Last checked by the TextEditor.com team
How to use the rich text editor
The sheet above works like the text box in an email app. Type, select a few words and click a toolbar button, or press Ctrl+B for bold. There is nothing to install and no account.
- Write and formatHeadings, bold, lists, links and tables are in the toolbar. Ctrl+K lists every command.
- Copy it formattedClick "Copy as formatted text" and paste into Gmail, Outlook, Word or Google Docs.
- Or keep a fileSave a web page (.html), a plain .txt or a Markdown file, or print it as a PDF.
You can also drop an .html, .txt or .md file on the page to edit it here. A pasted Word document is cleaned as it comes in: the text and its structure stay, the Word only code goes.
Rich text, plain text, HTML or Word?
Rich text is text that carries its formatting with it: bold, headings, lists, links, colors. Plain text has none of that, only letters and line breaks. HTML is the code web pages are written in, and a Word file adds page layout on top: margins, headers, footnotes and styles.
| Format | What it holds | Good for | Tool here |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plain text | Letters, spaces and line breaks | Notes, code, forms, anything that must paste clean | Plain text editor |
| Rich text | Bold, italic, headings, lists, links, tables, colors | Email, Google Docs, forum posts, formatted notes | This editor |
| HTML | The same, written as tags you can see and edit | Web pages, blogs, newsletters | HTML editor |
| Word (.docx) | Rich text plus page size, margins, headers, footnotes | Letters, reports, forms to print | Word editor |
The name comes from Rich Text Format, a file type Microsoft made in 1987 so that different word processors could swap formatted text. The last version of that format came out in 2008. Today formatted text moves around as HTML instead, and that is what this editor copies and saves.
How "Copy as formatted text" works
The clipboard can hold the same text in more than one form at once. This editor puts two there: an HTML version with the formatting, and a plain text version without it. The app you paste into picks the one it understands.
Gmail, Outlook, Word, Google Docs and most forum editors take the HTML version, so your headings, bold words, links and lists arrive as they were. A plain field, like a chat box, a search box or Notepad, only takes the plain version, so you get the words with line breaks. The same copy works in both without a second step.
Copy a few lines in Word, Google Docs, an email or a web page, then paste them here. Nothing is sent anywhere, the box only looks at what the paste contains.
- A paste from Word carries two versions of the text: the words, and an HTML version with the formatting. The HTML version is often 10 to 50 times longer than the words themselves.
Each app also reads the HTML in its own way. Gmail keeps bold, lists and links but drops most colors and fonts it does not like. Word keeps nearly everything and turns headings into its own heading styles. Google Docs keeps the structure and maps font sizes to its own.
Why text pasted from Word looks messy
When you copy from Word, Word writes the HTML itself, and it writes a lot. Every paragraph gets a class like MsoNormal, a font name and a line height. Styles that start with mso- only mean something to Word. Empty <o:p> tags mark the end of paragraphs, and comments carry Office settings.
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin'>Hello<o:p></o:p></span></p>
That is 180 characters of code for one word. Pasted into a web form or a blog, it fights with the site's own styles, so the text ends up in the wrong font or the wrong size. This editor removes the Word only parts the moment you paste, and tells you how many it took out. Headings, bold, italic, lists, links and tables stay. The HTML editor shows the code and lets you pick what to remove.
Where your text is saved
Your document is saved in this browser, on this device, in a small database that every browser has built in. It is called IndexedDB. The text is not sent to our server, so it stays private, and we can't get it back for you either.
It is still there after you close the tab or restart the computer. It is gone if you clear the browsing data for this site, or if you write in a private window. Another browser or another device will not have it. For anything that matters, click Save or press Ctrl+S to keep a file.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Keys | What it does |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + B, I, U | Bold, italic and underline |
| Ctrl + K | Every command in one list. Type to find one. |
| Ctrl + S | Saves an .html file. In Chrome and Edge it saves back to the file you opened. |
| Ctrl + O | Opens an .html, .txt or .md file |
| Ctrl + F or H | Find and replace |
| Ctrl + P | Prints only the document, or saves it as a PDF |
| Ctrl + Z, Y | Undo and redo, also after a paste or opening a file |
| Tab in a list | Moves the item one level in. Shift+Tab moves it out. |
| Shift + Enter | Line break inside a paragraph |
On a Mac, use Cmd instead of Ctrl. Need to change the case of a heading? Select it, press Ctrl+K and type "upper" or "title". For more case styles, use the case converter.
Other document editors
- Edit a Word file
.docxThe Word editor opens and saves .docx files in your browser. - Change a PDFPDF ✍Add text, a signature or white out, then save the file again.
- Write in Markdown
**bold**→ boldThe Markdown editor shows a live preview as you type. - Edit a spreadsheet
.xlsx▦The table editor opens Excel files and cells you paste.