Converting HTML to text involves extracting the readable content from an HTML document, stripping out all the HTML tags, and leaving just the plain text. This process is useful when you want to display or process content from an HTML page without any HTML markup.
Why Convert HTML to Text?
Content Extraction: If you want to extract the visible content from a webpage or document without the HTML formatting, this conversion is helpful.
Email or Message Content: Many systems or platforms require plain text without HTML to send emails or display messages.
Search and Indexing: For indexing or searching content from web pages, removing HTML allows you to focus on just the text.
Example of HTML to Text Conversion
HTML Example:
html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Welcome Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Welcome to My Website</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph with <strong>bold</strong> text and <em>italic</em> text.</p>
<a href="https://www.example.com">Click here</a> for more information.
</body>
</html>
Converted to Text:
vbnet
Welcome to My Website
This is a paragraph with bold text and italic text.
Click here for more information.
Steps to Convert HTML to Text
Remove Tags: The HTML tags such as <h1>, <p>, <strong>, and <em> are removed.
Handle Special HTML Entities: Entities like &, <, and > are converted back to their original characters (i.e., &, <, and >).
Retain Visible Content: Only the text inside the tags is retained, including nested content like text in <strong> or <em>.
Manual Conversion:
To manually convert HTML to plain text:
Remove all HTML tags (those inside < and >).
Replace or decode any HTML entities (e.g., & becomes &).
Keep the text content as is, while preserving line breaks and spaces.
Automated Conversion Using JavaScript:
You can use JavaScript to convert HTML to plain text by stripping the HTML tags. Here's a simple example:
javascript
function htmlToText(html) {
var doc = new DOMParser().parseFromString(html, 'text/html');
return doc.body.textContent || doc.body.innerText;
}
You can use this function like this:
javascript
var htmlContent = `
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Welcome Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Welcome to My Website</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph with <strong>bold</strong> text and <em>italic</em> text.</p>
<a href="https://www.example.com">Click here</a> for more information.
</body>
</html>
`;
var plainText = htmlToText(htmlContent);
console.log(plainText);
Output:
vbnet
Welcome to My Website
This is a paragraph with bold text and italic text.
Click here for more information.
Using Online Tools:
There are also online tools that allow you to convert HTML to plain text. Here are some tools you can use:
HTML to Text: Paste your HTML, and it will return the plain text.
HTML to Text Converter: Another online tool that strips HTML tags and returns just the text.
Considerations for HTML to Text Conversion:
Line Breaks and Formatting: When converting HTML to text, the structure and formatting might be lost. For example, headings, lists, and links might become simple text, but you can try to preserve line breaks and indentation where appropriate.
HTML Entities: Special HTML characters like & (for &), < (for <), and > (for >) need to be decoded into their original characters.
Nested Tags: Ensure nested tags (e.g., bold or italic text inside paragraphs) are properly handled. Only the text inside the tags should be preserved.