Removing the formatting from Word or other external content before transferring it into Web Manuals is important because external formatting can conflict with the formatting and structure already defined in Web Manuals.
The main reasons are:
- Avoid conflicting styles: Word content can bring fonts, sizes, spacing, colors, headings, and other styles that may conflict with the Web Manuals design.
- Maintain consistency: Web Manuals uses its own styles, paragraph formats, and document design. Removing the external formatting allows the content to adopt the correct Web Manuals formatting.
- Keep the document responsive to design changes: When content uses Web Manuals’ native formatting, changes to the manual’s design or templates can be applied more reliably.
- Avoid hidden formatting: Word can contain formatting that is not immediately visible, such as direct paragraph formatting, manual line breaks, tabs, and hidden styles.
- Improve PDF output: Clean, native Web Manuals formatting reduces the possibility of unexpected results when generating the PDF.
- Make the content easier to maintain: Content formatted directly in Web Manuals is easier to edit and keep consistent with the rest of the manual.
To remove the formatting from pasted content, you can select all the pasted content and go to the editor toolbar and click on the following icon. This way, it will clean the source code, and the content is ready to apply all the Web Manuals design properties.
For this reason, we do not recommend copying and pasting or importing content directly from Word or other external sources as the primary method of adding content to Web Manuals. While this can be used when necessary, it may introduce unwanted formatting or source code that can affect the document’s structure and appearance. It is recommended to create and format the content directly in Web Manuals whenever possible to ensure consistency, proper design behavior, and easier maintenance.