How to remove HTML tags in Excel

In Excel, you can remove HTML tags from text using a combination of functions to manipulate and clean the data. Excel doesn’t have a built-in function specifically for removing HTML tags like a programming language or text editor might, so we’ll use Excel functions creatively to achieve this.

Method using Excel Formulas

If your HTML content is in a cell, you can use a combination of Excel’s SUBSTITUTE and CLEAN functions to remove HTML tags. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

1. Assume your HTML content is in cell A1.

   Example:

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   A1: <h1>Welcome to <b>Excel</b></h1>

2. Use the following formula to remove HTML tags:
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   =CLEAN(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A1, "<", ""), ">", ""))

   • SUBSTITUTE(A1, "<", ""): This removes all opening angle brackets <.
   • SUBSTITUTE(result of previous step, ">", ""): This removes all closing angle brackets >.
   • CLEAN(result of previous step): This removes non-printable characters that might have been part of the HTML tags.
3. Enter the formula in a different cell (let’s say B1), and press Enter.
4. Copy the formula down if you have multiple cells with HTML content.

Example

If cell A1 contains <h1>Welcome to <b>Excel</b></h1>, then:

• Formula in B1: =CLEAN(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A1, "<", ""), ">", ""))
• Result in B1: Welcome to Excel

This approach effectively removes all HTML tags and non-printable characters from the text in Excel.

Notes

• Limitations: This method works well for basic HTML tags. If your HTML content includes complex structures (like nested tags or attributes), this approach might not be sufficient.
• Manual Cleanup: For more complex HTML parsing needs, consider using a programming language or dedicated text-processing tools that can handle HTML parsing more robustly.