This week, we spotlight a new plugin that we believe will make your life easier: the Mammoth .docx converter! Â This plugin allows you to more easily transfer content from Microsoft Word without losing formatting.
As a general rule, it is good practice to save copies of your pages, posts, (and homework assignments!) off the OpenLab, perhaps in Google docs, Microsoft Word, or some other text editor. It also best practice to paste content directly into pages and posts, rather than uploading bulky PDFs and Word Documents onto a site. However, the actual process of copying and pasting content into the WordPress post editor sometimes results in a frustrating loss of formatting. Headers, tables, bold, italics and lists have been known to vanish.
The new Mammoth.docx converter presents a solution! Content created in Microsoft Word can now be uploaded to the OpenLab through the plugin, and will automatically be converted into HTML and pasted into your post editor for you to publish online.
Using the plugin is easy. After youâve activated it, you will see an option to use the Mammoth.docx converter at the bottom of the page in your post  editor. Click âchoose fileâ to upload a Word document.
Once the upload is complete, you will see the content of the document appear in your post editor.
Thatâs it! Â Keep in mind that the more formatting you include in your original Word document (e.g. headings, paragraph styles, links, lists, and text boxes), the better the formatting will translate in your posts and pages. This means minimal- if any- editing once youâve uploaded your content. We hope this plugin will be useful to you and encourage you to try it with Word documents that have quite a bit of formatting, for example syllabi.
