1. A system for formatting a document, comprising: a source document having at least one document element; a target document; a formatting component operative to copy the document element from the source document and to paste the document element into the target document; and a formatting rules component containing at least one formatting rule, an associated formatting action, and an associated recovery action; wherein the formatting component formats the document element in accordance with the formatting action, in response to a determination that the formatting rule has been triggered; and wherein the formatting component performs the recovery action, in response to receiving a recovery selection.