What This Tool Does
When you paste plain text into a CMS, rich-text editor, or HTML template, bare text without paragraph tags renders as a single unformatted block. This tool solves that by splitting your text on blank lines and wrapping each block in <p>...</p> tags. Single newlines within a paragraph are optionally converted to <br> tags, special characters like &, <, and > are encoded so they display correctly in HTML, and you can toggle indentation to produce neatly formatted source code ready to paste into any HTML document.
How to Use
- Paste your plain text into the input panel. Separate paragraphs with a blank line.
- Toggle Convert single newlines to <br> if you want line breaks within a paragraph preserved as
<br>tags rather than collapsed into a single line. - Keep Encode <, >, & characters enabled (the default) unless your text already contains valid HTML that you do not want double-encoded.
- Enable Indent output for readable, two-space-indented markup.
- Choose whether blank lines between paragraphs should be skipped or kept as empty
<p></p>elements. - Copy or download the finished HTML.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why should I wrap text in <p> tags instead of using <br> tags?
Paragraph tags carry semantic meaning that <br> tags do not. Search engines, screen readers, and RSS parsers all understand <p>as a distinct block of content, which improves accessibility and discoverability. CSS also gives you much finer control over paragraph spacing and typography when content is properly wrapped — you can set margin-bottom on p rather than relying on line-break gaps. Use <br>only for intentional mid-paragraph line breaks like addresses or verse.
What counts as a paragraph break?
Any sequence of two or more consecutive newlines is treated as a paragraph boundary. This mirrors how tools like Markdown, WordPress, and most text editors define a paragraph: a blank line separating two blocks of text. Single newlines within a block are treated as part of the same paragraph — whether they become <br>tags or are joined into one line depends on the line-break option you choose.
Why encode special characters in the text?
If your text contains an ampersand (&), a less-than sign (<), or a greater-than sign (>), a browser will try to interpret them as HTML syntax — potentially breaking your page layout or introducing cross-site scripting risks if the text came from user input. Encoding converts them to their safe HTML entity equivalents (&, <, >) so they display as literal characters. Disable encoding only if your text already contains valid HTML you want preserved.
Can I use the output directly in a CMS or email template?
Yes. The output is standard HTML5-compliant markup that works in WordPress, Drupal, Shopify, HubSpot, Mailchimp, and virtually any other platform that accepts raw HTML. If your CMS has a rich-text editor with an HTML source view, switch to that view and paste the output directly. For email templates, be aware that some email clients have limited CSS support — use inline styles or your ESP's tooling to apply paragraph spacing after the conversion.