Gray boxes on copy paste from browser

users
#1

Windows 7 - latest release. Writer - several different releases over last
6-8 months which was when I installed libre office on a new comp.

Background info: I'm a moderator for a writers workshop forum and we turn
our lessons into a PDF at the end of a workshop.

When I copy/paste from chrome into writer I end up with small gray boxes
(one space height/width) scattered through my document. To get rid of them I
must either delete each one or paste to textpad and then back which of
course loses all formatting. I've also tried firefox and copy/pasting from
other forums/pages. I've even opened an emailed doc where the sender copied
from a browser and the boxes still show up.

Libre must be converting some formatting marks but I have no idea which ones
or how to fix. The spaces show up on paragraph starts, and also inside
paragraphs. Most often where formatting of italics/bolds/dates/links start
but not always.

I hope someone can help as I'm stumped and will have to return to open
office as this is a time sink. :frowning:

#2

Background info: I'm a moderator for a writers workshop forum and we turn our lessons into a PDF at the end of a workshop.

When I copy/paste from chrome into writer I end up with small gray boxes (one space height/width) scattered through my document.

The most obvious possibility is that these are non-breaking spaces. You will know that HTML requires browsers to conflate consecutive whitespace characters into a single space. Where necessary, this can be prevented by the use of the HTML non-breaking space character,  . In addition (and as its name suggests), the character can be used to prevent consecutive words splitting across a line break.

The same concept exists in word processors (see Insert | Formatting Mark > | Non-breaking space) and the Paste function is giving you like for like - honouring the HTML source code and not just the appearance of the web page in your browser.

To get rid of them I must either delete each one or paste to textpad and then back which of course loses all formatting.

In fact, you don't need to get rid of them. If you want to preserve the spacing that they represent, ignore them and proceed. They will show up - well, *not* show up, in fact! - just as spaces would in your final PDF document. (There is one difference: non-breaking spaces do not expand as do ordinary ones in Justified text.) If you do wish to remove or replace them (with the consequent change to the document formatting), you can search for them in the normal way. Select one of the characters before you open the Find & Replace dialogue and you will find it helpfully inserted for you in the "Search for" box. If you just find the grey appearance troublesome, you could replace them with ordinary spaces - but proper document formatting might be better.

I've also tried firefox and copy/pasting from other forums/pages. I've even opened an emailed doc where the sender copied from a browser and the boxes still show up.

As you will now understand, this is because the web pages and word processor documents contain such special characters and the Paste function is honouring them faithfully.

I hope someone can help as I'm stumped and will have to return to open office as this is a time sink. :frowning:

Surely OpenOffice behaves identically in this respect? Or have I misunderstood the whole problem?

I trust this helps.

Brian Barker

#3

Brian Barker wrote

Background info: I'm a moderator for a writers workshop forum and we
turn our lessons into a PDF at the end of a workshop.

When I copy/paste from chrome into writer I end up with small gray
boxes (one space height/width) scattered through my document.

The most obvious possibility is that these are non-breaking
spaces. You will know that HTML requires browsers to conflate
consecutive whitespace characters into a single space. Where
necessary, this can be prevented by the use of the HTML non-breaking
space character,  . In addition (and as its name suggests), the
character can be used to prevent consecutive words splitting across a
line break.

The same concept exists in word processors (see Insert | Formatting
Mark > | Non-breaking space) and the Paste function is giving you
like for like - honouring the HTML source code and not just the
appearance of the web page in your browser.

To get rid of them I must either delete each one or paste to textpad
and then back which of course loses all formatting.

In fact, you don't need to get rid of them. If you want to preserve
the spacing that they represent, ignore them and proceed. They will
show up - well, *not* show up, in fact! - just as spaces would in
your final PDF document. (There is one difference: non-breaking
spaces do not expand as do ordinary ones in Justified text.) If you
do wish to remove or replace them (with the consequent change to the
document formatting), you can search for them in the normal
way. Select one of the characters before you open the Find & Replace
dialogue and you will find it helpfully inserted for you in the
"Search for" box. If you just find the grey appearance troublesome,
you could replace them with ordinary spaces - but proper document
formatting might be better.

I've also tried firefox and copy/pasting from other forums/pages.
I've even opened an emailed doc where the sender copied from a
browser and the boxes still show up.

As you will now understand, this is because the web pages and word
processor documents contain such special characters and the Paste
function is honouring them faithfully.

I hope someone can help as I'm stumped and will have to return to
open office as this is a time sink. :frowning:

Surely OpenOffice behaves identically in this respect? Or have I
misunderstood the whole problem?

I trust this helps.

Brian Barker

This did help. Thank you. I'd tried a few things before, don't remember what
and nothing helped. It would even export the gray boxes to the pdf. Maybe it
was different vrs of the different programs that have helped at this later
date. BTW Open office does the same thing NOW but on my old computer it
didn't which is what threw me off.

Anyway, I can live with doing a search/replace. So simple a solution, I
guess I was thinking too complex in my other troubleshooting. Thanks for the
help.