Pasting from Word/Docs/Pages adds unwanted empty lines between paragraphs #79781

Activity

1. t-hamano

   added

   [Type] BugAn existing feature does not function as intendedAn existing feature does not function as intended

   [Feature] Paste

   Needs TestingNeeds further testing to be confirmed.Needs further testing to be confirmed.

   on Jul 2, 2026
2. GeorgeWebDevCy commented on Jul 4, 2026

   

   GeorgeWebDevCy

   on Jul 4, 2026 – with ChatGPT Codex Connector

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   I could not reproduce this in the current block-editor paste pipeline, but I ran a small input matrix to help narrow the report.

   Environment

   • WordPress 7.0
   • Gutenberg 23.5.0 (current trunk checkout)
   • Chrome on Windows

   Inputs tested

   I passed each clipboard representation through Gutenberg's pasteHandler in block mode:

   1. Plain text with a normal blank line between two paragraphs.
   2. Google Docs-style HTML: a <meta> marker followed by two styled paragraph/span elements.
   3. Word-style HTML with two MsoNormal paragraphs and <o:p> elements.
   4. Word-style HTML containing an explicit intermediate <o:p>&nbsp;</o:p> paragraph.
   5. Pages-style HTML containing an explicit intermediate <p><br></p> paragraph.

   All five cases produced exactly two core/paragraph blocks:

   <!-- wp:paragraph -->
   <p>First paragraph.</p>
   <!-- /wp:paragraph -->
   
   <!-- wp:paragraph -->
   <p>Second paragraph.</p>
   <!-- /wp:paragraph -->

   No empty block or extra <br> survived, including in the two cases with an explicit blank paragraph. This matches the current emptyParagraphRemover / brRemover normalization path.

   The next useful diagnostic would be the exact text/html and text/plain clipboard payload from an affected paste, plus confirmation of:

   • Block Editor vs Classic Editor.
   • Browser and OS.
   • Source application and version.
   • Whether the visible gap is an actual empty block or paragraph margin from imported formatting.

   Without one of those payloads, this may be Classic Editor-specific or dependent on source markup not represented by the common Word/Docs/Pages forms above.

   👍React with 👍1Reacted by Deepak Prajapati
3. GeorgeWebDevCy commented on Jul 4, 2026

   

   GeorgeWebDevCy

   on Jul 4, 2026 – with ChatGPT Codex Connector

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   AI assistance disclosure: OpenAI Codex assisted with the paste-input test automation, analysis, and drafting of my test report. The reported test matrix was executed against the environment stated above.
4. deepakpra commented on Jul 14, 2026

   

   deepakpra

   on Jul 14, 2026

   Contributor

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   I checked this further. Google Docs works because it provides semantic heading HTML like <h2>...</h2>, so Gutenberg can preserve it as a Heading block.

   Based on the current paste HTML/fixture, Apple Pages appears to paste headings as styled paragraphs, like <p><b>...</b></p> / class-based paragraph markup, not real <h1>-<h6> tags. Without a reliable signal such as a heading tag, role="heading", or aria-level, Gutenberg cannot safely distinguish an Apple Pages heading from a normal bold paragraph.
5. youknowriad commented on Jul 22, 2026

   

   youknowriad

   on Jul 22, 2026

   Contributor

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   Closing as there doesn't seem to be much we could be doing here.
6. youknowriad

   closed this as completedon Jul 22, 2026