# Clean pasted text of junk symbols, duplicates, and links

Strip decorative characters, repeated lines, leftover markup, and URLs from copied text while keeping every meaningful word.

- Topic: Writing & Editing
- Framework: Few-Shot
- Level: Standard
- Tags: Fill-in Template
- Source: https://www.thinkwithprompt.com/prompts/clean-pasted-text-of-junk-symbols-duplicates-and-links

## Prompt

```text
Clean up the text below so only the meaningful content remains.

**Text:** [PASTE TEXT]
**Where it came from:** [e.g. "AI chat output", "PDF copy-paste", "web page", "exported notes"]
**Remove URLs?** [yes - delete them / yes - keep the link text only / no]
**Keep formatting for:** [plain text / Markdown / email]

Remove:
- Decorative characters and box-drawing symbols (e.g. ░ ═ │ ■ >>> ###) and divider lines.
- Leftover markup or placeholders that carry no meaning (e.g. "null", "{...}", stray HTML tags, "### start ###").
- Exact or near-exact repeated lines, headings, and paragraphs (keep the first, most complete version).
- Broken line breaks in the middle of sentences, extra blank lines, and double spaces.
- URLs, if I asked for that, in any form (http, https, www, bare domains).

Keep:
- Every sentence that carries meaning, word for word. Do not summarize, shorten, reword, or fix grammar.
- Headings, paragraphs, numbered steps, and bullet lists that show the real structure.
- Numbers, names, code snippets, and quotes exactly as written.

Return:
1. The cleaned text only, ready to paste.
2. A short list of what you removed (e.g. "14 divider lines, 3 duplicated paragraphs, 6 URLs") and anything you were unsure about, so I can check it.
```

## What to fill in

- PASTE TEXT
- yes - delete them / yes - keep the link text only / no
- plain text / Markdown / email

Free to copy and use. From ThinkWithPrompt (https://www.thinkwithprompt.com/), a library of 2,663 curated AI prompts.