Paste messy HTML from Word, Google Docs, email clients, or any CMS editor and get clean, semantic markup in real time. Choose a cleaning preset or toggle individual options to control exactly what gets stripped. Everything runs locally in your browser — no data is ever sent to a server.
Pro tip: Start with the Standard preset for most cleanup tasks. Switch to Deep when migrating content to a new CMS and you want pure semantic HTML. Use Custom to fine-tune individual options for specific needs.
How to Use the HTML Cleaner
Paste your HTML into the left panel and the tool instantly processes it through the active cleaning rules. The cleaned output appears in the right panel in real time, and a visual preview below shows exactly how the cleaned HTML renders in a browser. Use the Copy Clean HTML button to grab the result, or click Format / Prettify to add proper indentation before copying. Choose one of the four aggressiveness presets: Light for Office cleanup only, Standard for styles, classes, and empty tags, Deep to strip to pure semantic HTML, or Custom for individual toggles.
Why Word and Google Docs HTML Is So Messy
When you copy content from Microsoft Word or Google Docs and paste it into a web editor,
the clipboard carries an enormous amount of hidden formatting. Word inserts proprietary
XML namespaces (xmlns:o, xmlns:w), conditional comments
targeting specific Office versions, mso-* CSS properties that no browser
understands, and deeply nested <span> tags with inline styles that
attempt to replicate the document's exact appearance. Google Docs produces similarly
bloated markup with extensive inline styles and wrapper divs that serve no structural
purpose. Cleaning this markup is not optional — it is a necessary step in any
content workflow that involves word processors.
Cleaning HTML for CMS Migration
Migrating content between content management systems is one of the most common use cases for HTML cleaning. The HTML you export almost always carries platform-specific classes, inline styles tied to the old theme, and structural markup that conflicts with the target platform. The ideal approach is to strip content down to semantic HTML — paragraphs, headings, lists, links, emphasis, and strong text — and let the new system's stylesheets handle presentation. Use the Deep preset or build a custom tag whitelist to define exactly which elements your target CMS expects.
Semantic HTML Best Practices
Semantic HTML uses tags that convey meaning rather than appearance. A
<strong> element communicates importance, while a
<b> tag only visually bolds text without semantic weight. Screen
readers and search engine crawlers rely on these semantic distinctions to understand
content structure. This tool automatically upgrades <b> to
<strong> and <i> to <em>,
bringing your markup in line with modern standards without changing the visual output.
When to Clean vs. Rewrite
Use automated cleaning when the content structure is sound but the markup is cluttered with presentation artifacts. Rewrite manually when the HTML structure itself is fundamentally wrong — layout tables, deeply nested divs used as a substitute for semantic elements, or content that mixes data and presentation in ways that cannot be separated by removing attributes alone.
Common HTML Formatting Issues
Beyond Word and Google Docs artifacts, email HTML is notoriously messy because email
clients have inconsistent CSS support, forcing inline styles and table-based layouts.
WYSIWYG editors in older CMS platforms generate excessive <br> tags,
wrap every text node in <span> tags, and leave empty elements
scattered throughout. Non-breaking spaces ( ) accumulate as
content is edited and reformatted. This tool intelligently removes non-breaking spaces
used for spacing while preserving those between words where line breaks should not occur.
For validating and formatting other code formats, try the JSON Formatter & Validator for JSON data, or the CSS Generator when you need to create clean stylesheets from scratch rather than cleaning existing markup.