Pasting content from Microsoft Office

Paste from Office features let you paste content from Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel and preserve its original structure and formatting. This is an advanced, premium paste from Office enhanced feature.

There is also the basic, open-source Paste from Office feature, You can read more about the differences between these two further in this guide.

# Demo

Use these sample documents to test pasting from Microsoft Office:

• Sample Word document
• Sample Excel spreadsheet

To test pasting from Office, download the sample documents and open them in Microsoft Office applications. Then, copy the content and paste it into the editor below.

# Content formatting support

Paste from Office enhanced retains rich content pasted from Microsoft Office applications. See below the full table of supported styles and formatting.

# Microsoft Word

Note: The name of each group in the table corresponds to the category in Word’s “Modify style” user interface. If a specific formatting is supported natively (without using the General HTML Support feature), a plugin name responsible for the formatting is provided in parentheses.

Group	Formatting	Paste from Office	Premium feature Paste from Office enhanced
			Native support	With General HTML Support
Font	Font family	✅ Yes	✅ Yes (FontFamily)	✅ Yes
	Font style (weight, italic)	✅ Yes	✅ Yes (Bold, Italic)	✅ Yes
	Font size	✅ Yes	✅ Yes (FontSize)	✅ Yes
	Text color	✅ Yes	✅ Yes (FontColor)	✅ Yes
	Underline	✅ Yes	✅ Yes (Underline) [1]	✅ Yes [1]
	Advanced underline	❌ No	✅ Yes (Underline) [2]	✅ Yes [2]
	Emphasis mark	❌ No	❌ No	✅ Yes
	Strikethrough	✅ Yes	✅ Yes (Strikethrough)	✅ Yes
	Double strikethrough	❌ No	✅ Yes (Strikethrough) [3]	✅ Yes (Strikethrough) [3]
	Superscript	✅ Yes	✅ Yes (Superscript)	✅ Yes
	Subscript	✅ Yes	✅ Yes (Subscript)	✅ Yes
	Small caps	❌ No	❌ No	✅ Yes
	All caps	❌ No	❌ No	✅ Yes
	Hidden	❌ No	❌ No	✅ Yes
	Character scale	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No
	Character spacings	❌ No	❌ No	✅ Yes
	Advanced typography	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No
Paragraph	Alignment	✅ Yes	✅ Yes (Alignment)	✅ Yes
	Indentation left	✅ Yes	✅ Yes (IndentBlock)	✅ Yes
	Indentation right	❌ No	❌ No	✅ Yes
	Spacing before	❌ No	❌ No	✅ Yes
	Spacing after	❌ No	❌ No	✅ Yes
	Line spacing	❌ No	❌ No	✅ Yes
	Line spacing at	❌ No	❌ No	✅ Yes
	No space between same–style paragraphs	❌ No	❌ No	✅ Yes
Tabs	Alignment	❌ No	✅ Yes [4]	✅ Yes [4]
	Leader	❌ No	✅ Yes [4]	✅ Yes [4]
Borders and shading	Style	❌ No	❌ No	✅ Yes
	Colour	❌ No	❌ No	✅ Yes
	Width	❌ No	❌ No	✅ Yes
	Side	❌ No	❌ No	✅ Yes
	From text	❌ No	❌ No	✅ Yes
	Fill	❌ No	❌ No	✅ Yes
	Pattern style	❌ No	❌ No	✅ Yes [5]
	Pattern colour	❌ No	❌ No	✅ Yes
Language	Language	❌ No	✅ Yes (TextPartLanguage)	✅ Yes
	Do not check spelling	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No
Frame	Text wrapping	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No
	Size	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No
	Horizontal	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No
	Vertical	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No
Bullet points and Numbering	General	✅ Yes (List) [7]	✅ Yes (List) [7]	✅ Yes [7]

# Microsoft Excel

Note: The name of each group in the table corresponds to the category in the Excel’s “Format cells” user interface. If a specific formatting is supported natively (without using the General HTML Support feature), a plugin name responsible for the formatting is provided in the parentheses.

Group	Formatting	Paste from Office	Premium feature Paste from Office enhanced
			Native support	With General HTML Support
Alignment	Horizontal alignment	❌ No	✅ Yes (TableCellProperties)	✅ Yes
	Vertical alignment	❌ No	✅ Yes (TableCellProperties)	✅ Yes
	Indent	❌ No	✅ Yes (TableCellProperties)	✅ Yes
	Orientation (angle)	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No
Font	Family	❌ No	✅ Yes (FontFamily)	✅ Yes
	Style	❌ No	✅ Yes (Bold, Italic)	✅ Yes
	Size	❌ No	✅ Yes (FontSize)	✅ Yes
	Underline	❌ No	✅ Yes (Underline)	✅ Yes
	Advanced underline (e.g. double)	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No
	Colour	❌ No	✅ Yes (FontColor)	✅ Yes
	Strikethrough	❌ No	✅ Yes (Strikethrough)	✅ Yes
	Superscript	❌ No	✅ Yes (Superscript)	✅ Yes
	Subscript	❌ No	✅ Yes (Subscript)	✅ Yes
Border	Border color	❌ No	✅ Yes (TableCellProperties)	✅ Yes
	Border width	❌ No	✅ Yes (TableCellProperties)	✅ Yes
	Border style	❌ No	✅ Yes [1]	✅ Yes [1]
	Borders across cell (diagonal)	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No
Fill	Background	❌ No	✅ Yes (TableCellProperties)	✅ Yes
	Pattern color	❌ No	✅ Yes (TableCellProperties) [2]	✅ Yes [2]
	Pattern style	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No

# Support for other office applications

At the current stage, the focus of @ckeditor/ckeditor5-paste-from-office and @ckeditor/ckeditor5-paste-from-office-enhanced packages is on supporting content that comes from Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Google Docs. However, it does not mean that pasting from other similar applications (such as Microsoft PowerPoint) is not supported.

By default, CKEditor 5 will support pasting rich-text content from these applications, however, some styles and formatting may be lost, depending on the source application. Also, other minor bugs may appear.

You can find more information regarding compatibility with other applications in this ticket.

If you think that support for any of the applications needs improvements, please add 👍  and comments in the following issues:

• Support pasting from Libre Office.
• Support pasting from Pages.

Feel free to open a new feature request for other similar applications, too!

# Installation

To add the paste from Office enhanced feature to your editor, install @ckeditor/ckeditor5-paste-from-office, @ckeditor/ckeditor5-paste-from-office-enhanced, and @ckeditor/ckeditor5-html-support packages:

npm install --save \
    @ckeditor/ckeditor5-paste-from-office \
    @ckeditor/ckeditor5-paste-from-office-enhanced \
    @ckeditor/ckeditor5-html-support

We highly recommend you also add other editor packages to get as much native support for pasted content as possible. You can learn more about editor features that work out–of–the–box with content pasted from Microsoft Office in a dedicated section. To install recommended packages, execute the following command:

npm install --save \
    @ckeditor/ckeditor5-alignment \
    @ckeditor/ckeditor5-basic-styles \
    @ckeditor/ckeditor5-font \
    @ckeditor/ckeditor5-indent \
    @ckeditor/ckeditor5-table \
    @ckeditor/ckeditor5-language

Then add the PasteFromOffice, PasteFromOfficeEnhanced, and GeneralHtmlSupport plugins to your plugin list as well as other editor features that support content pasted from Microsoft Office (Bold, Italic, FontColor, Indent, etc.):

import { PasteFromOffice } from '@ckeditor/ckeditor5-paste-from-office';
import { PasteFromOfficeEnhanced } from '@ckeditor/ckeditor5-paste-from-office-enhanced';
import { GeneralHtmlSupport } from '@ckeditor/ckeditor5-html-support';

import { Alignment } from '@ckeditor/ckeditor5-alignment';
import { Bold, Italic, Underline, Strikethrough, Subscript, Superscript } from '@ckeditor/ckeditor5-basic-styles';
import { FontColor, FontBackgroundColor, FontFamily, FontSize } from '@ckeditor/ckeditor5-font';
import { Indent } from '@ckeditor/ckeditor5-indent';
import { Table, TableProperties, TableCellProperties } from '@ckeditor/ckeditor5-table';
import { TextPartLanguage } from '@ckeditor/ckeditor5-language';
// Other imports...

ClassicEditor
    .create( document.querySelector( '#editor' ), {
        plugins: [
            // Load the open-source feature.
            PasteFromOffice,

            // Load the enhanced feature.
            PasteFromOfficeEnhanced,

            // Load the recommended General HTML Support feature.
            GeneralHtmlSupport,

            // Load other recommended editor features.
            Alignment, Bold, Italic, Underline, Strikethrough, Subscript, Superscript,
            FontColor, FontBackgroundColor, FontFamily, FontSize, Indent,
            Table, TableProperties, TableCellProperties,
            TextPartLanguage,

            /* ... */
        ],

        // Provide activation key (see explanation below).
        licenseKey: 'your-license-key'

        // See the "Configuration" section below to learn how to configure
        // the editor for the best performance.
        // ...
    } )
    .then( /* ... */ )
    .catch( /* ... */ );

Finally, update the configuration.

# Activating the feature

In order to use this premium feature, you need to activate it with proper credentials. Please refer to the License key and activation guide for details.

# Configuration

Paste from Office enhanced does not come with its own configuration. Still, we highly recommend other editor features be loaded and configured in a certain way for optimal pasted styles retention and performance:

• General HTML Support – Enabling and configuring this feature will allow you to make the most of the paste from Office enhanced by retaining advanced formatting that would otherwise be rejected by core editor features. See the content compatibility table to learn more.
• Font size and family – Loading and configuring these features will ensure maximal compatibility of fonts in the pasted content.

The recommended configuration is as follows:

import { PasteFromOffice } from '@ckeditor/ckeditor5-paste-from-office';
import { PasteFromOfficeEnhanced } from '@ckeditor/ckeditor5-paste-from-office-enhanced';
import { GeneralHtmlSupport } from '@ckeditor/ckeditor5-html-support';

import { Alignment } from '@ckeditor/ckeditor5-alignment';
import { Bold, Italic, Underline, Strikethrough, Subscript, Superscript } from '@ckeditor/ckeditor5-basic-styles';
import { FontColor, FontBackgroundColor, FontFamily, FontSize } from '@ckeditor/ckeditor5-font';
import { Indent } from '@ckeditor/ckeditor5-indent';
import { Table, TableProperties, TableCellProperties } from '@ckeditor/ckeditor5-table';
import { TextPartLanguage } from '@ckeditor/ckeditor5-language';
// Other imports...

ClassicEditor
    .create( document.querySelector( '#editor' ), {
        plugins: [
            // Load the open-source feature.
            PasteFromOffice,

            // Load the enhanced feature.
            PasteFromOfficeEnhanced,

            // Load the recommended General HTML Support feature.
            GeneralHtmlSupport,

            // Load other recommended editor features.
            Alignment, Bold, Italic, Underline, Strikethrough, Subscript, Superscript,
            FontColor, FontBackgroundColor, FontFamily, FontSize, Indent,
            Table, TableProperties, TableCellProperties,
            TextPartLanguage,

            /* ... */
        ],

        // Provide activation key.
        licenseKey: 'your-license-key',

        // Configuration of the GeneralHtmlSupport plugin to allow extra content into the editor.
        // This configuration will preserve styles and formatting normally unsupported by core editor features.
        htmlSupport: {
            allow: [
                {
                    name: /^.*$/,
                    styles: true,
                    attributes: true,
                    classes: true
                }
            ]
        },

        // Configuration of the FontFamily plugin.
        fontFamily: {
            // Allow all fonts from Microsoft Office documents
            // including those that are unknown to CKEditor.
            supportAllValues: true
        },

        // Configuration of the FontSize plugin.
        fontSize: {
            options: [
                8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22
            ],

            // Allow all font sizes from Microsoft Office documents
            // including those that are unknown to CKEditor.
            supportAllValues: true
        },

        // Add UI buttons and dropdowns for extra editor features if you used the feature set
        // from "Installation" section.
        toolbar: [
            // ...
            'bold', 'italic', 'underline', 'strikethrough', 'superscript', 'subscript',
            '|',
            'alignment', 'outdent', 'indent',
            '|',
            'fontSize', 'fontFamily', 'fontColor', 'fontBackgroundColor',
            '|',
            'insertTable',
            '|',
            'textPartLanguage',
            // ...
        ],

        // Add UI buttons and dropdowns for extra table features if you used the feature set
        // from "Installation" section.
        table: {
            contentToolbar: [
                'tableColumn', 'tableRow', 'mergeTableCells', '|', 'tableProperties', 'tableCellProperties'
            ]
        },

        // ...
    } )
    .then( /* ... */ )
    .catch( /* ... */ );

# Known issues

• There is a known issue with cell widths being incorrect upon pasting from Microsoft Excel. Learn more.
• Headings pasted from Microsoft Word with a normal font weight configured in styles will be rendered using a bold font due to default stylesheets provided by the editor.
• A bold text pasted from Microsoft Excel may be occasionally displayed as normal for specific font faces.
• There is a known issue with font family, font size, and text part language values being displayed incorrectly in the CKEditor UI. Learn more

# Related features

CKEditor 5 supports a wider range of paste features, including:

• Paste from Office – Basic, open-source version of the paste from Office plugin.
• Paste from Google Docs – Paste content from Google Docs, maintaining the original formatting and structure.
• Paste plain text – Paste text without formatting that will inherit the style of the content it was pasted into.
• Import from Word – Convert Word files directly into HTML content. You can read more about the differences between the paste from Office and import from Word features in the dedicated comparison guide.