Microsoft Word generates bad HTML which results in "suspicious input data"

By jprusky on 5 Jan 2005 at 22:52 UTC

I have a highly formatted document which I would like to render in htmlarea as close as possible to the way it is rendered in Microsoft Word. I found that a simple cut and paste of the formatted text doesn't achieve my goal, so I figured I would go into htmlarea's "text mode" and insert straight HTML. I used Word's "Save As.. web page" to generate the HTML.

Unfortunately, pasting all of the HTML that Word generates, results in the Drupal error message, "terminated request because of suspicious input data" It doesn't matter whether I ask Word to save it as "web page" or "single file web page." Interestingly enough, htmlarea DOES render it properly!

I am running on Drupal 4.5 and I have no way of knowing which of the excess HTML that Word generates may be causing this problem. Previous posts related to this error didn't mention Word specifically.

Comments

Input checking

dries commented 5 January 2005 at 22:59

You can enable the 'by-pass input checking'-permission.

The reason it works with HTMLArea is because HTMLArea tidies up MS Word's mess.

Microsoft products are well

killes@www.drop.org commented 5 January 2005 at 23:00

Microsoft products are well known to produce bad and bloated html. I suggest to run the generated html through an application such as htmltidy before pasting it into Drupal.

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Convert Word's "HTML" to normal

Steve Dondley commented 5 January 2005 at 23:20

There are also products out there that will convert Word's version of HTML to a more standard's compliant version. I know Dreamweaver MX has that capability. I'm sure there are programs out there you could download to do the same thing.

Word's HTML

NaSPA1 commented 5 January 2005 at 23:25

Actually, I have a similiar requirement to allow my users to "copy & paste" from word to Drupal while hopefully maintainig as much formatting as possible. While I have Dreamweaver (and a multitude of other tools) they are beyond the scope of my users, so I need something close to cut & paste from word.

Will the work around here allow us to do this?

Radi

Check into HTML Area module

Steve Dondley commented 6 January 2005 at 00:09

I have not used the feature myself so I can't tell you what exactly it does, but the HTML Area module has an icon to perform operations on Word formated HTML. Check it out. It may be just what you need: http://drupal.org/project/htmlarea

Oh, you've used HTMLArea

Steve Dondley commented 6 January 2005 at 00:13

I see now that you have explored HTMLArea already. But did you try the function to import Word HTML using HTML Area?

HTMLArea "Clear MS Office tags"

jprusky commented 6 January 2005 at 00:21

The feature's icon looks like a Word document. The good news is that it gets the user past the error message. The bad news is that it clobbers too much of the HTML.

I use "styles" (indirect formatting) extensively in my Word document, which Word's HTML does provide for. However, the "Clear MS Office tags" feature deletes something which prevents those styles from rendering properly. :-(

Hack it?

Steve Dondley commented 6 January 2005 at 01:39

How badly do you need this functionality? How about hacking it yourself or paying someone so it performs the way you need it to?

Me too

andre75 commented 23 November 2005 at 01:11

I have a similar problem. While I can not use FCKeditor (since it won't work with Image Assist), TinyMCE automatically cleans up Word html, but ONLY if you use it with IE (sigh).
Well I figured that users who use Word may also use IE. I wrote a message saying this is what you should do if you paste Word code.
Tiny cleans it up nicely if you paste it while using IE.

Andre

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use macromedia dreaweaver or notepad

y2kbugs159 commented 11 January 2005 at 08:50

don't use ms word lor...

i'll prefer using dreamweaver than any others.
or else, try mastering ur html skill and use notepad only.

using notepad suggestion
------------------------
create a empty htmlref.txt notepad
then paste ur recent html sample code here.
this htmlref.txt is just like a library.

HTML filter

Tommy Sundstrom commented 11 January 2005 at 10:30

Maybe this filter that removes some of the non-standard tags can help.

HTML filter now in Word

glennp commented 22 November 2005 at 23:21

I have Word 2002 SP3, and, after looking at the link Tommy suggested (to a filter for Word 2000), notice that among the "save as" choices is "web page, filtered". The Word online help also discusses it briefly (more briefly than Tommy's link).

I'm hoping this works out for my lengthy Word docs. I'll know in a few weeks.

Try Office HTML Filter

danepowell commented 13 December 2010 at 17:23

Sorry to revive a very old thread, but for anyone searching for a solution to Office-generated HTML gunk and landing on this page, try the Office HTML Filter