Looking for a way to clean up the bloated Microsoft code what copying/pasting content from Word or Excel into a knowledge article

jaspiranti · ‎01-24-2022

We continue to struggle with the formatting when creating knowledge articles. Whether using the import feature or copy/paste from Word, it's a real pain to work with. Conflicts between any code ServiceNow is using and whatever Microsoft is bringing often creates such a mess that it's easier simply to rewrite the article from scratch.

I personally use Notepad++ for all my tweaking and cleanup efforts, then I copy/paste into SN with a pretty good degree of success. This is not an option for our content owners/writers and I'm not comfortable with using some random online "text cleaner" (of which none of those are great either).

Would welcome ANY ideas, thoughts, or paths you may have taken to solve for this.

Kim27 · ‎01-24-2022

Hi, you may need to ask your admin team to add the "clear formatting" icon to your editing tool bar. It looks like this:

You will still need to go in and renumber the steps, but at least it gives you a clean start. I will often turn off the numbering in the Word version before I move it into SN.

I copy and pasted a sample of text from Word.

Highlight everything, click on the "clear formatting" icon and it clears the formatting. I pulled the code before and after:

Before:

After

I hope this helps!

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jaspiranti · ‎07-19-2023

Thank you for the tips and the template @Lauren Methena! Every little bit helps.

linniesea · ‎07-19-2023

I use Word to write and edit my KB articles. We also have articles that don't always go into SNOW, and I sometimes don't know where they will end up when I start writing them. I use a Word template, and I have styles for numbers and graphics in between numbers in numbered lists. I mention that in particular because that is where I see the most issues when I import my Word docs into SNOW KBs. I also used to teach advanced Word for 7 years so I am really strong at creating templates.

Using my template and importing, I make a quick comparison, make some quick changes and tweaks, and publish. I do try to stay away from multi-level numbered or bulleted lists.

I also import my articles in sections similarly to how Kim27 mentions. It is easier to compare that way.

Sometimes it works perfectly and other times I will have an issue or two. But it usually takes me about 30 minutes to import my articles (some pretty long ones) into SNOW using that process.