Extract Blog URLs from Sitemap in MS Word: Part 15 — WordsByEkta🌿
WordsByEkta🌿
MS Word · Blogger Tips · SEOHow to Extract All Your Blog Post URLs from Your Sitemap — Using Only MS Word
No tools, no plugins, no coding. Just Find & Replace. Learn it once, use it forever.
📋 In This Article
From tangled XML to one clean URL per line — WordsByEkta
1. What Is a Sitemap?
A sitemap is a file that keeps a list of every page and post on your blog — all in one place, in one format. It is written in XML (a structured text format) and is mainly meant for search engines like Google and Bing, so they can find and crawl your blog easily.
For a Blogger blog, your sitemap is usually available at:
https://yourblog.blogspot.com/sitemap.xml https://yourcustomdomain.com/sitemap.xml
Like mine is:
https://wordsbyektaa.blogspot.com/sitemap.xml
When you open that file, it looks something like this:
<urlset> <url> <loc>https://wordsbyektaa.blogspot.com/2026/03/indexnow-blogger-make-automation.html</loc> <lastmod>2026-03-12T06:27:53Z</lastmod> </url> <url> <loc>https://wordsbyektaa.blogspot.com/2026/03/is-bug-bounty-actually-possible-for.html</loc> <lastmod>2026-02-28T09:14:22Z</lastmod> </url> <url> <loc>https://wordsbyektaa.blogspot.com/2025/07/letters-for-quiet-moments-collection-of.html</loc> <lastmod>2026-02-28T09:14:22Z</lastmod> </url> </urlset>
Every post URL is sitting inside <loc> and </loc> tags, with a last-modified timestamp next to it. Our job is simple: keep only the URLs, remove everything else.
2. Why Would You Need a List of All Your URLs?
Instead of copying post links one by one from your blog (imagine doing that for 150 posts!), your sitemap already has every URL ready. Here is what you can do with a clean URL list:
- Submit URLs to Google Search Console — get new posts indexed faster, one by one or in bulk
- Submit to Bing Webmaster Tools — paste up to 500 URLs at once in their URL submission box
- Create a blog index page — show all your posts in one place for your readers
- Check for broken links — paste the list into a link-checker tool to find any 404 errors
- Content audit in a spreadsheet — import into Excel or Google Sheets and analyze your archive
- Share in a newsletter or social media — send your full archive to subscribers
- Backup and documentation — keep a record of every post you have ever published
If your blog has 50, 100, or 200+ posts, copying links manually is simply not practical. Your sitemap is the shortcut — and MS Word is the only tool you need to process it.
3. How to Open Your Sitemap in MS Word
1
Open your sitemap in a browser
Go to your browser and type your sitemap URL:
The browser will display the raw XML content.
https://yourblog.com/sitemap.xmlThe browser will display the raw XML content.
2
Select everything on the page
Press Ctrl + A to select all the XML content.
3
Copy it
Press Ctrl + C
4
Open a new blank document in MS Word
Open Word → New Blank Document → press Ctrl + V to paste.
What it looks like after pasting: You will see a long run of text with
<loc>, </loc>, <lastmod>, timestamps, and other tags all mixed together. That is completely normal — this is what we will clean up now.5
This step is required if you follow Method B or want to skip Steps 5 and 6 of Method A - Manually delete everything above the first URL
At the very beginning of the document you will see something like:
Use your mouse to select everything before your first
After this, your document should start directly with
<?xml version="1.0"?><urlset xmlns="..."><url><loc>Use your mouse to select everything before your first
https:// and press Backspace to delete it. You can also press Ctrl + Home to jump to the top, then click and drag to select the junk, and delete.After this, your document should start directly with
https://...
4. Method A — Step-by-Step Cleanup 🏆 (Reliable)
Open Find & Replace with Ctrl + H before each step.
Step 1 — Remove the year from the timestamp (Wildcards ON)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Find What | [0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]- |
| Replace With | (leave blank) |
| Use Wildcards | ON ✓ |
Step 2 — Remove the month and day
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Find What | [0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9]T |
| Replace With | (leave blank) |
| Use Wildcards | ON ✓ |
Step 3 — Remove the time (HH:MM:SSZ)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Find What | [0-9][0-9]:[0-9][0-9]:[0-9][0-9]Z |
| Replace With | (leave blank) |
| Use Wildcards | ON ✓ |
Step 4 — Replace the XML separators between entries with a new line
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Find What | </loc><lastmod></lastmod></url><url><loc> |
| Replace With | ^p |
| Use Wildcards | OFF |
Step 5 — Remove the opening <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><urlset xmlns=http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9>
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Find What | <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"><url><loc> |
| Replace With | (leave blank) |
| Use Wildcards | OFF |
Step 6 — Remove the closing </loc><lastmod></lastmod></url></urlset>
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Find What | </loc><lastmod></lastmod></url></urlset> |
| Replace With | (leave blank) |
| Use Wildcards | OFF |
What is
^p? In Word's Find & Replace, ^p means "paragraph break" — the same as pressing Enter. When you type ^p in the Replace With box, Word inserts a new line at every match. This is what puts each URL on its own line.5. Method B — The Backslash Trick (Fast, but may not work every time)
This is the fast approach. Just one Find & Replace operation extracts every URL and strips out the tags and timestamps all at the same time. It only requires Wildcards to be turned ON.
Why do we need backslashes here?
In Word's Wildcards mode, the
The fix: put a backslash
In Word's Wildcards mode, the
< and > characters are special — they mean "start of word" and "end of word" in wildcard syntax. So if you type <loc> with Wildcards ON, Word does not look for the literal tag — it misreads it.The fix: put a backslash
\ before each angle bracket. Writing \<loc\> tells Word: "find this literally, character by character." The backslash is an escape character — it turns off the special meaning of the next character.
Open Find & Replace: Ctrl + H
Click "More >>" at the bottom left → tick "Use wildcards".
The Formula
| Field | What to Type |
|---|---|
| Find What | \<loc\>(*)\</loc\>*\<url\>\<loc\> |
| Replace With | \1^p |
| Use Wildcards | ON ✓ |
Click Replace All.
Breaking down what this formula does:
In the Replace:
\<loc\> — finds the literal opening <loc> tag (backslashes escape the angle brackets)(*) — the * means "anything" — this captures your URL; the parentheses save it as Group 1\</loc\> — finds the literal closing </loc> tag* — matches everything in between (the timestamp, </url>, <url>) — all discarded\<url\>\<loc\> — matches the opening of the next URL entryIn the Replace:
\1 puts back the captured URL (Group 1), and ^p adds a new line after it.
One thing to tidy up after: This formula handles everything between consecutive URLs. The very last entry will still have a trailing
</url></urlset> — just manually select and delete those two tags at the end. It takes two seconds.If this method gives no results: When you paste the sitemap, Word may have broken the XML across multiple lines (paragraphs). In that case, Method B — which relies on everything being on one continuous line — will not match. Switch to Method A below, which handles the content line by line and always works.
6. What the Final Result Looks Like
After either method, your document will look like this — one clean URL per line, nothing else:
https://wordsbyektaa.blogspot.com/2025/07/103-free-places-to-submit-personal.html https://wordsbyektaa.blogspot.com/2025/07/how-to-set-up-your-blogger-about-me-or.html https://wordsbyektaa.blogspot.com/2025/07/in-world-of-shiny-promises-be-soulful.html https://wordsbyektaa.blogspot.com/2025/07/chapter-1-exploring-significance-of.html https://wordsbyektaa.blogspot.com/2025/07/week-wise-skincare-plan-for-beginners.html ...
No tags, no timestamps, no XML clutter. This list is now ready to use directly:
- Paste into Google Search Console → URL Inspection to request indexing
- Paste into Bing Webmaster Tools → Submit URLs for bulk submission
- Import into Excel or Google Sheets for a content audit
- Run through a broken link checker to find any 404 errors
- Use as the source for an All Posts index page on your blog
🗂️ Quick Reference — Both Methods
Method A
Wildcards ON — extracts URLs and removes timestamps in one step
Find:
\<loc\>(*)\</loc\>*\<url\>\<loc\>
→ Replace: \1^p
Method B
8 steps — remove each piece separately — always works
Remove tags → remove lastmod tags → remove date → remove time → replace separators with ^p
Remember: Your sitemap is not just for search engines — it is a powerful tool for you too. Whenever you need a full list of your post URLs, open your sitemap, paste it into Word, and you have every link ready in under a minute. No copy-pasting one by one, ever again.
Words by Ekta · MS Word Tips · Blogger Series
If any step gives you trouble, drop a comment — happy to help! 😊
Everything I Learned — So You Don't Have To Figure It Out Alone
The technical mistakes I made in year one — the full HTML inside Blogger, the missing meta descriptions, the duplicate H1 tags, the links closing articles — I have written all of it down. Every fix. Every discovery. Every hour of confused trial and error turned into a clear guide.
🌿 The WordsByEkta Blogger Technical Series
- Blogger is Underrated & I'm Rooting for It: Part 1
- How to Set Up Your Blogger About Me Page: Part 2
- Google Search Console for Bloggers: Part 3
- How to Request Indexing in GSC: Part 4
- Internal Linking for Fast Indexing: Part 5
- Why Isn't My Blog Indexing?: Part 6
- Canonical Tag Fix for Blogger: Part 7
- The AdSense Locked Widget Hack: Part 8
- Use Pingomatic for Faster Indexing: Part 9
- Decoding GSC Reports: Part 10
- Get Traffic from Bing and Yahoo: Part 11
- The AdSense Checklist: Part 12
- Auto Submit Blogger Posts to Bing: Part 13
- Custom Contact Form for Blogger: Part 14
- Extract Blog Post URLs from Sitemap: Part 15
- Open Links in New Tab Blogger: Part 16
- Blogger HTML Mode SEO Mistakes: Part 17
- Google Takeout Blogger Not Working: Part 18
- Google Indexing API for Blogger Using Python OAuth2: Part 19
- Is Blogger Worth It Nowadays?: Part 20
- Blogger Mobile HTML Editor Trick for Full Code Copy: Part 21
- Claim Blogger Site on Pinterest (No Custom Domain): Part 22
- Follow.it Email Subscriptions Setup on Blogger: Part 23
- How to Exclude Your Own Visits from GA4 Analytics: Part 24
- Auto Update All Blogger Posts Using Python and Blogger API: Part 25
- My Blog Passed 118/118 AdSense Checks: Part 26
- Ad Networks for Blogger Besides AdSense: Part 27
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