Beginner using notepad++

Trish White

How do I convert a word doc to plain text using notepad++?
When I was using notepad, I just copied my word document and pasted it into notepad and then copied it from notepad and it worked.
However when I did this with notepad++, all the formatting in word was carried across, is there something else I need to do?
Thank you.

Claudia Frank

@Trish-White

does this mean that, if you copy the content from word to notepad++ everything looks as it
should be, then you start modifying text and afterwards when copying from notepad++ to word
the indentation is messed up?

If so, I assume that notepad++ has set tab should be replaced by spaces.
See settings->preferences

Cheers
Claudia

Trish White

@Claudia-Frank
Hi Claudia,

Appreciate your reply. No I didn’t edit the content, all I want to do is convert the content to plain text.

This is what I was trying to do…
I am using a “text to speech” software which states that my article has to be in “plain text”.

Initially, I tried using “notepad” to convert my article from a word doc to plain text. However, it still had hidden code (although I can’t see it), so I was told I should use “notepad++” to convert my word doc to plain text.

After installing notepad++
I clicked on File, New.
Then I copied and pasted my word doc article into notepad++

The article in notepad++ still had the word doc formatting (i.e. it didn’t convert it to plain text).

If there something else I need to do with the notepad++ settings or preferences etc. so my article is converted to plain text?

Thank you

Claudia Frank

@Trish-White
Hi Trish,

what makes you think that it isn’t converted?
I do not have MS Word, although I strongly believe it should behave like LibreOffice,
but I gave it a try with LibreOffice and if I do

ctrl+a (select all)
ctrl+c (copy) and
ctrl+v paste

it seems to work.

Can you post your notepad++ debug-info, available under ? menu and a exact description
how you copy and paste your text, like if using shortcut or menu entry and what the result
is vs. what is expected. Maybe there is just a simple misunderstanding.

Cheers
Claudia

Mikhail V

@Trish-White

Hi. In Notepad++ I very much doubt you still have any Word doc formatting or
hidden code. I suppose your software does not understand unicode symbols and
assumes the text must be Plain ASCII characters.
Try doing this: in Notepad++ click “encoding” menu item, then click “convert to ansi”.
Where does the software takes text from? Clipboard or a txt file?

Trish White

@Claudia-Frank
Hi Claudia,

I’ve tried ctrl+ c and ctrl+v and also using the right click function on the mouse.

The plain text that I copied from notepad++ to my “text to speech” software still had “bold, italic” etc. hence I concluded that plain text was not copied across.

However, when I have tried Mikhail’s suggestion, the problem was fixed.

Anyway, I do appreciate your help.

Regards
Trish

Trish White

Hi Mikhail,

The “text to speech” software can take text from either a text file or clipboard.

I’ve tried your suggestion in notepad++ (“encoding” and “convert to ansi”) and it worked. Don’t know much about the technical side but as long as it works, that’s great!

Thanks for your help.

Regards,
Trish