Formatting Issues with Copy and Pasted text

[BrynC6]

Please, please, fix the editor so that when text is pasted in from another program, it appears with the DESTINATION formatting (the existing formatting of the campaign). I waste so much time reformatting text to match what's already there, every time I bring in new content. (I saw the help doc about pasting text into a text editor first to strip complex formatting; this doesn't help. It still gets pasted in a color, font, size, etc. that's different from what's already there.)

This would make Constant Contact so much easier to use. Thanks.

[BrynC6]

Some good points & info already shared in this thread. As other's have mentioned, this idea has been open for several years and we've gone through a few editor updates/versions in that time. I just wanted to post a comment that summarizes some of the issue right now:

Standard Ctrl + V copy/paste will paste the content with the formatting from the original source.

If you paste with Ctrl + Shift + V (Option + Cmd + Shift + V in Mac) the content will be pasted without formatting. When this happens the destination formatting applied should be whatever defaults are set on the Design tab in the editor. 

The template defaults can be overridden at the block level. I imagine knowing to use Ctrl + Shift + V will solve the issue for some. For others, I'm guessing "destination formatting" is considered the formatting at the block level and not the template default, which also makes sense. Feel free to clarify to make sure we're capturing the feedback more accurately. The ability to paste without formatting was feedback that was considered and planned for with this current editor, but it seems like the thought was to apply the global styles.

[PacificChurchNetwork]

Please add a tool to remove formatting/coding from text that is being copied and pasted in from another source. Square Space has this tool, and it's extremely helpful.

Also, please enable Events to accept additional reservations from the same email address. We work with churches, and often a leader tries to register people for the same event on multiple occasions. They hit a road block when they try to use their own email address to re-enter the event registration. And...they don't know why it's happening. This is a frustrating experience for our constituents and us.

Thanks for your consideration of these ideas!

[rcppubs23]

This is one thing that could be "fixed" by having access to the html text, since you have not designed the interface to allow this type of paste requested by BrynC6. With access to the html code, at least you would be able to pick up the formatting in the template.

[BeadFXBeads]

I just tried to edit some bolded text, and found that when I highlighted the text and clicked on the bold button, all it did was cycle through different fonts.

[Chris__D]

 Hey @BeadFXBeads, thanks for sharing this! I took a look at the most recent campaign that you sent and found that this block you were working in was the only one affected. If I create a new block, the bold button works as expected. This often happens when content is copy and pasted from external sources and in order to fix this, we suggest clearing the styles of your block as well as pasting as plain text, which can be done in most browsers by pressing control + shift + V. If doing this doesn't work, it may be best to start with a brand new content block in your next email. This will help clear out any bad formatting and incompatible code within that block. 

[AnwarK]

I have the same issue. I have been advised by CC Help Desk to paste the text in a text editor which in itself is an extra step). However, even that does not work. Creating a new text block also does not work. All this should not be required in the 1st place as it leads to an immense amount of time being wasted and the final product still not being acceptable. I am on the verge of switching my vendor due to the immense amount of frustration I experience with this issue. I hope the company will do something to resolve this to keep it from losing customers who rely on email marketing frequently. 

[GCO]

I share the frustrations laid out here. I have to get my newsletters translated into multiple languages and creat new versions. So I copy the English version and I try to paste in the text (and keep the destination formatting). If I try to paste in directly from the translated document, who knows what will happen to the text, but even when i strip out the formatting and try to paste it in, it just pastes it in as plain text. In most other web programs i have worked with, i have dealt with funkiness, by simply being able to go into the HTML and paste over the values, but not touch with formatting. I woudl be fine with that or i would be fine if you added a "paste with destination format" option. Currently, i need to either manually type in the content (no bueno) or paste it in and completely reformat it.....again (pas bon).

[KevinT8859]

Any update here? This is lame that one cannot match the destination formatting.

[Frankie_P]

Hi @KevinT8859 there are no further updates on this feature request at this time. Have you tried removing formatting before pasting into your email? If you are using Chrome, does pasting as plain text help?

[rcppubs23]

The people who are responding to this on behalf of Constant Contact don't seem to understand what is being asked for.

What we all want to be able to do is take an existing email created in Constant Contact and replace the copy in it while holding the styling. But whether you paste from a word processing program or simply paste text from a text editor (notepad, sublime) the text does not pick up the existing styles of the "template text" for want of a better term. Then you have to style each piece of text.

In the previous editor, where we could paste it into the html, we could retain the styles that way, but now that we are no longer allowed to do that a lot more work is created. Most programs allow you to Select a block of type, paste a different block in its place, and hold the style as it was. At least we should be given a choice whether to paste plain text or pick up the formatting.