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WS Paste Cleaner

WordPress plugin that automatically strips Microsoft Word formatting on paste. Gutenberg + TinyMCE compatible, with three cleaning levels and a built-in test zone.

by WebStrategy · github.com/wordpress-freelance/ws-paste-cleaner · website

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Install

No release zip yet. The repository archive installs, but the folder name will carry the branch suffix and updates will not flow:

wp plugin install https://github.com/wordpress-freelance/ws-paste-cleaner/archive/refs/heads/main.zip
Readme github.com/wordpress-freelance/ws-paste-cleaner ↗

Automatically strip Microsoft Word formatting on paste in the WordPress editor. Compatible with Gutenberg and the Classic Editor.

Description

WS Paste Cleaner intercepts paste events from Microsoft Word and removes the parasitic HTML — MsoNormal classes, inline styles, proprietary Office namespaces (<o:p>, <w:*>, <v:*>), and conditional comments — so your editor only sees clean, semantic markup.

Features

  • Automatic cleanup on paste in Gutenberg and TinyMCE (Classic Editor)
  • Three cleaning levels: Light, Moderate, Aggressive
  • Built-in test zone to preview how content will be cleaned before pasting
  • Local usage statistics (no remote tracking)
  • No outbound API calls; cleaning happens entirely on your own server
  • Fully translatable

Cleaning levels

  • Light — Strips Word-only metadata (Mso* classes, Office namespaces, conditional comments). Keeps the rest of the structure intact.
  • Moderate (recommended) — Strips all Word markup (classes, inline styles, span/font wrappers) while preserving semantic structure: headings, lists, links, strong/em.
  • Aggressive — Plain text only. Removes all HTML and rebuilds the content as paragraphs.

Source code

The full source code is available at https://github.com/WordPress-freelance/ws-paste-cleaner — no build step is required, the plugin ships ready to run.

Continuous integration runs the full PHPUnit suite on PHP 7.4, 8.0, 8.1 and 8.2 on every push: https://github.com/WordPress-freelance/ws-paste-cleaner/actions

Installation

  1. Upload the ws-paste-cleaner folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory, or install via Plugins → Add New.
  2. Activate the plugin through the Plugins menu in WordPress.
  3. Go to Settings → WS Paste Cleaner to choose your cleaning level.
  4. Paste content from Microsoft Word into any post or page — cleanup happens automatically.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does it work with Gutenberg?

Yes, fully compatible with the block editor.

Does it work with the Classic Editor?

Yes, fully compatible with TinyMCE.

Does it work with page builders like Elementor or Avada?

Cleanup hooks into native WordPress paste events. Page builders that use their own iframe-based editor may not trigger the cleaner — this is on the roadmap for a future version.

Will it remove formatting I want to keep?

The Moderate level (default) preserves headings, lists, links, bold and italic. Only Word-specific noise is removed. Use Light if you want to be even more conservative, or Aggressive if you want plain text only.

Does the plugin send my content to any external server?

No. All HTML cleaning is performed locally on your WordPress installation by a PHP class. The pasted content never leaves your server. See the "External services" section below for the only exception (Google Fonts on the settings page UI).

Where are the usage statistics stored?

In the wp_options table on your own database, as a single integer counter. Nothing is sent anywhere.

External services

This plugin uses one external service:

Google Fonts

The plugin's settings page (Settings → WS Paste Cleaner) loads two web fonts (Lora and Inter) from fonts.googleapis.com to render the WebStrategy admin design. This request is only made when an administrator opens the plugin's settings page; it never runs on the front end of the site or for visitors.

  • What is sent: the standard request a browser makes to load a font (URL, user agent, IP address) — same as any site that uses Google Fonts.
  • When: only when an administrator visits the plugin's settings page in /wp-admin/.
  • Service provider: Google LLC.
  • Terms of Service: https://policies.google.com/terms
  • Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

No content typed into the WordPress editor is ever transmitted to Google or any other third party.

Screenshots

  1. Settings page with the three cleaning levels and the live test zone.
  2. Before/after preview: raw Word HTML on the left, cleaned output on the right.
  3. Statistics card showing the number of cleanups performed locally.

Changelog

1.0.1

  • Security hardening: every cleaner output is now filtered through wp_kses_post() as a final safety net, guaranteeing that no `