You can also use SciTE to paste code if you don’t want to install heavy IDEs and then download plugins for all the code you’re making. Simply choose your language from the language menu, type your code, high-light code, select Edit->Copy as RTF, paste into Word with formatting (default paste).
SciTE supports the following languages but probably has support for others: Abaqus*, Ada, ANS.1 MIB definition files*, APDL, Assembler (NASM, MASM), Asymptote*, AutoIt*, Avenue*, Batch files (MS-DOS), Baan*, Bash*, BlitzBasic*, Bullant*, C/C++/C#, Clarion, cmake*, conf (Apache), CSound, CSS*, D, diff files*, E-Script*, Eiffel*, Erlang*, Flagship (Clipper / XBase), Flash (ActionScript), Fortran*, Forth*, GAP*, Gettext, Haskell, HTML*, HTML with embedded JavaScript, VBScript, PHP and ASP*, Gui4Cli*, IDL — both MSIDL and XPIDL*, INI, properties* and similar, InnoSetup*, Java*, JavaScript*, LISP*, LOT*, Lout*, Lua*, Make, Matlab*, Metapost*, MMIXAL, MSSQL, nnCron, NSIS*, Objective Caml*, Opal, Octave*, Pascal/Delphi*, Perl, most of it except for some ambiguous cases*, PL/M*, Progress*, PostScript*, POV-Ray*, PowerBasic*, PowerShell*, PureBasic*, Python*, R*, Rebol*, Ruby*, Scheme*, scriptol*, Specman E*, Spice, Smalltalk, SQL and PLSQL, TADS3*, TeX and LaTeX, Tcl/Tk*, VB and VBScript*, Verilog*, VHDL*, XML*, YAML*.
If you’re creating an article, instructional piece, or essay in Microsoft Word, you may need to include a snippet of code. Whether HTML, JavaScript, or Python, you likely want it to appear different than the document text.
There are a few ways to insert command or code blocks in your Word document. Depending on if you want the reader to simply view the code or have the ability to copy it, let’s walk through the options.
Option 1: Paste Special as HTML
One of the quickest ways to add code to your document is with the Paste Special option for HTML. This inserts the code you’ve copied without the other formatting of your document. And, this option allows your reader to copy the code or command straight from your document.
RELATED: How to Paste Text Without Formatting Almost Anywhere
Select the code or command from your application and copy it using the toolbar, the context menu, or the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+C on Windows or Command+C on Mac.
Place your cursor in your Word document where you want to paste it. Then go to the Home tab, click the Paste drop-down arrow, and choose Paste Special. Select “HTML Format” and click “OK.”
When the code appears in your document, you can format the font or the snippet if you like.
Use the Home tab to color specific pieces of code with the Font section of the ribbon. To add a border or shade, select the Borders drop-down arrow in the Paragraph section and pick “Borders and Shading.”
Option 2: Insert an Object
If you want to insert the code or command in your document only for the reader to see and not copy or edit, you can insert an object containing the snippet.
RELATED: How to Insert a Picture or Other Object in Microsoft Office
Go to the Insert tab, click the Object drop-down arrow, and pick “Object.”
On the Create New tab, select “OpenDocument Text” as the Object Type. Click “OK.”
A new Word document will open for you to insert your code or command. You can use the Paste Special HTML format described earlier if you like. After you add the snippet, close the document.
Your code then appears in your original Word document as an object. You can then move it, resize it, or add a border if you wish.
Option 3: Attach a Screenshot
Another option for adding your snippet as an item instead of text is using an image. If you have your code or command in an active application window like Notepad++ or Command Prompt, you can easily add it to your document. The drawbacks here are that the reader can’t easily copy your code if they need to and that resizing may negatively affect readability.
Go to the Insert tab and click the Screenshot drop-down arrow. You should see the application window as an option.
Select it and it’ll pop into your document as an image. You can then crop the image to remove the surrounding application window if you like.
Alternatively, you can use the Screen Clipping option in the Screenshot drop-down. When you select this tool, your cursor changes to a crosshair. Use it to drag the area of your screen or other application window you want to capture and release.
That image then appears in your document. You can move, resize, or customize the snippet screenshot like any other image in Word.
Option 4: Use a Syntax Highlighter
One more option is to use a syntax highlighter like Easy Syntax Highlighter. This is a free add-in for Microsoft Word that highlights your code for you including a background and colors for pieces of the code. Plus, you can customize the language and appearance.
RELATED: How to Install and Use Add-ins for Microsoft Office
After you install the add-in, place the code or command in your document. You can type or paste it, whichever you prefer.
Select the code and go to the Easy Syntax Highlighter tab that now displays. To apply the default formatting with the language automatically detected, select “Highlight Selection” in the ribbon.
You’ll see your snippet highlighted and your text formatted.
If you want to select a specific language or formatting, select “Settings” in the ribbon instead. When the sidebar opens, choose a Language and Theme.
With your code selected, click “Highlight Selection” in the sidebar.
You’ll then see your snippet formatted per the settings you picked. This keeps your code or command as text so your reader can copy it, but makes it stand out as its own block.
There’s more than one way to add a code or command block to your Word document. Depending on the purpose for your reader, choose the option that’s best for you!
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Hi fellow developer! In this article, we will answer the question: How do you Display Code Snippets in Microsoft Word?
The Sample code snippet we want to include in a Word document
Below, you can see an example of a code snippet to be included in our Word document:
SELECT * FROM table1 t1 INNER JOIN table2 t2 ON t1.ID=t2.ID; GO
The above code snippet is actually an SQL statement and we want to include it in a word document as a snippet.
How to include the code snippet in a Word document
The easiest way to include the above code snippet in a Word document, is to insert it as an object.
Therefore, in order to do this, you need to follow the below steps, within your Word document:
- Navigate to the “Insert” tab in the Word ribbon (menu)
- Click on “Object”
- Select “OpenDocument Text” and click OK – a new Word window/doc launches:
- Within the new Word window:
- Type or paste your code with no spacing
- Select all text and add a border (outside borders)
- Select all text and add shading (grey for example)
- Exit the document
- After you perform the above, you can see that you will return to the original Word document, and this time, a formatted code snippet box with the text you pasted/typed, will be displayed.
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Reference: {essentialDevTips.com} (https://www.essentialdevtips.com/)
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Artemakis Artemiou is a Senior SQL Server Architect, Author, a 9 Times Microsoft Data Platform MVP (2009-2018). He has over 15 years of experience in the IT industry in various roles. Artemakis is the founder of SQLNetHub and {essentialDevTips.com}. Artemakis is the creator of the well-known software tools Snippets Generator and DBA Security Advisor. Also, he is the author of many eBooks on SQL Server. Artemakis currently serves as the President of the Cyprus .NET User Group (CDNUG) and the International .NET Association Country Leader for Cyprus (INETA). Moreover, Artemakis teaches on Udemy, you can check his courses here.
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Finding a way to decently show our source code on the web recently became a rather trivial task thanks to many JavaScript + CSS based libraries such as highlightjs, PrismJS, Prettify, SyntaxHighlighter & more. It’s not so easy to achieve the same results inside a text-editing software such as MS Word, to the point that I’ve seen more than few devs adopting the awful & dreadful screenshot method, which consist in blindly capture a portion of their developer framework GUI and then embedding it as an image inside the Word document.
Should we do that? Of course no! There is at least one better way to do that, which also is far less intrusive (and size-intensive) and also gives us the chance to modify/review our code snippet after it has been pasted. Let’s see how we can do it.
- Open MS Word and place the cursor where you want to paste the snippet.
- Go to the Insert tab, from there click to the Object… button close to the right-end of the toolbar. A popup will show up: select OpenDocument Text.
- A new «embedded» document will appear: go to your favourite Developer Framework, such as Visual Studio, Eclipse, Android Studio, Notepad++ or the one doing the highlight the way you want it to be. Copy the code from there and paste it to the new document.
- Save and close the new document.
Your efforts will be rewarded with something like that:
This solution, other than being visually nice, grants you the following benefits:
- the source code will be entirely editable.
- all the layout, coloring, spaces, tabs, linefeeds from the developer framework will be kept.
- the code will be treated like a separated, embedded element, just like images and charts, so you’ll be able to move, resize, shape, applying borders, shadows, background color and basically anything else you want to and/or Word allows.
- the code won’t be affected by grammar checker, meaning that spelling errors won’t be highlighted in the code: no red underlining, yay!
- it takes only few seconds to do it — you’ll love that if you need to insert multiple snippets.
- It works on all Word builds since 2007: Word 2007, Word 2010, Word 2013 and newer versions.
If you find an even better way, please let me know.
Meanwhile… Happy coding!
IT Project Manager, Web Interface Architect and Lead Developer for many high-traffic web sites & services hosted in Italy and Europe. Since 2010 it’s also a lead designer for many App and games for Android, iOS and Windows Phone mobile devices for a number of italian companies. Microsoft MVP for Development Technologies since 2018.
View all posts by Ryan →
Microsoft Word is a very versatile software. It has a large number of great features which the common users don’t even know about. Let’s consider a scenario. The other day, Rajesh, a friend of mine sent me an email and told me that he was preparing an MS Word document and needed to embed programming code with syntax highlight. To insert code snippet in his MS Word document, Rajesh did all the syntax highlighting manually. You can imagine that it is a tedious job! So, he asked me if there was an easier way. Well, indeed there is one!
It is easy to embed code snippets with automatic syntax highlight in MS Word. Let’s learn how you can do this magic!
What is a Code Snippet and Syntax Highlighting?
A code snippet is a piece of computer programming code. Such code is usually marked with several colors in order to show various elements of the code distinctively. For example, all the programming language keywords will be highlighted in a particular color and all the errors will be highlighted in a different color. Similarly, there would be per-defined colors for text, tags, properties, attributes, values, symbols etc.
Our tips on MS-Word make your life easier and increase your productivity at work.
Program lines in a code snippets are also usually indented to make the code easily readable.
How to Insert Code Snippets with Syntax Highlight in MS Word
First of all, open the MS Word document in which you want to insert the code snippet. Then place the cursor where you want the snippet to be inserted.
Now, go to Insert tab and then click on the Object option. A new box will appear with a list of objects that you can insert in your MS Word document. Select OpenDocument Text from the list and click OK to insert the object.
You will see a new shaded area is inserted at the cursor position. Also a new Word document will open up. Whatever you will write or paste in this new document, the same will appear in the original document.
To add code snippets with syntax highlight, you can use Insert Object method of MS Word.
So, now, copy the code from your code editor and paste it in the new document. Save the new document and that’s it! Code snippet will appear neatly embedded in your MS Word document.
Syntax Highlighting is not Appearing in MS Word
If you have copied the code from a Microsoft product (like MS Visual Studio), the syntax highlight will automatically carry to the MS Word.
However, if you’re using some other code editors (like Programmer’s Notepad), copied code may appear without syntax highlight in MS Word. But don’t panic!
Most of the code editors will give you the option of copying text with HTML markup or RTF format. You should use these options while copying text.
In Programmer’s Notepad, this option appears as Edit -> Copy as RTF
In Notepad++ the option is available as Plugins -> Copy Text with Syntax Highlighting
If you’re copying syntax highlighted code from a webpage, the HTML markups will automatically get copied and syntax highlight will carry to MS Word.
Advantages of Embedding Code Snippets with Syntax Highlights
Although you can always manually highlight various portions of a code snippet in MS Word, but there are many distinctive advantage of using the embedded object method:
- Code and main document remain separate from each other (programmers love this approach, don’t they?)
- Spelling and grammar mistakes will not be highlighted by MS Word in the embedded code snippet. It is of great help because a lot of programming keywords are not found in dictionary, and as a result such code may result in lots of red and green wavy lines.
- And obviously, it’s easier, quicker method. Code remains in it’s original format and syntax highlights.
- Formatting changes in the main document do not affect the code block.
So, did you find this MS Word tips useful? Whenever you would need to insert a code snippet with syntax highlight in MS Word document, I am sure it will save you a lot of time. Please feel free to ask any questions on this tutorial. I will try my best to assist you. Thank you for using TechWelkin.