Copy and Paste tips
Accessibility Interactions
When copying and pasting from another source, such as Word and LibGuides, hidden style code can be copied along with the content. These hidden styles can break an otherwise accessible document so here are some tips.
How to avoid hidden styles
Many rich text editors have these useful tools.
The "clipboard-T" (Paste as Plain Text) button will show a paste box that strips out all text formatting and leaves behind plain text. Best for simple text.
The "clipboard-W" (Paste from Word) button will show a paste box that keeps the formatting structure from the source, but strips out extra styling.
This button will remove all formatting from selected text inside the rich text editor. This will generally solve strange formatting issues you may find from copied text. This button will also remove hard-coded widths from tables that may overflow your guide.
Bonus tip: You can also use the "Paste from Word" button with data from Excel. When you paste in a series of cells, the resulting paste will be a simple and clean HTML table in your guide! (Source: Boston College LibGuides Accessibility Guide)
Helpful key commands: Finally, many applications have a paste without formatting option that strips any formatting from the source when utilized. Most programs use the same key combination:
- Mac: command+shift+v
- PC: control+shift+v
