This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

How can I copy text from webpage & paste with same format?

more options

When I highlight & copy a list off webpage it will not keep the same format when pasting into a email or MS word. This works with Google Chrome but not Mozilla. Also, tried copying from Excel & it wouldn't keep outlines or format. Do I need to download a add on?

When I highlight & copy a list off webpage it will not keep the same format when pasting into a email or MS word. This works with Google Chrome but not Mozilla. Also, tried copying from Excel & it wouldn't keep outlines or format. Do I need to download a add on?

All Replies (3)

more options

Firefox will retain styles if they are present in the selection that you copy. If the styles are defined externally to that area, which is common on many sites, then Firefox usually fails to effectively copy them.

I don't know whether there is an add-on to work around that; it's possible.

If lists and tables seem to have a broken structure, it helps to overselect (include some text from before and after the text you actually want) to ensure that the relevant HTML tags are selected, and then clean up after pasting. But that still might not pick up externally defined styles.

You also mentioned copying from Excel: do you mean Excel online, in Firefox, or the separate Excel application?

more options

hi,

i have opened a similar bug report several years ago, and got the same answer. this is not an acceptable answer, you are just avoiding/trivializing the issue.

as stated: the same operation works AS EXPECTED when used from chrome. with same selection, no over-selection needed in this case, so this is not the issue.

firefox is either actively stripping this html formatting, or is not parsing it correctly in the first place.

this same issue was opened (and immediately closed) several times.

i do realize this is a forum and not an actual place to report bugs (with detailed technical information), but since there is no other place this comes up here every so often.

remember: your users are your customers, no users = no firefox (or mozilla...)

just for consideration.


again, this is not intended to be disrespectful or spiteful, and the issue is not even the copy/paste problem, but the disregard with which these type of requests are handled.

Amir.

more options

Hi Amir, I am not "avoiding/trivializing the issue." This is a pain in the butt for me, too.

I gave the best answer I could. This is support, and volunteers work with the Firefox we have today. We can assist with features, settings, workarounds (if we know of one) or alternatives, but we don't code Firefox or make decisions on what feature changes will be made in the future. We don't fix bugs here.

If a bug isn't getting the priority you feel it deserves and you want to advocate for changes in Firefox, you can try one or more of the following links:

Your earlier thread here: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/982388