If I paste some html into a topic to create a topic, Discourse automatically reformats the HTML (it “cooks” it), keeping some (but not all) of the underlying formatting, and removing the HTML tags from the view. Is there a way for me to later get back the original HTML that I pasted into the topic …

HTML isn’t preserved per se in the markdown, it’s just that some of the important tags are supported (e.g. <em> emphasis) as we try and follow Postel’s Law where it doesn’t cause problems. What problem are you trying to solve?

Goal is to understand how the process works (relevant for a few projects). This conversation has already helped with that. I am still wondering if you can have access to the originally formatted text when you copy from miscrosoft word.

[image] JQ331: I am still wondering if you can have access to the originally formatted text when you copy from microsoft word. No. You would need to look into the javascript code that processes it on paste.

This is due to the “HTML to Markdown” handling, which occurs on paste. Here’s the relevant source file. You will notice several bits of Microsoft Word specific handling (e.g. MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst). https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/master/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/app/lib/to-…

[image] riking: discourse/discourse/blob/master/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/app/lib/to-markdown.js This is very helpful. Just to clarify: why would passing through Notepad make a difference?

Doing that would strip out of all the Word formatting and leave you with just plain text. This is happening because when you “copy” something, the application actually presents multiple different views of the data to apps you paste it into. Discourse has opted for the “fancy” version with all the W…

If you’re using chrome desktop then you can use Ctrl+Shift+V to paste as plain text instead of notepad. Also in the admin site settings page, you can disable this fancy pasting behavior by unchecking the “enable rich text paste” option.

Thanks, but my goal is to keep the original formatting from microsoft word (in the raw data), not strip it down to plain text. Currently, Discourse removes a variety of the formatting–such as font size and font type, while leaving others (bold and italics seem to stay there). As a comparison, Gmai…

[image] JQ331: Thanks, but my goal is to keep the original formatting from microsoft word (in the raw data), not strip it down to plain text. Then paste the raw HTML. [image] JQ331: As a comparison, Gmail composer seems to leave all formatting. There are different goals involved. Gmai…

[image] supermathie: There are different goals involved. Gmail’s goal is to preserve all the formatting, whereas a forum’s goal is to keep a meaningful subset of it while preventing abuse I support transferring to markdown on the post that is displayed to others for some consistency. It’s the…

Get back the real "raw" data that created a post?

Development

rokejulianlockhart (Mr. Beedell, Roke Julian Lockhart (RJLB)) November 30, 2025, 2:56pm 27

@jomaxro, what is the syntax for the raw markup of a comment?

Topic		Replies	Views
HTML/RTF pasting Feature	74	13569	March 9, 2020
Getting Markdown for a post using API Development rest-api	5	494	September 3, 2024
Working with different needs in raw/cooked content Development	7	5284	May 15, 2025
Help us to test the HTML pasting Feature feedback	35	5252	August 31, 2018
API for preview Development rest-api	1	940	October 1, 2019

Get back the real "raw" data that created a post?

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