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Clean Text in CSV — Strip HTML, Symbols & Special Characters

Remove HTML tags, control characters, symbols, and non-ASCII characters from text cells in your CSV.

Pro feature

Upgrade to Pro to use the Clean Text tool and process files up to 50 MB.

See Pro plans

What this tool does

Data scraped from the web, exported from CMS platforms, or copied from rich-text editors often contains HTML tags, invisible control characters, and special Unicode symbols that cause problems on import. Tabular's text cleaner strips HTML markup, removes junk characters, and normalizes whitespace — column by column or across the whole file — leaving clean, import-ready data.

Problems it solves

  • HTML tags in CMS or email tool exports (<p>, <b>, &amp; etc.)
  • Invisible control characters causing import errors
  • Unicode symbols (™, ©, •, →) breaking downstream systems
  • Multiple consecutive spaces and inconsistent whitespace
  • Non-ASCII characters failing ASCII-only database columns

Example

HTML tags, &nbsp; entities, and the ™ symbol removed; whitespace normalized.

Before

ProductDescription
Widget™<p>Great product&nbsp;for everyone!</p>

After

ProductDescription
WidgetGreat product for everyone!

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between 'Remove symbols' and 'ASCII only'?

Remove symbols strips control characters and common Unicode junk (bullets, arrows, trademark symbols) but keeps properly accented characters like é, ü, and ñ. ASCII only is more aggressive — it removes anything outside standard ASCII, including all accented and international letters.

Will stripping HTML decode entities like &amp; and &nbsp;?

The HTML strip removes tags (< and > and everything between them) but does not decode HTML entities. Use Find & Replace to substitute &amp; → & and &nbsp; → a space if needed.

Is this a Pro feature?

Yes. Text cleaning is available on Pro and Business plans.

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Trim Whitespace

Strip leading and trailing spaces from every cell in your CSV or spreadsheet with one click.

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Find & Replace

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Find any text in your CSV and replace it across an entire column or the whole file — bulk editing made easy.

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Normalize Casing

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Convert text in your CSV to UPPERCASE, lowercase, or Title Case — across all cells or specific columns.

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