Windows – Paste rich text with formating

clipboardwindows 7

I would like to be able to paste rich text that I've copied (for example) from a webpage directly into notepad (or other plain text box) and retain details like urls etc.

For example, if I copied text from a webpage that read "Stackexchange" (notice how it has a clickable link to "http://stackexchange.com"), pasting to wordpad or some office program, will paste as clickable text. It would be great to be able to paste directly in notepad as

http://stackexchange.com Stackexchange

or

<a href="http://stackexchange.com">Stackexchange</a>

or similar.

I thought a clipboard manager should be able to do this, so I tried CLC and ArsClip. In CLC I could at least see the raw html but no obvious way to get that on to the clipboard. I could save it to a file, but that's not practical.

Best Answer

Try using "Paste Special"

Notepad++ has an option, [Edit, Paste Special, Paste HTML Content]. Copying from various browsers gives different results. I've copied the same section from your question in each browser, and pasted it into Notepad++.

From Firefox:

Version:0.9
StartHTML:00000177
EndHTML:00000550
StartFragment:00000211
EndFragment:00000514
SourceURL:http://superuser.com/questions/570820/paste-rich-text-with-formating
<html><body>
<!--StartFragment-->For example, if I copied text from a webpage that read "Stackexchange" and was a clickable link to "<a href="http://stackexchange.com">http://stackexchange.com</a>",
 pasting to wordpad or some office program, will paste as clickable 
text. It would be great to be able to paste directly in notepad as<!--EndFragment-->
</body>
</html>

From Chrome:

Version:0.9
StartHTML:0000000185
EndHTML:0000002191
StartFragment:0000000221
EndFragment:0000002155
SourceURL:http://superuser.com/questions/570820/paste-rich-text-with-formating
<html>
<body>
<!--StartFragment--><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important; float: none;">For example, if I copied text from a webpage that read "Stackexchange" and was a clickable link to "</span><a href="http://stackexchange.com/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(19, 179, 189); text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">http://stackexchange.com</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important; float: none;">", pasting to wordpad or some office program, will paste as clickable text. It would be great to be able to paste directly in notepad as</span><!--EndFragment-->
</body>
</html>

From IE:

Version:1.0
StartHTML:000000231
EndHTML:000005122
StartFragment:000004682
EndFragment:000004996
StartSelection:000004682
EndSelection:000004996
SourceURL:http://superuser.com/questions/570820/paste-rich-text-with-formating
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<DIV class=post-text itemprop="description"><!--StartFragment--><P>For example, if I copied text from a webpage that read "Stackexchange" and 
was a clickable link to "<A 
href="http://stackexchange.com">http://stackexchange.com</A>", pasting to 
wordpad or some office program, will paste as clickable text. It would be great 
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