If you copy text written in Microsoft Word and paste it into a post or comment on MLA Commons, you may see unwanted characters. This has to do with formatting in the Word document.
There are a few things you can do to ensure that only your text appears in your post:
- If you are posting to a space that gives you the choice between composing in Visual or Text modes, select Text. After pasting in the content you would like to add, you can switch back to Visual mode to modify the formatting.
- If you do not see the Visual and Text tabs, you will need to convert the document to plain text before pasting it into the Commons. To do this, first save your original document. Then click File > Save As. Choose a new name for your file to differentiate it from the original. This step is very important to prevent losing your original, formatted work. Once you have selected a new file name, change the selected file type from Word Document to Plain Text (.txt) using the Format field. Open the new text file, and copy and paste your work from there.
