Formatting guide
Clean ChatGPT text for Google Docs and Word: remove the markdown symbols, keep the formatting
Paste a ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini answer into the box above and copy it back out as real headings, bold text, lists, tables and code. The asterisks, pound signs and pipes disappear, along with hidden Unicode watermark characters. The structure stays. It runs in your browser, is free, and needs no account.
The problem
Why ChatGPT text looks broken when you paste it into Google Docs or Word
ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and nearly every other assistant write their answers in markdown, a plain-text shorthand for formatting. Two asterisks around a phrase mean bold, a pound sign at the start of a line means a heading, a hyphen means a bullet, pipes build a table, and three backticks fence off code. The chat window turns those symbols into formatting as it displays them.
Google Docs and Microsoft Word do not read markdown. When you copy an answer and paste it into a document, one of two things happens. Either the plain-text symbols come along as literal characters, so your document fills with **, ##, |---| and backticks, or the chat window's own HTML comes along with odd fonts, grey code boxes, extra line spacing and tables that break on the page.
The fix is to convert the markdown into clean rich text before you paste. That is what TidyText.click does: it reads the markdown, builds plain formatting out of it, and puts that formatting on your clipboard so Docs and Word receive text they already understand.
Step by step
How to clean ChatGPT text for Google Docs or Word
Copy the answer from ChatGPT
Use the copy button under the answer, which gives you the markdown source. Selecting the text with the mouse and copying it also works. The same applies in Claude, Gemini, Copilot and Perplexity.
Paste it into TidyText.click
Paste into the box at the top of this page, or click Paste. The clean version appears immediately in the preview, with headings, bold and italic text, bullet and numbered lists, tables with borders, code blocks and links all in place.
Copy the result and paste into your document
Click Tidy and copy. Then paste into Google Docs, Word, Gmail or Outlook with
Ctrl+Von Windows orCmd+Von a Mac. Use the ordinary paste, not paste without formatting, so the rich text survives.
Everything happens as you type. Change an option and the preview updates. Press Ctrl+Enter in the box to copy the formatted result without reaching for the mouse.
The conversion
What TidyText.click converts
Every markdown element that assistants commonly produce is handled. The table below shows what you paste in and what arrives in your document.
| In the ChatGPT answer | Looks like | In your document |
|---|---|---|
| Headings | # Title, ## Section | Real heading styles, so the Docs outline and Word navigation pane pick them up |
| Bold and italic | **bold**, *italic* | Bold and italic text with the asterisks removed |
| Bullet lists | - item or * item | Proper bulleted lists, including nested levels |
| Numbered lists | 1. step | Numbered lists that keep their order |
| Tables | | Name | Qty | rows with |---| separators | Real tables with a header row and cell borders |
| Code blocks | Text fenced by three backticks | Monospaced blocks with the indentation and line breaks preserved |
| Inline code | `npm install` | Monospaced text without the backticks |
| Links | [text](https://…) | Clickable links, or just the text if you prefer |
| Quotes | Lines starting with > | Indented block quotes |
| Checklists | - [x] done | Check-box characters you can keep or delete |
| Horizontal rules | --- | A thin dividing line |
| Math | $x^2$, \frac{a}{b} | Readable Unicode such as x² and a/b |
| Citation markers | 【12†source】 | Removed |
Google Docs
Pasting ChatGPT text into Google Docs
Google Docs accepts rich text from the clipboard and maps it onto its own styles. Headings become Heading 1, 2 and 3, so they appear in the document outline on the left and can be restyled in one go from the Styles menu. Lists become native Docs lists that you can re-indent with Tab. Tables arrive as Docs tables with borders you can adjust from the table toolbar.
- Use Ctrl+V, not Ctrl+Shift+V. The shortcut for paste without formatting throws away the formatting on purpose.
- Match your document font afterwards. Pasted text takes the font it was copied with. Select all and pick your font, or set Normal text first and paste into it.
- Code blocks keep a monospaced font. If you want them to look like the rest of the document, select the block and change its font.
- Google Docs has its own markdown setting. Under Tools, Preferences, you can enable "Automatically detect Markdown". It converts symbols as you type, but it does not convert text you paste, which is why a tool like this one is still needed.
Microsoft Word
Pasting ChatGPT text into Microsoft Word
Word reads the same rich text and turns it into Word headings, lists and tables. The paste options button that appears after a paste lets you choose Keep Source Formatting, which preserves everything, or Merge Formatting, which keeps the structure but adopts your document's fonts and sizes. Merge Formatting is usually the better choice for a report or essay.
Tables arrive as Word tables. Once pasted, apply any table style from the Table Design tab to change borders and shading in one click. Code blocks keep their monospaced font and line breaks. If you are working in Word for the web, the same shortcuts and paste options apply.
You can also download the result as a .doc file from the preview toolbar and open it directly in Word, which is handy when you want a file to attach or share rather than text to paste.
Other destinations
Gmail, Outlook, Notion, Slack and everywhere else
Gmail and Outlook
Both accept rich text, so headings, bold, lists and tables paste cleanly into an email. Code blocks keep their monospaced font, which makes instructions and snippets readable.
Notion
Notion already understands markdown when you paste it, so you can usually paste the original. Use TidyText.click when the answer contains tables or math that Notion's paste does not handle well.
Slack and Teams
Chat tools use their own light formatting. Paste the plain-text version, which keeps bullets and numbering but drops the symbols these tools would otherwise show literally.
Forms, CMS fields and spreadsheets
Use Copy plain text for any field that only accepts text. Tables are copied as tab-separated rows, so they paste straight into Google Sheets or Excel as cells.
Equations
LaTeX math from ChatGPT and Claude
When an answer involves maths, assistants write it in LaTeX between dollar signs or backslash brackets. Pasted straight into a document it reads as \frac{x^2 + 1}{2}, which nobody wants in an essay. TidyText.click converts common LaTeX into readable Unicode text:
$E = mc^2$ becomes E = mc² · $\frac{a}{b}$ becomes a/b · $\sqrt{x+1}$ becomes √(x+1) · $\alpha \leq \beta$ becomes α ≤ β · $\sum_{i=1}^{n} x_i$ becomes ∑ᵢ₌₁ⁿ xᵢ
Superscripts and subscripts use real Unicode characters where they exist, Greek letters and operators are swapped for their symbols, and fractions become a slash with brackets where needed. Long multi-line derivations keep every symbol but may need a manual tidy. If you would rather keep the LaTeX exactly as written, for example to paste into an equation editor, switch off Convert math in Options.
Options
Removing citation markers, emojis and links
Citation markers
ChatGPT with web search appends markers such as 【12†source】 or hidden citation codes to sentences. They are removed by default, along with any stray space left in front of the following full stop.
Emojis
Assistants decorate headings and bullets with rockets and ticks. Turn on Remove emojis to strip them while keeping ordinary symbols such as ©, ™ and percentages.
Links
By default links stay clickable. Turn on Remove links to keep only the link text, which is better for printed documents and for emails that should not contain tracking URLs.
Plain text
When you want no formatting at all, use Copy plain text or Download .txt. Bullets become bullet characters, numbered lists keep their numbers and tables become tab-separated rows.
Punctuation
Replacing the em dashes in ChatGPT writing
Assistants lean on the em dash. A paragraph with three of them reads as machine-written to many editors and teachers, and some style guides ban the character outright. Under Options you can replace every em dash with a comma, a spaced hyphen, a semicolon, a colon or a full stop, or remove it and let the sentence run on. Number ranges written with an en dash, such as 2019–2021, are not touched.
For a longer piece or plain text that has no markdown in it, the dedicated em dash replacer does the same job with a one-click choice of replacement and a counter, and it strips hidden characters at the same time.
Privacy
Your text never leaves your browser
The conversion is a small piece of JavaScript that runs on your own device. Nothing you paste is sent to a server, logged or stored, and the page keeps working after it has loaded even if you go offline. That makes it safe for drafts, client work, student essays and anything else you would not want to upload to a third party. The privacy page has the details.
Compatibility
Works with ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot and any markdown
Markdown is the shared language of AI assistants, so the same conversion cleans answers from ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity, DeepSeek, Grok, Mistral and Meta AI. It also handles markdown you already have: README files, Obsidian and Notion exports, GitHub issues and anything written with a markdown editor. If a paragraph has no markdown in it, it passes through unchanged.
Questions and answers
ChatGPT formatting FAQ
Why does ChatGPT text look messy when I paste it into Google Docs?
ChatGPT writes its answers in markdown. Google Docs and Word do not read markdown, so the asterisks, pound signs, pipes and backticks are pasted as literal characters. TidyText.click converts the markdown into real formatting first, so what you paste is already bold, headed, listed and tabled.
How do I copy a ChatGPT table into Google Docs or Word?
Paste the answer that contains the table into TidyText.click, click Tidy and copy, then paste into your document with Ctrl+V. The table arrives as a real table with cells and borders, not as rows of pipe characters.
Does TidyText.click upload my text?
No. The conversion runs as JavaScript inside your browser. Nothing you paste is sent to a server or stored, and the page works offline once it has loaded.
Does it work with Claude, Gemini, Copilot and Perplexity?
Yes. Every major assistant writes markdown, so the same conversion works for Claude, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity, DeepSeek, Grok and Mistral, as well as for markdown from Notion, GitHub or Obsidian.
What happens to LaTeX math equations?
Equations written between dollar signs or backslash brackets are converted to readable Unicode text: x^2 becomes x², \frac{a}{b} becomes a/b, \alpha becomes α and so on. Very complex equations keep their symbols but may need a manual tidy. You can turn the conversion off in Options.
Can I get plain text with no formatting at all?
Yes. Use Copy plain text. You get text with every markdown symbol removed, bullets as real bullet characters, numbered lists kept and tables as tab-separated rows.
Why did my paste lose its formatting?
Paste with Ctrl+V or Cmd+V. Paste without formatting (Ctrl+Shift+V) deliberately discards the rich text and inserts plain text instead.
Does it remove hidden Unicode characters and watermarks?
Yes, always. Zero-width spaces, joiners, soft hyphens, byte-order marks, direction controls and Unicode tag characters are stripped from everything you paste, and the result shows how many were removed. Joiners inside real emojis are kept.
Can it replace the em dashes ChatGPT uses?
Yes. Under Options choose what every em dash becomes: a comma, hyphen, semicolon, colon or full stop, or remove it. The separate em dash replacer page does the same for plain text.
Is TidyText.click free?
Yes. There is no account, no limit on length or number of uses and nothing to install.
