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does any one have any suggestions on how to aviod this?

Yes! Don't use Word!

Word docs have their own styling, heaps of it! It's for a word doc, not for a web page. There are several alternatives for you.

1) Clean the page off, including all the junk code. It may be just as easy to delete the article and start over.

2) Open a Notepad document and paste the article into that. No need to save it.

3) Turn off the word wrap so you have long lines that extend beyond the edge of the page.

4) Fix the line breaks so you have only single line breaks, not double spaces.

5) Copy the article. You'll now have left the junk word code behind.

6) Paste the article into a clean Joomla editor page.

7) Next time, either type straight into Notepad or straight into Joomla. Word is a great platform but it's a word processing platform, not a web editor (html editor).

Hi Andy - Laurie's quite right, but if you already have a load of content created in Word, there's a way you can paste it into Joomla.

In the Tiny MCE editor (once you've selected the extended controls) you'll see a clipboard icon with a 'W' on it. Hovering over that and it says 'Paste from Word' and you can do exactly that as it will strip out all the Word formatting.

You can do something similar in JCE where there is a down arrow next to the clipboard icon. Click that, then Paste as plain text and it will do a similar job for you.

Ian

Also, if you're using JCE, you can just right click in the content window, and the menu that pops up will also have Paste as plain text available. That's usually quicker for me.

TinyMCE won't do this with Paste from Word or Paste as plain text, and the Paste from Word function is pretty cool, but I have had issues with it in the past not being perfect also. I think it does allow you to keep SOME of the formatting, but it strips MOST of the Word stuff that causes problems. Just know that if you use this, still check your code to make sure it's OK.

Thanks Guys what would I do without you?! Ian what you suggested worked a treat.

Laurie how is your trip going and where are you at the moment? Perhaps you should keep a blog of your adventures on this site?

Regards. Andy

Oh Andy, I sometimes think I've gone too far off topic for this site as it is, Mate!

Still home for another six weeks or so. A lot of preparation to do for such an extensive trip. As well as getting the ute, caravan and camping gear ready, I'm trying to get several websites ready also.

I have a small laptop and an external areal for the wireless modem.

A couple of sites of mine might give you some ideas for your own travel site:

http://www.southimage.net/

http://nationalpark.net.au/

Hurry up with your site, I want to see those web cams

Oops did not look properly. Love the Mt Wellington view wiht the bridge in the foreground. Have to time it so its daylight down there so I can see the mountain.

Hi Andy,

A solution I found that works for me is to copy and paste from word into note pad, then copy and paste again into the Joomla Article.

Even using the paste box for word in the editor can leave some code from the word file, took me a while to figure out what was wrong on one page out of about twenty.

Andy.

I do Andy's trick too, did not want to say so because I have not tried all the other methods mentioned but its pretty fool proof.

You can also toggle the editor so you see the html code and edit anything out that is messing with your defined styles.

I'll add to that too...I still almost always "clean" copy through Notepad before pasting it in to an article.

Then I style elements with both the style buttons in the editor and manually in the HTML code view.

Thanks Andy, Margot & Robert for your comments. Is Notepad within the text editor or do you use the one on your PC? and I wouldn't have a clue looking at HTML what was good or bad! Regards, Andy

Its the program on your PC.

Just paste the text into notepad, then copy it again from notepad and paste into the joomla editor. The onlyr eason I use word is my poor spelling.

I actually keep all my article content as text files so that if ever I have to rebuild my site it will be a quick process.

I also like SIGPro gallery for that reason, I have a replica of all my gallery folders on my pc so that would be very easy to restore as well.

Yeah, I've seen you mention this before too Margot. Keeping your articles outside of your website, organized and handy is important.

Google Docs works great for this too. You can nest folders to mimic Joomla's article structure, and you can access them wherever you are from any computer.

Wow, we're all early birds today! I've just backed up my website for the first time using Akeeba as recommended by Richard. Do you do this as well as keeping copies of your text files?

I'm an Akeeba Backup junkie. I backup always.

Couple of tips...
Backup often, especially as you are developing or are managing a site that is updated often.
Read the documentation and learn the tips and tricks.
Move the archive files off of your server and store them either on your computer or cloud storage...or both.

Presumably it's worth keeping copies of articles as Margot suggested as well? Robert have you ever had to rebuild your site from a backup?

Definitely on the copies of articles. Margot usually gives great advice.

I have had to rebuild sites unfortunately. More than once or twice! It usually comes down to user (i.e. client) error. Only give access to what they need...and train them really well.

No wonder you obsessively use Akeeba!

Yes, I also backup obsessively. Too many years in the IT industry have made me a bit neurotic on that front. Cant tell you how often someone's accidental deletion of vital files has been saved by restoring a backup.

My text files are not something I put lots of time into, just save in a single directory under the article name - its quick and easy to do as I copy and paste them through notepad. I do this just in case my backup is corrupt - that can happen.

You just need to loose it all once - and you never forget to back up again :-)

Yep, one disaster is all it takes to convince you. Neurotic, paranoid, whatever they call us...they thank us when they need that backup!

Margot, sounds like you had some prior experience similar to mine. I did a lot of enterprise level backup solutions and saw some pretty "interesting" situations happening. More than one disaster from users just not thinking too. Can't say I miss that.

I lost a site on a lousy host in Canada. I was trying them out as a bilingual solution to my Englishman in France situation! Big mistake - but Akeeba to the rescue! The site was back up and running within 10 minutes of me finding it gone.

Once you've had your fingers burnt.....!

Ian