How to Remove HTML Format in Text
HTML files are really just text files with extra tags added. These tags tell the browser how to treat the text and show it on the screen. You can easily strip these tags from any .html document just to get the text or you can copy just the text out. Each method only takes a few minutes. Removing the tags will leave your text completely unformatted and you will need to format all text again in a word processor or a design program.
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Instructions
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Copying out the Text
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Open your file in your favorite browser.
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Highlight the text you want by dragging the mouse over the text while holding down the left mouse button on a PC or just the single mouse button on a Mac OS.
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Hold "Ctrl" and "C" on your keyboard to copy the text. On a Mac Os, hold down "Command" and "C" on your keyboard to copy the text.
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Open your text editor. If you are using a plain text editor, just hold down "Ctrl" and "V" to paste the text in the text editor ("Command" and "V" on a Mac). If you are using a word processor or a design program, you will need to remove formatting. Go to “Edit,” then “Paste Special.” Choose “Unformatted Text,” then click “OK.” The text will paste into your software with no HTML formatting.
Removing the Tags by Hand
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Open up the .html document in your text editor.
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Look for the <body> tag. It may also have some extra information in it such as <body something=something else>. Delete this and everything above it.
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Click on "Edit" and choose "Search and Replace." In the "Look For" box, put <*>. Leave the "Replace" box empty. Click on "Replace All." This will remove all the remaining tags from the document.
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Tips & Warnings
You can also buy software that automatically strips HTML tags from your document.
References
- Photo Credit Ciaran Griffin/Lifesize/Getty Images
