[intro]When you have completed this Guide, you’ll have learned how to copy text from an existing website or Word document onto your EKM online shop correctly.[/intro]

When you’re building your EKM online shop, it’s very easy to be tempted to copy text from elsewhere to populate your pages. After all, if you have the text saved on your other website or in a Word document, you can copy it over, right? Well, you could - but in the long run, copying text directly from one document or webpage straight onto your EKM online shop or to any online platform can cause lots of issues, which you’ll inevitably have to deal with at a later date.

When text is copied from a webpage or a Word document, it includes some code that is not visible on the displayed page. This code is used to format the text. If the text has extensive formatting, such as bold, italicised, or underlined words, specific fonts, indenting, and so on, it will automatically be carried over when the text is copied from one place to another.

This can cause two major issues; the first is that the formatting of the text - such as the font, indenting, font size, and so on might not match the design and content of wherever it’s being pasted, which can make an online shop, Webpage or website look terrible. The second reason is that when you edit this pasted text, any changes you make to it may not be applied, as the formatting - the hidden code, which isn’t immediately obvious - will prevent any changes from being implemented. You’ll be able to delete and add words, but this may not display on the page the way you would like.

Therefore, to remove the formatting from the text, you need to copy it elsewhere first. If you are on a PC, you need to run a search for Notepad. This application on every PC allows you to copy text and code without any formatting being assigned to it. If you are using a Mac, the Apple equivalent is called TextEditor.

[tips] If you want to read the text in Notepad, click ‘Format’ on the top left-hand side and then click ‘Word Wrap’ in the drop-down menu. This will ‘squeeze’ your text into the window, so you have to scroll down to read and not scroll to the right. Remember to turn Word Wrap off afterwards by navigating to it and clicking it against to remove the tick before you copy the text and paste it onto your EKM online shop.[/tips]

1. Open Notepad and paste the text you would like to add to your EKM online shop within it. Click ‘Edit’ on the top left-hand side and choose ‘Select All’ from the drop-down menu. This will select all of the text within Notepad. You then need to click Edit again, but this time select ‘Cut’ from the drop-down menu:

2. You can then navigate to the relevant area or Webpage on your EKM online shop and paste the text using either the ‘Paste’ button or by pressing the CTRL and V keys.

3. When you have pasted the text onto your Webpage, you can then format it in the usual ways so that the finished version will look more like this:

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[contact]If you need our help with your EKM online shop, contact your Ecommerce Expert, Account Manager, or the Customer Support Team, who can point you in the right direction. Our opening hours are 9 am - 5.30 pm Monday to Friday, for telephone calls, live chats, and emails. Over the weekends, we're open from 9 am - 5.30 pm, both Saturday and Sunday, to answer emails and live chat, which you can access from the Dashboard of your EKM online shop. Outside these hours, you can leave a message for us in the live chat window or email support@ekm.com, and we will answer as soon as possible.

If you'd like to suggest a feature or an upgrade on any of the EKM platforms, please let us know on the EKM Suggestions Board. If you have a non-account-specific question to ask the EKM Team, join us in the EKM Community. [/contact]