Having Problems with Active Content Notices from Using MS Office Word to Compile Text. Please Help!

[quailriver]

I have used Microsoft Office Word 2003 to compile my item descriptions and have saved them in Word Document format for 15 years.  But now for some reason when I cut and paste my descriptions into eBay's item listing form I'm getting a flag notice that states; "We found the following active content in your listing: plug-ins. To make eBay a more secure marketplace, we'll hide all active content from buyers in June 2017."  Does anyone know why copying and pasting a Word Document would prompt this message?  Is there a setting in MS Word 2003 that can be changed to eliminate this?  Or another format other than "Word Document" that I could save my descriptions in MS Office 2003 that will not contain Active Content?  Thank you in advance!

[professor-t]

Word adds all sorts of code to documents. You're best bet, and one I've used for many years, is to copy from Word into Notepad, which strips all the stuff out, and then cut and past the plain text from Notepad. Another possibility is to use the right-click menu on your mouse and see if you can "paste as plain text."

[chrysylys]

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@quailriver wrote:

Or another format other than "Word Document" that I could save my descriptions in MS Office 2003 that will not contain Active Content?  Thank you in advance!

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Use Notepad, free on all (OK, maybe Most)  Windows versions.

[shipscript]

@quailriver

I have preloaded one of your older listings to show you the probem.

http://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/ActiveContentSandbox.htm?122885806457

You can paste your item number or entire description into the tool, Scan, and scroll down to the "Markup" tab, where the offending code will be colorized.

As you can see from the listing I have preloaded for you, Word adds a whole block of setup codes, and then another, and often multiples, depending on what you copy/paste. But typically,  just the "<object>" code triggers eBay's alarm, which you can see near the bottom. It seems to be the same code for every user stung by this problem.

You might be able to shake that off by selecting Word's "web page, filtered" when you save your description. And could certainly drop it by choosing Plain text (.txt) or Rich text (.rtf) and saving.

But if you just copy straight out of Word and into eBay's rich text editor, all those setup codes are carried along. In your case, you could click eBay's "help me fix it" link and they'll strip the offending bit.

However, you really don't need or want all that garbage code in your description. As others have recommended, for plain text like yours, it would be better to compose in WordPad or Notepad and then style the text using eBay's toolbar. Both editors can be found in the Accessories folder of Windows computers. Even an email editor would be a better choice than Word, but Notepad is by far the cleanest.

If you are really married to Word (for Spellcheck for instance), then copy and paste your Word description into the HTML tab of eBay's description editor (which does not process the Word codes) and switch back to the editing tab where you will need to reformat and style the text using eBay's toolbar.

[newview]

Friends don't let friends use Word.

Stop paying for a Office Suite you probably don't need ... use LibreOffice, a free open source alternative Office Suite that is compatible and will open Microsoft documents, and will also create documents that Word will open with no problem. Word Processor, Database & Spreadsheet Office Suite

Cost - $0.00

That said ... create your listings in Notepad, as others have indicated. There is no hidden, proprietory code in the background, unlike Word, which is why eBay is complaining.