diff --git a/services/web/frontend/js/features/source-editor/extensions/visual/html-elements.ts b/services/web/frontend/js/features/source-editor/extensions/visual/html-elements.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c5ef5ed132
--- /dev/null
+++ b/services/web/frontend/js/features/source-editor/extensions/visual/html-elements.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,107 @@
+// elements which should contain only block elements
+const blockContainingElements = new Set([
+  'DL',
+  'FIELDSET',
+  'FIGURE',
+  'HEAD',
+  'OL',
+  'TABLE',
+  'TBODY',
+  'TFOOT',
+  'THEAD',
+  'TR',
+  'UL',
+])
+
+export const isBlockContainingElement = (node: Node): node is HTMLElement =>
+  blockContainingElements.has(node.nodeName)
+
+// elements which are block elements (as opposed to inline elements)
+const blockElements = new Set([
+  'ADDRESS',
+  'ARTICLE',
+  'ASIDE',
+  'BLOCKQUOTE',
+  'BODY',
+  'CANVAS',
+  'DD',
+  'DIV',
+  'DL',
+  'DT',
+  'FIELDSET',
+  'FIGCAPTION',
+  'FIGURE',
+  'FOOTER',
+  'FORM',
+  'H1',
+  'H2',
+  'H3',
+  'H4',
+  'H5',
+  'H6',
+  'HEADER',
+  'HGROUP',
+  'HR',
+  'LI',
+  'MAIN',
+  'NAV',
+  'NOSCRIPT',
+  'OL',
+  'P',
+  'PRE',
+  'SECTION',
+  'TABLE',
+  'TBODY',
+  'TD',
+  'TFOOT',
+  'TH',
+  'THEAD',
+  'TR',
+  'UL',
+  'VIDEO',
+])
+
+export const isBlockElement = (node: Node): node is HTMLElement =>
+  blockElements.has(node.nodeName)
+
+const inlineElements = new Set([
+  'A',
+  'ABBR',
+  'ACRONYM',
+  'B',
+  'BIG',
+  'CITE',
+  'DEL',
+  'EM',
+  'I',
+  'INS',
+  'SMALL',
+  'SPAN',
+  'STRONG',
+  'SUB',
+  'SUP',
+  'TEXTAREA', // TODO
+  'TIME',
+  'TT',
+])
+
+export const isInlineElement = (node: Node): node is HTMLElement =>
+  inlineElements.has(node.nodeName)
+
+const codeElements = new Set(['CODE', 'PRE'])
+
+export const isCodeElement = (node: Node): node is HTMLElement =>
+  codeElements.has(node.nodeName)
+
+const keepEmptyBlockElements = new Set(['TD', 'TH', 'CANVAS', 'DT', 'DD', 'HR'])
+
+export const shouldRemoveEmptyBlockElement = (
+  node: Node
+): node is HTMLElement =>
+  !keepEmptyBlockElements.has(node.nodeName) && !node.hasChildNodes()
+
+export const isTextNode = (node: Node): node is Text =>
+  node.nodeType === Node.TEXT_NODE
+
+export const isElementNode = (node: Node): node is HTMLElement =>
+  node.nodeType === Node.ELEMENT_NODE
diff --git a/services/web/frontend/js/features/source-editor/extensions/visual/paste-html.ts b/services/web/frontend/js/features/source-editor/extensions/visual/paste-html.ts
index 48ffdeb20a..7e9f2966c0 100644
--- a/services/web/frontend/js/features/source-editor/extensions/visual/paste-html.ts
+++ b/services/web/frontend/js/features/source-editor/extensions/visual/paste-html.ts
@@ -6,6 +6,14 @@ import {
   storePastedContent,
 } from './pasted-content'
 import { debugConsole } from '@/utils/debugging'
+import {
+  isBlockContainingElement,
+  isBlockElement,
+  isElementNode,
+  isInlineElement,
+  isTextNode,
+  shouldRemoveEmptyBlockElement,
+} from './html-elements'
 
 export const pasteHtml = [
   Prec.highest(
@@ -49,12 +57,18 @@ export const pasteHtml = [
             return false
           }
 
-          // if the only content is in a code block, use the plain text version
-          if (onlyCode(documentElement)) {
+          const bodyElement = documentElement.querySelector('body')
+          // DOMParser should always create a body element, so this is mostly for TypeScript
+          if (!bodyElement) {
             return false
           }
 
-          const latex = htmlToLaTeX(documentElement)
+          // if the only content is in a code block, use the plain text version
+          if (onlyCode(bodyElement)) {
+            return false
+          }
+
+          const latex = htmlToLaTeX(bodyElement)
 
           // if there's no formatting, use the plain text version
           if (latex === text && clipboardData.files.length === 0) {
@@ -121,25 +135,38 @@ const hasProgId = (documentElement: HTMLElement) => {
   return meta && meta.content.trim().length > 0
 }
 
-const htmlToLaTeX = (documentElement: HTMLElement) => {
+const htmlToLaTeX = (bodyElement: HTMLElement) => {
   // remove style elements
-  removeUnwantedElements(documentElement, 'style')
+  removeUnwantedElements(bodyElement, 'style')
 
-  // replace non-breaking spaces added by Chrome on copy
-  processWhitespace(documentElement)
+  let before: string | null = null
+  let after: string | null = null
+
+  // repeat until the content stabilises
+  do {
+    before = bodyElement.textContent
+
+    // normalise whitespace in text
+    normaliseWhitespace(bodyElement)
+
+    // replace unwanted whitespace in blocks
+    processWhitespaceInBlocks(bodyElement)
+
+    after = bodyElement.textContent
+  } while (before !== after)
 
   // pre-process table elements
-  processTables(documentElement)
+  processTables(bodyElement)
 
   // pre-process lists
-  processLists(documentElement)
+  processLists(bodyElement)
 
   // protect special characters in non-LaTeX text nodes
-  protectSpecialCharacters(documentElement)
+  protectSpecialCharacters(bodyElement)
 
-  processMatchedElements(documentElement)
+  processMatchedElements(bodyElement)
 
-  const text = documentElement.textContent
+  const text = bodyElement.textContent
 
   if (!text) {
     return ''
@@ -151,24 +178,102 @@ const htmlToLaTeX = (documentElement: HTMLElement) => {
       .replaceAll('​', '')
       // normalise multiple newlines
       .replaceAll(/\n{2,}/g, '\n\n')
+      // only allow a single newline at the start and end
+      .replaceAll(/(^\n+|\n+$)/g, '\n')
+      // replace tab with 4 spaces (hard-coded indent unit)
+      .replaceAll('\t', '    ')
   )
 }
 
-const processWhitespace = (documentElement: HTMLElement) => {
+const trimInlineElements = (
+  element: HTMLElement,
+  precedingSpace = true
+): boolean => {
+  for (const node of element.childNodes) {
+    if (isTextNode(node)) {
+      let text = node.textContent!
+
+      if (precedingSpace) {
+        text = text.replace(/^\s+/, '')
+      }
+
+      if (text === '') {
+        node.remove()
+      } else {
+        node.textContent = text
+        precedingSpace = /\s$/.test(text)
+      }
+    } else if (isInlineElement(node)) {
+      precedingSpace = trimInlineElements(node, precedingSpace)
+    } else if (isBlockElement(node)) {
+      precedingSpace = true // TODO
+    } else {
+      precedingSpace = false // TODO
+    }
+  }
+
+  // TODO: trim whitespace at the end
+
+  return precedingSpace
+}
+
+const processWhitespaceInBlocks = (documentElement: HTMLElement) => {
+  trimInlineElements(documentElement)
+
   const walker = document.createTreeWalker(
     documentElement,
-    NodeFilter.SHOW_TEXT
+    NodeFilter.SHOW_ELEMENT,
+    node =>
+      isElementNode(node) && isElementContainingCode(node)
+        ? NodeFilter.FILTER_REJECT
+        : NodeFilter.FILTER_ACCEPT
   )
 
   for (let node = walker.nextNode(); node; node = walker.nextNode()) {
-    if (node.textContent === ' ') {
-      node.textContent = ' '
+    // TODO: remove leading newline from pre, code and textarea?
+    if (isBlockContainingElement(node)) {
+      // remove all text nodes directly inside elements that should only contain blocks
+      for (const childNode of node.childNodes) {
+        if (isTextNode(childNode)) {
+          childNode.remove()
+        }
+      }
+    }
+
+    if (isBlockElement(node)) {
+      trimInlineElements(node)
+
+      if (shouldRemoveEmptyBlockElement(node)) {
+        node.remove()
+        // TODO: and parents?
+      }
     }
   }
 }
 
-const isElementNode = (node: Node): node is HTMLElement =>
-  node.nodeType === Node.ELEMENT_NODE
+const normaliseWhitespace = (documentElement: HTMLElement) => {
+  const walker = document.createTreeWalker(
+    documentElement,
+    NodeFilter.SHOW_TEXT,
+    node =>
+      isElementNode(node) && isElementContainingCode(node)
+        ? NodeFilter.FILTER_REJECT
+        : NodeFilter.FILTER_ACCEPT
+  )
+
+  for (let node = walker.nextNode(); node; node = walker.nextNode()) {
+    const text = node.textContent
+    if (text !== null) {
+      if (/^\s+$/.test(text)) {
+        // replace nodes containing only whitespace (including non-breaking space) with a single space
+        node.textContent = ' '
+      } else {
+        // collapse contiguous whitespace (except for non-breaking space) to a single space
+        node.textContent = text.replaceAll(/[\n\r\f\t \u2028\u2029]+/g, ' ')
+      }
+    }
+  }
+}
 
 // TODO: negative lookbehind once Safari supports it
 const specialCharacterRegExp = /(^|[^\\])([#$%&~_^\\{}])/g
@@ -187,8 +292,8 @@ const specialCharacterReplacer = (
 }
 
 const isElementContainingCode = (element: HTMLElement) =>
-  element.tagName === 'CODE' ||
-  (element.tagName === 'PRE' && element.style.fontFamily.includes('monospace'))
+  element.nodeName === 'CODE' ||
+  (element.nodeName === 'PRE' && element.style.fontFamily.includes('monospace'))
 
 const protectSpecialCharacters = (documentElement: HTMLElement) => {
   const walker = document.createTreeWalker(
@@ -201,7 +306,7 @@ const protectSpecialCharacters = (documentElement: HTMLElement) => {
   )
 
   for (let node = walker.nextNode(); node; node = walker.nextNode()) {
-    if (node.nodeType === Node.TEXT_NODE) {
+    if (isTextNode(node)) {
       const text = node.textContent
       if (text) {
         // replace non-backslash-prefixed characters
@@ -289,34 +394,8 @@ const processLists = (element: HTMLElement) => {
   }
 }
 
-const removeNonContentTextNodes = (table: HTMLTableElement) => {
-  // remove text nodes that are direct children of non-content table elements
-  const containers = table.querySelectorAll('thead,tbody,tr')
-  for (const element of [table, ...containers]) {
-    for (const childNode of element.childNodes) {
-      if (childNode.nodeType === Node.TEXT_NODE) {
-        element.removeChild(childNode)
-      }
-    }
-  }
-
-  // remove whitespace-only text nodes at the start or end of table cells
-  for (const element of table.querySelectorAll('th,td')) {
-    for (const childNode of [element.firstChild, element.lastChild]) {
-      if (
-        childNode?.nodeType === Node.TEXT_NODE &&
-        childNode.textContent?.trim() === ''
-      ) {
-        element.removeChild(childNode)
-      }
-    }
-  }
-}
-
 const processTables = (element: HTMLElement) => {
   for (const table of element.querySelectorAll('table')) {
-    removeNonContentTextNodes(table)
-
     // create a wrapper element for the table and the caption
     const container = document.createElement('div')
     container.className = 'ol-table-wrap'
@@ -380,7 +459,7 @@ const processTables = (element: HTMLElement) => {
 }
 
 const isTableRow = (element: Element | null): element is HTMLTableRowElement =>
-  element?.tagName === 'TR'
+  element?.nodeName === 'TR'
 
 const cellAlignment = new Map([
   ['left', 'l'],
@@ -506,7 +585,7 @@ const rowHasBorderStyle = (
 
 const isTableRowElement = (
   element: Element | null
-): element is HTMLTableRowElement => element?.tagName === 'TR'
+): element is HTMLTableRowElement => element?.nodeName === 'TR'
 
 const nextRowHasBorderStyle = (
   element: HTMLTableRowElement,
@@ -645,7 +724,7 @@ const selectors = [
   // TODO: h6?
   createSelector({
     selector: 'br',
-    match: element => element.parentElement?.nodeName !== 'TD', // TODO: why?
+    match: element => !element.closest('table'),
     start: () => `\n\n`,
   }),
   createSelector({
diff --git a/services/web/frontend/stories/source-editor/source-editor.stories.tsx b/services/web/frontend/stories/source-editor/source-editor.stories.tsx
index 5991afc4c2..942d089d8e 100644
--- a/services/web/frontend/stories/source-editor/source-editor.stories.tsx
+++ b/services/web/frontend/stories/source-editor/source-editor.stories.tsx
@@ -66,10 +66,6 @@ export const Latex = (args: any, { globals: { theme } }: any) => {
 
   useMeta({
     'ol-showSymbolPalette': true,
-    'ol-splitTestVariants': {
-      'figure-modal': 'enabled',
-      'table-generator': 'enabled',
-    },
   })
 
   return <SourceEditor />
diff --git a/services/web/test/frontend/features/source-editor/components/codemirror-editor-visual-paste-html.spec.tsx b/services/web/test/frontend/features/source-editor/components/codemirror-editor-visual-paste-html.spec.tsx
index a849135277..697ab96de2 100644
--- a/services/web/test/frontend/features/source-editor/components/codemirror-editor-visual-paste-html.spec.tsx
+++ b/services/web/test/frontend/features/source-editor/components/codemirror-editor-visual-paste-html.spec.tsx
@@ -347,7 +347,7 @@ describe('<CodeMirrorEditor/> paste HTML in Visual mode', function () {
 
     cy.get('@content').should(
       'have.text',
-      'test \\textbf{foo} \\textbf{foo} test'
+      'test \\textbf{foo}\\textbf{foo}test'
     )
     cy.get('.ol-cm-environment-verbatim').should('have.length', 10)
   })
@@ -361,13 +361,13 @@ describe('<CodeMirrorEditor/> paste HTML in Visual mode', function () {
     clipboardData.setData('text/html', data)
     cy.get('@content').trigger('paste', { clipboardData })
 
-    cy.get('@content').should('have.text', 'test foo test')
+    cy.get('@content').should('have.text', 'test footest')
     cy.get('.ol-cm-environment-quote').should('have.length', 5)
 
     cy.get('.cm-line').eq(2).click()
     cy.get('@content').should(
       'have.text',
-      'test \\begin{quote}foo\\end{quote} test'
+      'test \\begin{quote}foo\\end{quote}test'
     )
   })
 
@@ -386,8 +386,8 @@ describe('<CodeMirrorEditor/> paste HTML in Visual mode', function () {
     clipboardData.setData('text/html', data)
     cy.get('@content').trigger('paste', { clipboardData })
 
-    cy.get('@content').should('have.text', 'testfoobarbaztest')
-    cy.get('.cm-line').should('have.length', 8)
+    cy.get('@content').should('have.text', 'test foobarbaztest')
+    cy.get('.cm-line').should('have.length', 7)
   })
 
   it('handles pasted paragraphs in list items and table cells', function () {
@@ -408,9 +408,9 @@ describe('<CodeMirrorEditor/> paste HTML in Visual mode', function () {
 
     cy.get('@content').should(
       'have.text',
-      'testfoobarbaz foo foo foo foofootest'
+      'test foobarbaz foo foo foo foofootest'
     )
-    cy.get('.cm-line').should('have.length', 15)
+    cy.get('.cm-line').should('have.length', 14)
   })
 
   it('handles pasted inline code', function () {
@@ -662,6 +662,45 @@ describe('<CodeMirrorEditor/> paste HTML in Visual mode', function () {
     cy.get('.cm-line').should('have.length', 8)
   })
 
+  it('tidies whitespace in pasted lists', function () {
+    mountEditor()
+
+    const data = `<ul>
+<li>  foo  </li>
+   <li>
+
+  <p>
+
+  <b>test</b></p>
+<p>test test test
+test test
+test test test</p>
+    </li>
+</ul>`
+
+    const clipboardData = new DataTransfer()
+    clipboardData.setData('text/html', data)
+    cy.get('@content').trigger('paste', { clipboardData })
+
+    cy.get('.cm-line').should('have.length', 6)
+    cy.get('@content').should(
+      'have.text',
+      ' foo  testtest test test test test test test test'
+    )
+  })
+
+  it('collapses whitespace in adjacent inline elements', function () {
+    mountEditor()
+
+    const data = `<p><b> foo </b><span> test </span><i> bar </i> baz</p>`
+
+    const clipboardData = new DataTransfer()
+    clipboardData.setData('text/html', data)
+    cy.get('@content').trigger('paste', { clipboardData })
+
+    cy.get('@content').should('have.text', 'foo test bar baz')
+  })
+
   it('treats a pasted image as a figure even if there is HTML', function () {
     mountEditor()