# Paste text and match formatting, but retain links **URL:** \ **Category:** RapidWeaver Classic\ **Created:** [April 17, 2019, 5:24am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/paste-text-and-match-formatting-but-retain-links/26331 "2019-04-17T05:24:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bande](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/bande/32/14741_2.png) [@Bande](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/Bande)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 5:24am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/paste-text-and-match-formatting-but-retain-links/26331/1 "2019-04-17T05:24:24Z")
Hi, I am fairly new to RapidWeaver and have just started to migrate a site from iWeb to RW. The old site has lots of links to external sites that I’d really like to avoid having to recreate. However, pasting old text (be it from iWeb or a web browser showing the old site), it seems I either have the choice between: Pasting as plain text, which gets rid of messy formatting, but also removes the links Pasting to match the existing style, which is even better as it conforms to the style I want to use, but this way also removes the links Just regular pasting, which does retain the links, but also all formatting and sometimes it is hard to edit the formatting Is there any way to find achieve “middle ground” where links are retained, but otherwise old formatting is removed? ---
**Author:** ![NeilUK](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/neiluk/32/23434_2.png) [@NeilUK](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/NeilUK)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 6:01am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/paste-text-and-match-formatting-but-retain-links/26331/2 "2019-04-17T06:01:55Z")
You could try to copy the text from the source code (HTML), if that’s possible. The links would remain in the HTML. If you used an app like Site Sucker, it should be easier to locate the HTML. ---
**Author:** ![Bande](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/bande/32/14741_2.png) [@Bande](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/Bande)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 7:14am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/paste-text-and-match-formatting-but-retain-links/26331/3 "2019-04-17T07:14:00Z")
Thanks, I looked into this, but HTML did not help much. I am trying a workaround through Word without formatting, which works somewhat better. ---
**Author:** ![LSPhoto](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/lsphoto/32/270_2.png) [@LSPhoto](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/LSPhoto)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2019, 3:45am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/paste-text-and-match-formatting-but-retain-links/26331/4 "2019-04-18T03:45:24Z")
You can also do some code like this and use words (in this case I used Privacy): `Privacy` It’s in the footer text on all my pages: [https://www.lisasandlerphotography.com](https://www.lisasandlerphotography.com) ---
**Author:** ![Bande](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/bande/32/14741_2.png) [@Bande](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/Bande)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2019, 4:47am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/paste-text-and-match-formatting-but-retain-links/26331/5 "2019-04-18T04:47:00Z")
Thanks for the tip (your site looks very good!), but I am not sure how this would help pasting from my old site? ---
**Author:** ![LSPhoto](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/lsphoto/32/270_2.png) [@LSPhoto](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/LSPhoto)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2019, 2:56pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/paste-text-and-match-formatting-but-retain-links/26331/6 "2019-04-18T14:56:25Z")
It would be a little more work but this way you don’t have to worry about formatting (by cutting and pasting) in the future. ---
**Author:** ![peterdanckwerts](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/peterdanckwerts/32/22443_2.png) [@peterdanckwerts](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/peterdanckwerts)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2019, 4:26pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/paste-text-and-match-formatting-but-retain-links/26331/7 "2019-04-18T16:26:52Z")
You’re really wanting the impossible – keeping one functional piece of coding, the `` links, while ignoring the rest. You could (although I doubt if it would be very labour-saving) copy and paste the text as plain text, then look at the page source and copy and paste all the links into the new pages. In theory you could take the page source and filter out all the unwanted formatting in, say, BBEdit, but I think that would take even longer. I’d bite the bullet and recreate the links. ---
**Author:** ![Bande](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/bande/32/14741_2.png) [@Bande](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/Bande)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2019, 6:03pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/paste-text-and-match-formatting-but-retain-links/26331/8 "2019-04-18T18:03:01Z")
I fear you are right, thanks for considering it! ---
**Author:** ![system](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/system/32/25301_2.png) [@system](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2019, 4:03am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/paste-text-and-match-formatting-but-retain-links/26331/9 "2019-05-19T04:03:01Z")
This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.