because it also removes accented letters and non-Latin scripts.
Suggested settings
For text copied from a PDF, turn on Join broken lines. For content going into a CSV, JSON file or code, keep Straighten smart quotes on. For data for an old system that only accepts plain ASCII, add Remove non-ASCII characters.
Frequently asked questions
How do I remove formatting from copied text?
Paste it into the left box with the default options ticked. The right box contains plain text with no HTML, hidden characters or curly quotes. Copy it from there.
How do I fix text copied from a PDF with broken lines?
Tick "Join broken lines". Lines that end mid-sentence are joined with a space, while blank lines between paragraphs are kept.
Is it safe to paste HTML with scripts?
Yes. The HTML is treated as text and never executed; script and style blocks are simply removed.
Why did accented letters disappear?
You probably ticked "Remove non-ASCII characters". Untick it to keep letters like é, ü and ñ.
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