Formatting cleanup
Clean AI formatting without rewriting the text
Text copied from an assistant often carries Markdown headings, bold markers, list prefixes, code fences, link syntax, or citation tokens. Removing that transport formatting is different from rewriting the sentences.
A cleaner should state which marks it removes and leave the words available for review. It cannot establish authorship, make a detector reliable, or guarantee that a passage sounds human.
Before
## Summary **Keep the words.** Read [the source](https://example.com). - First item
After
Summary Keep the words. Read the source. First item
Formatting is not meaning
Markdown uses visible punctuation to describe structure. Hashes can mark headings, asterisks can mark emphasis, greater-than signs can mark quotations, and backticks can mark code. A plain-text destination may not want those markers, but the words inside them can remain unchanged.
TextClean removes common Markdown patterns with deterministic rules. Link labels can be kept with or without the destination URL. Table rows are converted into tab-separated text rather than silently discarded.
Citation removal needs narrow rules
A bracketed number may be a citation, but a bracketed word may be meaningful. Parenthetical author-year references can resemble ordinary prose. TextClean therefore targets conservative numeric, footnote, and author-year patterns instead of removing every bracket or parenthesis.
Always retain an authoritative copy when citations matter. Cleanup is appropriate for a message or working draft, not for altering the source record.
Long dashes and house style
An em dash is a normal punctuation mark, not evidence of AI authorship. Some publications and messaging contexts still prefer a comma, colon, space, or spaced hyphen. TextClean changes long dashes only when a replacement mode is selected.
The surrounding sentence may need punctuation review after replacement. A mechanical substitution cannot decide whether a comma creates a splice or whether a colon fits the relationship between clauses.
What the cleaner cannot certify
No formatting cleaner can prove who wrote a passage. Invisible-character removal does not defeat reliable provenance systems, and detector scores are not evidence of authorship. The responsible use is to prepare text for its destination, then check facts, voice, attribution, and permission separately.
If the wording itself is poor, edit it as writing. Do not hide rewriting inside a button labelled cleanup.
Check before using the result
- Headings and lists still make sense
- URLs required by the reader
- Citation obligations
- Code and literal punctuation
- Facts, attribution, and final voice