Paragraph Features Supported on HTML Import

This page has been archived and has not been updated for some time. It contains information for reference only.

Each paragraph in a document is represented in Aspose.Words as a Paragraph node. A paragraph represesents a block of text in a document and have a variety of properties and styles.

Using Aspose.Words you can access and change virtually all properties of a paragraph. Nearly all paragraph attributes are supported. You can also easily insert and remove paragraphs.

Paragraph formatting is contained within the ParagraphFormat class which is linked to the paragraph.

Paragraphs are imported from HTML from <p> and <h1> - <h6> tags.

Most common native HTML tags and CSS formatting are supported during import. Note that Aspose.Words works with Word documents, therefore not all CSS can be imported as some features do not have a useful eqivilant in Word document formats. Such attributes are ignored during import.

Aspose.Words supports most CSS 1 and CCS 2 properties that have an eqivilant use in Word documents.

There is a load option to skip loading any embedded or linked style sheet.

See the following links in the documentation for further information:

Inserting Document Elements
Paragraph
Paragraph.ParagraphFormat
LoadOptions.ResourceLoadingCallback

Jump to this location in the export section

General Formatting

Paragraph style and formatting can be imported from HTML in the form of tags such as <h1> to <h6> or from <p> tags that have CSS styles.

<h1> to <h6> tags are imported into the Aspose.Words DOM as the built-in Heading styles: Heading 1 - Heading 6.

Inline CSS (through use of the style attribute) is imported as direct formatting on the paragraph (stored in the ParagraphFormat of the Paragraph node).

An Embedded or Linked CSS style (through use of the class attribute) is imported as a Style and applied to the Paragraph node in the document. This style formatting can be accessed using the ParagraphFormat.Style property. A linked CSS sheet can also be downloaded automatically from an external address on the internet.

When there is conflicting formatting on inline and embedded/external CSS, as with CSS the formatting from inline styles are taken first, then the embedded formatting and finally the external formatting.

Feature	Supported	Comment	See Also
Paragraph Style	Yes	Styles are imported from embedded or external style sheets. If there is no linked style sheet of either of these kinds then the document is imported with no styles (apart from default Normal style). To make sure styles are imported use a style sheet of any kind. There is a load option to control whether embedded or external style sheets are read or skipped during HTML import. There is also an option to supply your own CSS style sheet instead.	- ParagraphFormat - ParagraphFormat.Style
Alignment	Yes	Imported from the “text-align” paragraph style attribute.	- ParagraphFormat.Alignment
Right to Left Paragraph	Planned		- ParagraphFormat.Bidi
Bullets and Numbers	Yes	Imported from <ol>, <ul>, <li> tags. Simulated lists using <p> and <span> look correct but will not be imported as proper lists in the DOM.	- ParagraphFormat.ListFormat - ParagraphFormat.ListLabel
Outline Level	Planned		- ParagraphFormat.OutlineLevel
Run Properties for the Paragraph Mark	Planned	Can be implemented with Microsoft Office specific techniques. During import the formatting from the last span from <p> becomes the font properties for the paragraph.	- ParagraphFormat.ParagraphBreakFont
Suppress Line Numbers	Planned		- ParagraphFormat.SurpressLineNumbers
Suppress Hyphenation	Planned		- ParagraphFormat.SurpressAutoHyphens

Indents

Feature	Supported	Comment	See Also
Left Indent	Yes	Imported from margin-left on style attribute.	- ParagraphFormat.LeftIndent
Right Indent	Yes	Imported from margin-right on style attribute.	- ParagraphFormat.RightIndent
First Line Indent	Yes	Imported from text-indent on style attribute.	- ParagraphFormat.FirstLineIndent
Hanging Indent	Yes	Imported from a combination of margin-left and text-indent style attribute.	- ParagraphFormat.FirstLineIndent
Mirror Indents	N/A
Automatically Adjust Right Indent	N/A

Spacing

Feature	Supported	Comment	See Also
Space Before	Yes	Imported from “margin-top” style attribute. If this attribute is missing from a paragraph during import from HTML then Space Before is set to Auto.	- ParagraphFormat.SpaceBefore
Space After	Yes	Imported from “margin-bottom” style attribute. If this attribute is missing from a paragraph during import from HTML then Space After is set to Auto.	- ParagraphFormat.SpaceAfter
Space Auto	Yes	Paragraphs imported from HTML without margin-top or margin-bottom style attributes are imported as Auto spacing by default.	- ParagraphFormat.SpaceBeforeAuto - ParagraphFormat.SpaceAfterAuto
Line Spacing	Yes	Imported from “line-height” style attribute.	- ParagraphFormat.LineSpacing - ParagraphFormat.LineSpacingRule
No Space between Conforming Paragraphs	Planned		- ParagraphFormat.NoSpaceBetweenParagraphsOfSameStyle
Snap To Grid	Planned

Keeps and Breaks

Feature	Supported	Comment	See Also
Widow/Orphan Control	Yes	Imported from “widows” CSS attribute. A value of 0 from this attribute is imported as Widow/Orphan control as being disabled. A value of 1 or greater is imported as enabled. A paragraph without this attrubite is automatically given Widow/Orphan control in the model.	- ParagraphFormat.WidowControl
Keep With Next	Yes	Imported from style attribute with “page-break-after:avoid”.	- ParagraphFormat.KeepWithNext
Keep Lines Together	Yes	Imported from style attribute with “page-break-inside:avoid”.	- ParagraphFormat.KeepTogether
Page Break Before	Yes	Imported from “page-break-before” on style attribute.	- ParagraphFormat.PageBreakBefore

Text Frames

This is the legacy text frames from Word 97, not to be confused with the Autoshape Textbox which is discussed under Drawing Objects.

Text frames are preserved in the model but there is no API or node to modify or access information about frames.

Frames exported to HTML as paragraphs surronded by a border.

These are round-tripped back to a document with similar formatting but not as actual text frames

Feature	Supported	Comment	See Also
Text Frames	Planned

Tab Stops

All features of tab stops are supported in Aspose.Words except for relative tab stops.

Using Aspose.Words you can find tab stops based off position or index. You can change tab stop features like position, alignment etc or remove tabstops completely.

Tab stops are not natively available in HTML so Aspose.Words exports spacing as a set of non-breaking spaces. These can not be imported back as tab-stops again.

In future improvements, Aspose.Words will convert tab stops as a fixed space which will should allow proper round-trip. In the same way we will also provide support for the Microsoft Office mso-tab-count attribute.

See the following link in the documentation for further information:

ParagraphFormat.TabStops

Feature	Supported	Comment	See Also
Absolute Position	Planned		- TabStop.Position
Relative Position	Planned	A relative position tab can be inserted in Microsoft Word using the “Insert Alignment Tab” button. This type of tab is relative to either the page margin or the indent of the paragraph. This allows tab stops to appear in the same relative place even when the position of the paragraph or page is modified. Currently Aspose.Words supports these types of tab stops in OOXML and WordML formats only. There is currently no API to retrieve the properties of this tab e.g RelativeTo, Alignment, Leader etc. Further support is planned. This feature might be supported during HTML import if a proper analog can be found.	- AbsolutePositionTab
Alignment: Left, Center, Right, Decimal, Bar	Planned		- TabStop.Alignment
Leader	Planned		- TabStop.Leader

Drop Caps

Drop Caps are partially supported and preserved during document conversion. A drop cap is a text frame which is imported as a separate paragraph (from the rest of the paragraph as seen in the source document).

You can modify drop cap properties and position, however the new settings are not applied to the drop cap. You cannot yet create new drop caps (although you can easily simulate them through the use of a textbox).

This will be improved in a future version of Aspose.Words.

Drop cap is a frame. During import the appearance of a drop cap is round-tripped correctly, however it is not imported as proper drop cap therefore options cannot be modified.

See the following links in the documentation for further information:

ParagraphFormat.DropCapPositon
ParagraphFormat.LinesToDrop

Feature	Supported	Comment	See Also
Drop Caps	Yes

Borders

Borders are imported from border-style, border-width etc on style or from indivudal borders using border-xxx-style and border-xxx-width etc style attributes.

A div with embedded or linked CSS containing a border style has all of the paragraphs and spans inside the div imported with full borders. This will be improved in a future version.

Feature	Supported	Comment	See Also
Border Sides	Yes		- ParagraphFormat.Borders - LineStyle
Shadow	Planned		- Border.Shadow
3D Frame	Planned		- Border.LineStyle
Style	Yes		- Border.LineStyle
Color	Yes		- Border.Color
Width	Yes		- Border.LineWidth
Distance from Text	Yes	Imported from “padding-xxx” settings.	- Border.DistanceFromText

Shading

Fill color imported from “background-color” on style attribute.

Currently cell background is imported as paragraph shading. This will be improved in a future version of Aspose.Words.