Preparing MS Word docs for Wordpress : tips

[Whitey]

I thought I'd pin these instructions to a Wordpress thread to help others when they transfer documents over to Wordpress:

Using Microsoft Word with WordPress.com
Microsoft Word is a fine word processor for producing documents to be shared or printed, with a wealth of print-based options for indexing, and producing table of contents. As a web publishing tool, however, it is a little less than ideal and produces very messy HTML. The same applies when using Google Docs, OpenOffice, or other word processors. [en.support.wordpress.com...]

Some questions of my own :
- do track changes get lost when docs are saved as unformatted?
- if so, are there any tips on how to "track changes" ?

Any other questions / tips on how to be efficient in loading Word content into Wordpress, with or without plugins ?

[travelin cat]

We never upload any type of formatted text to WordPress. Anytime a client sends us content, we copy it out of Word and paste it in to a plain text editor. Then copy the text from the editor for placement in to the page.

[not2easy]

Some questions of my own :
- do track changes get lost when docs are saved as unformatted?
- if so, are there any tips on how to "track changes" ?

I'm not certain I follow this part, but if you mean, for example, editing a post or page in WP, there is always a dated record of any edits. You can revert it to a previous version and edit more if you like, it will create a new "edit" record.

I agree about using plain text to post, if it needs the visual formatting you see in the MS version (such as 'bold' or 'color', that can be added using the "Visual" editor within WP.

[tangor]

No, you cannot track changes in unformatted documents as that is a function of Word. Once in html or other format, that function is lost. Hence versioning numbers in your document is useful.

MS Word (or at least the versions I use) have a save as plain text function which provides "generally" formatted text to insert anywhere you'd like. Final polish, of course, is usually done elsewhere, UNLESS you treat MS Word plain text as an extremely cumbersome text editor. (ie. hand code your bolds and italics).

Secondary there is a SIMPLE HTML function which keeps the italics, bolds, color changes, intact and is not "too" messy to clean up in a text editor.

Newer versions of Word have a plain text function which makes it about as smart as Notepad (which would generally be better to use if you are not using Note ++ or other html editor)