Pasting text into your WordPress blog

I just got this question from a client:

So I’m posting things to the blog by cutting and pasting, but when I do my formatting goes out the window, spacing gets weird, tabs go haywire making my entry look goofy and juvenile. I don’t see any controls in the posting area that let me control any of these aspects. Any tips?

Joy

Most word processing programs (Word, etc.) add formatting codes that you don’t see.  So, when you copy and paste into WordPress, those formatting codes override your theme’s formatting (the css file) and your blog gets messy (or juvenile to use Joy’s word.)*   You could try to cut all the formatting code out by hand in the HTML view, but it’s a lot easier to simply follow one of these two paths to clean text.

The secret to not confusing your blog’s formatting code is to either:

1. Compose in a text editor.

2. Compose in your word processing program of choice, then copy the text and paste it into a text editor (Notepad, WordPad, or whatever), which will strip out all the formatting code for you, then copy it from that text editor and paste it into WordPress.

Once you have raw text in WordPress, use the WordPress formatting tools - bold, bullets, etc. - to make it pretty.  This will keep the html formatting, and therefore the look of your blog site, consistent.

*If you want to see all that confusing code, just click the little HTML tab in the post editing tool bar, just next to the Add media and Visual buttons.  Look for <span … or <font ….

Simple viewer images - how to get

Simple viewer, from AirTight Interactive, is another great, free content publishing tool.

To get the images you see in the flash slideshow, follow these steps.

1. Navigate to the slide show.
2. Note the image number you want, usually down below the thumbnails.
3. At the end of the url/web address of the slide show you are in, just type the word “images”,  all lower case, at the end of the address and press enter/return. See example below.
4. This will take you to a list of the images.
5. Click on the image you want
6. You can right or control click on the image and copy it, save it, etc.
7. Remember to be careful of copyright issues.

An example url with the images added: http://www.scg411.com/Pics/080823_MarjaBDay/images/

The slideshow in question: http://www.scg411.com/Pics/080823_MarjaBDay/

Farm video highlights the power of new media

I created this video for the Trust for Working Landscapes and made it available on-line.

It was surprisingly easy to do with software that comes free on most computers. I used Microsoft Movie Maker, but there are a number of great options out there.

Download the film

It’s a large (28 Meg) Windows media file.

I could have posted it to YouTube, but that would reduce the quality so I chose to have it streamed by Yahoo.

Test of ShowitWeb

An amazing new tool for bloggers and photographers.

A flash video generator that puts your photos to any music you choose and allows tremendous customtization.

See the product here: www.showitfast.com

Here’s a demo example I created in just a few minutes with no prior experience.

Brackets to build your site content

Here’s a simple technique to use in creating blog content, especially before you take your blog-based web site live.

Use the square brackets []

to mark any content you need to add, for example:

[more text on how we paint cars here]

[image of before repair here]

[video of after repair here]

Because these brackets are rarely used in actual writing, you can then search for them using your blog’s search tool.

As the list comes up, pick an post or page to work on and click edit (if you are logged in to your blog).

As you add the content, delete the bracketed reminders.

When your search on brackets brings up only a few items, you are ready to go!

Wise use of technology

Here’s a site full of interesting ideas.

www.lifehacker.com

here’s a guy who’s pushing the envelope in terms of using technology to live an interesting, productive life.

www.fourhourworkweek.com

I find his blog the most interesting part of all this. To get a sense of how and who he is, watch his chat with Google staff in London.

Hi everyone, I guess…

Hi everyone, I guess I was wrong. Jott (John) has a world press(?) rank (Wordpress link), so that I can call from my cell phone and have ended(?) (it end) up directly on my blog format it (formatted) correctly. This is my first test. See you soon, Steven (Stephen). listen

Powered by Jott

PS. Well, it’s not perfect, but it’s interesting

I’m writing this with my cell phone

Content-Disposition: inline

Hi everyone,
I am writing to you that right now while I’m driving I’m calling th=
e
Jott computer off my cell phone and to is dictating what I say.

How
could you use this technology to make your life more efficient and
simpler?

The service is free and like all good technology it seems =
like
magic. www.jott.com

See yo=
u soon,

Stephen B=E1rczay Sloan

Consulting
=
Photography
Tutoring
www.scg411.c=
om

Clearly, the formatting needs some help.

PS. I tried to send directly to the blog, rather than cutting and pasting the text into another email to the blog, but Jott adds too much blog-confusing code to the email to get it displayed correctly. Ah, well. It’s probably best to have one quick editorial step between my brain and cyberspace.