TextWash

This page cleans text copied out of Word, Google Docs or Outlook: smart quotes, em dashes, non-breaking spaces and soft hyphens are flagged and normalized. The sample below shows what autocorrect did to a plain sentence. Everything runs in your browser — nothing is uploaded.

Input

X-ray hover a highlight for details

Cleaned output copied ✓

Cleaning rules

What do word processors add to text?

As you type, Word, Google Docs and Outlook silently substitute typographic characters: straight quotes become curly quotes, -- becomes an em dash, three dots become one ellipsis character (U+2026), and automatic hyphenation inserts invisible soft hyphens inside words. Spacing around some punctuation becomes a non-breaking space. On screen it all looks like the text you typed. On the clipboard, it isn't.

What it breaks

Code and config copied via a Word document fail with baffling syntax errors (SyntaxError: Invalid or unexpected token, invalid character '“' (U+201C)). Pasted shell commands break on non-breaking spaces (command not found). Search can't find words that contain a soft hyphen. CSV and form data with typographic punctuation trips strict validators, and databases end up storing three different kinds of apostrophe for the same name.

Fix it

Paste the text above — every substituted character is highlighted with its Unicode name and converted back to plain ASCII in the output. If you're cleaning a whole document, drop the file on the page instead (up to 5 MB, never uploaded). To stop it at the source: in Word, File → Options → Proofing → AutoCorrect → uncheck "straight quotes with smart quotes"; in Google Docs, Tools → Preferences → uncheck "Use smart quotes".