LibA11y: Making our library content accessible
  • Introduction to LibA11y
  • Part 1: Why should we care?
    • 1.1 Why should we care about digital accessibility?
    • 1.2 How is content perceived?
  • Part 2: How To Build Better...
    • 2.0 How to build better content? Test your work.
    • 2.1 Page Structure
    • 2.2 Images
    • 2.3 Color and Text
    • 2.4 Hyperlinks
    • 2.5 Readability
    • 2.6 Video and Audio
    • 2.7 Tables
  • Appendices: Tools & Resources
    • A. Four principles of a well-coded page
    • B. Better copy-pasting
    • C. Non-HTML documents
    • D. Useful Links
    • Conclusion
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  • The hidden problem with copy/paste
  • Solution: How to avoid these hidden styles

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  1. Appendices: Tools & Resources

B. Better copy-pasting

PreviousA. Four principles of a well-coded pageNextC. Non-HTML documents

Last updated 1 year ago

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The hidden problem with copy/paste

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.

Solution: How to avoid these 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 leave 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.

Extra 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
Button to use for leaving the original formatting as in the Word document.
Rich text editor toolbar screenshot of buttons used for removing hidden text formatting
Button to use for removing hidden styles from copied text.
Button to use for removing all formatting from selected text in the rich text editor.