How to clean text
- Paste your messy text into the box above.
- Keep the character and spacing options ticked for most jobs.
- Untick quote and dash conversion for writing you plan to publish.
- Tick the content options only if you want links or list numbers removed.
- Copy the clean text or download it.
What this text cleaner fixes
- Curly quotes and apostrophes turned into straight ones.
- Long dashes and ellipsis symbols turned into plain characters.
- Zero width spaces, soft hyphens and byte order marks removed.
- Non breaking spaces turned into normal spaces.
- Tabs and runs of spaces collapsed with line ends trimmed.
- Three or more blank lines reduced to one.
Why use a text cleaner?
Text from a formatted source is rarely as plain as it looks. Word processors swap straight quotes for curly ones as you type. Web pages use special spaces to control layout. PDFs add soft hyphens at line ends. Some apps scatter zero width spaces around. You cannot see any of it. All of it travels with your text.
Most of the time that does no harm. It becomes a problem when the text meets a strict system.
- A JSON file breaks on a curly quote.
- A CSV import treats a special space as part of a value.
- A search fails because the stored text holds a hidden character.
- Code will not run because someone pasted a curly apostrophe into a string.
The hidden characters a text cleaner removes
| Character | Where it comes from | Problem it causes |
|---|---|---|
| Curly quotes | Word processors | Syntax errors in code |
| Non breaking spaces | Web pages | Values that do not match |
| Zero width spaces | CMS and translation tools | Silent search and compare failures |
| Soft hyphens | PDF line breaks | Odd breaks inside words |
| Byte order marks | Some file exports | Errors at the start of a file |
Which options to leave on
The character and spacing options start ticked. They are safe for almost any job. Straight quotes and plain dashes help nearly any text. So do single spaces and zero hidden characters. You rarely lose anything you wanted.
Turn quote and dash conversion off for finished writing headed for print or publication. Curly quotes and long dashes are correct typography there. You would have to put them back.
Here is the simple rule. Convert for code, data and plain text destinations. Do not convert for finished prose.
Why two options start off
Remove web addresses
This deletes content instead of tidying it. It helps before word counts or readability checks where long links skew the numbers. It hurts if you needed the links.
Remove leading list numbers
This strips prefixes like 1. and 2) that survive when you paste a numbered list as plain text. It helps before you reformat the list. Neither option should run by accident. So both start off.
What the text cleaner cannot fix
- It cannot bring back bold text or headings. That formatting vanished when you pasted plain text.
- It cannot join sentences broken across lines. Use the line break remover for that.
- It cannot fix spelling or grammar.
A simple text cleanup workflow
- Pull text from a PDF with PDF to text or from an image with image to text.
- Join broken lines with the line break remover.
- Run it through this text cleaner.
- Fix capitals with the case converter if needed.
- Check the length with the word counter.
Text cleaner example
Say you copy a product name from a website into a spreadsheet. A lookup fails even though the names look identical. The copied text holds a non breaking space and a zero width space. Run it through this text cleaner. Both hidden characters disappear. The lookup now finds a match.
The same fix helps code. A pasted curly apostrophe inside a string breaks the build. The cleaner swaps it for a straight one and the code runs.
Tips for clean pasted text
- Paste as plain text when your app offers that choice.
- Clean data before every import, not after a failure.
- Keep curly quotes in finished articles for a polished look.
Who uses a text cleaner?
Developers clean strings before they paste them into code. Data teams clean values before an import. Writers clean drafts copied from old documents. SEO teams clean meta text before upload. Students clean quotes copied from PDFs.
Your text stays private
The tool cleans everything inside your browser. It uploads nothing. Need extra space control? Try the whitespace remover.