Use this tool to convert rich text to plain text in one step. Paste text from Word, Google Docs, a web page or an email. You can also paste HTML or RTF code from a database field. The tool removes all fonts, colors, links and tags. It keeps your paragraphs, lists and tables, so you do not have to correct the layout manually.
What the Converter Removes and What It Keeps
| Removed | Kept |
|---|---|
| Fonts, sizes, colors and highlights | All the words, numbers and symbols |
| Bold, italic and underline | Paragraphs, with one empty line between |
| HTML tags, styles and scripts | Line breaks from <br> and \line |
Codes such as and & | Bullets as - and numbers as 1. |
| Word and Google Docs hidden markup | Table rows, with a tab between the cells |
| Invisible zero-width characters | Link text (and the URL, if you want it) |
Convert Rich Text From Word, Google Docs or Email
- Select the text in your document or email.
- Copy it (Ctrl+C, or Cmd+C on a Mac).
- Click the box above and paste it (Ctrl+V or Cmd+V).
- The box shows a preview of the formatting. The plain text shows on the right.
- Click Copy plain text or Download .txt.
The tool reads the formatting data that your clipboard sends with the text. This is why the lists and tables stay in the correct order. The badge above the result shows the source, for example From Microsoft Word.
Input (from Word):
Team update ← heading, bold, 16 pt
• Test the sign-up form
• Update the help pages
Output:
Team update
- Test the sign-up form
- Update the help pages
Remove HTML Tags From a Rich Text Field
Many systems keep rich text fields as HTML. Some examples are Microsoft Dataverse and Power Apps, SharePoint enhanced rich text columns, Salesforce rich text areas and CRM notes. When you export these fields to CSV or Excel, the tags show in the cells.
Paste the field value in the box. The tool removes the tags and decodes the HTML codes.
Input:
<div class="ck-content">
<p>Customer asked for a refund & a new invoice.</p>
<ol>
<li>Check the order</li>
<li>Send the <strong>refund</strong></li>
</ol>
</div>
Output:
Customer asked for a refund & a new invoice.
1. Check the order
2. Send the refund
Convert an RTF File to Plain Text
RTF (Rich Text Format) is a document file that starts with {\rtf1. WordPad, TextEdit and many older programs save RTF files. Some databases, for example Microsoft Access memo fields, also keep RTF code.
Click Upload file and select the .rtf file, or paste the RTF code in the box. The tool removes the font table, the color table, the style sheet and the images. It decodes special characters such as \'e9 (é) and 荤 (€).
Input:
{\rtf1\ansi{\fonttbl{\f0 Calibri;}}\f0 Caf\'e9 menu\par \b Soup\b0\tab $4\par}
Output:
Café menu
Soup $4
Settings
Open More options to change the result:
- Keep bullets and numbers: On by default. Turn it off to get only the text of each list item.
- Show link URLs: Writes each link as
text (https://example.com). Use it when the URLs are important. - Empty line between paragraphs: Turn it off to get one paragraph on each line, with no empty lines.
- Straight quotes: Changes curly quotes (“ ” ‘ ’) to straight quotes (" and '). Use it for code, CSV files and old systems.
Convert Rich Text to Plain Text in Code and Apps
If you must convert many records, use the function of your platform. Make sure that you examine the result, because most functions do not keep list markers or table cells.
JavaScript (browser):
const doc = new DOMParser().parseFromString(html, "text/html");
const text = doc.body.textContent; // no line breaks between blocks
Python (Beautiful Soup):
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
text = BeautifulSoup(html, "html.parser").get_text(separator="\n", strip=True)
Power Apps: use PlainText(RichTextEditor1.HtmlText).
Power Automate: add the Html to text action (Content Conversion connector) and set the rich text field as the content.
Salesforce Apex: use String text = record.Notes__c.stripHtmlTags();.
Paste without formatting:
- Chrome, Edge and Google Docs: press Ctrl+Shift+V (Cmd+Shift+V on a Mac).
- Microsoft Word: paste, click the Paste Options button and select Keep Text Only.
- Mac apps: press Cmd+Option+Shift+V (Paste and Match Style).
- Mac TextEdit: select Format > Make Plain Text (Shift+Cmd+T).
Common Mistakes
- You copy from a PDF. A PDF often has a line break at the end of each line. Use the remove line breaks tool after you convert the text.
- You paste into a box that keeps formatting. Some editors add the formatting again. Paste the result into a plain text field, or use Ctrl+Shift+V.
- You use a regular expression to remove tags. A pattern such as
<[^>]*>leaves codes such as and joins paragraphs. It also fails on a>inside an attribute. - You expect images. Plain text cannot have images. The tool removes them.
Explore More Free Text Tools
- Remove formatting: remove hidden characters, extra spaces and smart punctuation from text that is already plain.
- Text cleaner: remove emojis, URLs, numbers or duplicate lines from your plain text.
- Remove line breaks online: join lines that a PDF or an email broke in the wrong place.
- Convert table to Markdown: change a table from Word, Excel or a web page into a Markdown table.
- HTML indent code: indent HTML when you must read or edit the tags, not remove them.
- Convert all caps to sentence case: correct text that was in capital letters after you remove the formatting.
Your text stays in your browser. The tool does not send it to a server.
Paste your rich text above and copy clean plain text now.