Pasting from Google Docs into WordPress adding unnecessary formatting

Question

Simply copying and pasting from google docs into wordpress adds tons of this: <span style="font-weight: 400px"> throughout the wordpress post/page.

Answer 1

Found that the issue is TinyMCE. Here is a solution that prevents the spans from being added on paste: https://bionicteaching.com/clean-google-doc-cut-paste-into-wordpress-editor/

Add this to functions.php:

//fix cut paste drama from https://jonathannicol.com/blog/2015/02/19/clean-pasted-text-in-wordpress/
add_filter('tiny_mce_before_init','configure_tinymce');

/**
 * Customize TinyMCE's configuration
 *
 * @param   array
 * @return  array
 */
function configure_tinymce($in) {
  $in['paste_preprocess'] = "function(plugin, args){
    // Strip all HTML tags except those we have whitelisted
    var whitelist = 'p,b,strong,i,em,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,ul,li,ol,a,href';
    var stripped = jQuery('<div>' + args.content + '</div>');
    var els = stripped.find('*').not(whitelist);
    for (var i = els.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
      var e = els[i];
      jQuery(e).replaceWith(e.innerHTML);
    }
    // Strip all class and id attributes
    stripped.find('*').removeAttr('id').removeAttr('class').removeAttr('style');
    // Return the clean HTML
    args.content = stripped.html();
  }";
  return $in;
}```

Answer 2

You can avoid such behaviour in many different ways.

Solution 1:
You can use the Paste as text option

Solution 2:
Instead of using the Visual editor switch to the Text editor.

Solution 3:
A third alternative would be to use the Clear formatting option after pasting your text.