Wordpress Post Content Formatting Questions

by verneir

Posted: 13 years ago 13 replies

WEB DESIGN

Does anyone know a good resource for learning *simple* HTML that can be used in Wordpress blog posts? And to be clear, I'm talking about MY site which is paid hosting. This has nothing to do with guest posts or commenting.

The problem is I have 6-8 pages of content to put into a post right now.

I've written it up in Word 2007. I copy the text from Word and paste into Notepad. Then I copy from Notepad and paste into my Wordpress blog post editor. From there, I start formating the content.

The problem is that WYSIWYG editors are crap. I tried using the HTML version instead, and started trying to add line breaks such as " " and the silly thing won't allow me to separate paragraphs. It just ignores some of the codes I put in. This wasn't the only problem.

I've often had problems simply adding Heading2 tags to headings.. Wordpress just decides, HEY! The next 3 paragraphs are a heading?! Awesome!!

Some of the simple codes I'm using I *KNOW* are right on some level; I used to have to enter things into a Twiki that used a WYSIWYG editor every day. I simply went ahead and used simple tags for bold, italics, line breaks, etc all the time. In wordpress? Apparently adding a blank line is like asking for a cure for cancer.

Anyway. I'm looking for a complete list of simple HTML tags that are known to actually work in Wordpress so I can just get my content properly formatted finally. Can anyone help?

I have found some stuff online already, such as the following:

* b - HTML tag for strong emphasis of text (i.e. bold).
* i - HTML tag for emphasis of text (i.e. italicize).
* b-quote - <blockquote></blockquote> HTML tag to distinguish quoted or cited text.
* del - <del></del> HTML tag to label text considered deleted from a post. Most browsers display as striked through text. (Assigns datetime attribute with offset from GMT (UTC))
* link - <a href="http://example.com"></a> HTML tag to create a hyperlink.
* ins - <ins></ins> HTML tag to label text considered inserted into a post. Most browsers display as underlined text. (Assigns datetime attribute with offset from GMT (UTC))
* ul - <ul></ul> HTML tag will insert an unordered list, or wrap the selected text in same. An unordered list will typically be a bulleted list of items.
* ol - <ol></ol> HTML tag will insert a numbered list, or wrap the selected text in same. Each item in an ordered list are typically numbered.
* li - <li></li> HTML tag will insert or make the selected text a list item. Used in conjunction with the ul or ol tag.
* code - <code></code> HTML tag for preformatted styling of text. Generally sets text in a monospaced font, such as Courier.
* more -  WordPress tag that breaks a post into "teaser" and content sections. Type a few paragraphs, insert this tag, then compose the rest of your post. On your blog's home page you'll see only those first paragraphs with a hyperlink ((more...)), which when followed displays the rest of the post's content.
* page -  WordPress tag similar to the more tag, except it can be used any number of times in a post, and each insert will "break" and paginate the post at that location. Hyperlinks to the paginated sections of the post are then generated in combination with the wp_link_pages() or link_pages() template tag.
* lookup - Opens a JavaScript dialogue box that prompts for a word to search for through the online dictionary at answers.com. You can use this to check spelling on individual words.
* Close Tags - Closes any open HTML tags left open--but pay attention to the closing tags. WordPress is not a mind reader (!), so make sure the tags enclose what you want, and in the proper way.

However I'm still looking for things like.. how to set the font size and style. How to *ADD BLANK LINES!!*, how to properly add H1/H2 tags and similar, etc.

#content #formatting #post #questions #wordpress

verneir 13 years ago

Sorry, to be clear... yes, yes I did try using the WYSIWYG editor for at least a dozen posts (and have had problems -- using BOLD instead of H2 tags, for instance, because I got sick of it).

But now I'm writing reviews. And I no longer feel like my mickey-mouse work-arounds are going to cut it. Regardless, I just want to be able to get the format I want and be done with it already. lol
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xtrapunch 13 years ago

Learning HTML to format your content in WordPress is not required. It's WYSIWG editor is fantastic. You can add more features using TinyMCE Advanced plugin. Just a bit of carefulness and you get the desired results.

If you really want to be able to format your content through HTML (do it at your own risk), go to W3C website or other HTML tut websites. By the way, using hard-coded HTML styles means you will have a tough task changing your website's looks if you ever desire to do so. You have been warned.
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- verneir 13 years ago
 
 Any idea why someone would experience problems and how to fix them?
 
 For example, let's use the below dummy text as a 'post'.
 
 TITLE
 
 SUBHEAD
 
 Body stuff. More body stuff. Blah blah, blah.. .. blah. Keyword phrase.
 
 Body 2nd paragraph. Blah, blah blah.. etc. Sentences. More words.
 
 SUBHEAD
 
 Statements. More text. Blah..
 
 SUBHEAD
 
 etc, so on..
 
 Okay, so in the above if I go into Wordpress and highlight one of the "SUBHEAD" and use the WYSIWYG (I have TinyMCE installed as well), and set it to be 'heading2', more often than not that content AND some random amount of content which follows it, will receive the formatting.
 
 That's a problem. It is driving me crazy. Sometimes - RARELY - I seem be able to fix it by backspacing the text in the body below the subhead, and bring it all the back until it runs right into the last letter of the subhead.
 
 Then I just press shift-return, and SOMETIMES... I can successfully make the 'SUBHEAD' into 'heading2', but.. usually not. I'm constantly running into these types of issues.
 
 Any idea why? Any thoughts on how to avoid them.. or fix them?
 
 Thanks,
 
 Vern
 
 Thanks
 
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Abledragon 13 years ago

I have to say that I've never had any problems with the WordPress Visual editor but, if you want to write stuff in the HTML view, then you may find that the Raw-HTML plugin helps.

I reviewed it here:

Raw-HTML: How to Beat the WordPress HTML Filters | WealthyDragon

Cheers,

Martin.
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Sire

13 years ago

Just a question; when using WP's visual editor after copying the text straight from Word, did you use the 'paste from word' icon?

I always use the visual editor and I have no problem. The only time I use html is when pasting code into the post as you can only do that in html.

Thanks
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verneir

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Sire

Just a question; when using WP's visual editor after copying the text straight from Word, did you use the 'paste from word' icon?

Hmm.. what I do in word is press CTRL-A, then CTRL-C, then I go to the Windows Start menu, then to 'run' (or just the program launcher bar in win7 in my case), which is where i type 'notepad.exe', which opens notepad..

Then within notepad I press CTRL-V to paste the text from word. From there I make sure the spacing is correct, then CTRL-A .. CTRL-C, switch over to Wordpress admin page, open a post.. CTRL-V to paste in the text..

After that, in Wordpress, I will use SHIFT+ARROW_(DIR) to highlight/select a block of text.. then I'll use the built-in visual editing tools/WYSIWYG there in Wordpress to make my subheadings into 'heading2', and it'll apply the formating to what I selected plus whatever the heck else it feels like applying the formating to. It's a pretty sweet feature.

And that's not the only problem. If I wanted to have a space or two, for instance like this

And just keep on typing further down the page, you know.. manage white space between text... nope, sorry.. Wordpress steps in and munches that too, for me. I'm special I guess. Not sure why these things seem so bizare, because I'll tell you right now about ~12 IT technicians at work, myself included, can't really stand the Twiki in large part for these very same reasons. It just jacks up formating.

Thanks
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verneir

13 years ago

I have a few ideas for things to try. I won't go into it all right now, but some of the stuff I'll do are:

1) Get ready to reboot my pc.
2) Reboot the PC.
3) Apply various updates for my PC. (not wordpress or plugins. those are up to date)
4) Reboot, etc.

And keep my fingers crossed.

Oh, I'm also just going to highlight all/erase all, then update the post in question. I'll use the cleanup code icon thingy, and I'll go into the HTML editor.. deleting everything/everywhere in the post, and start over from a completely new copy in a .TXT file being edited in notepad only.

And.. if that still doesn't work, I have some other ideas. In the end I'll come back and post what I end up with, as well to check for any updates/ideas anybody else might have.

I'm sure some amount of my trouble is user error related, but seriously.. I tend to run into trouble with and get annoyed by any kind of auto format/assist features. I might end up trying that RAW HTML plugin at some point.

One thought I have is to build out my .TXT file with all the basic HTML tags to format it the way I want it, and then save a copy as an .HTM or .HTML file and open it with my internet browsers and see how it looks. Once that looks ok, I'd just copy/paste all the code into the post. (which I think would then mean going right back to installing/using the RAW HTML plugin to turn off the wordpress filters I guess)

**EDIT: Just a thought, but having browsed around and learning html little by little at this point.. I wonder if one of my problems is caused this way:

Normally, the first thing I do when I begin editing a new post is to select the entire post in order to set everything to a certain font point size and/or a certain font face / font style.

I wonder if the WYSIWYG/Visual Wordpress editor is therefore wrapping content in a way which soon after becomes undesirable for further edits.

Anyway.. just another thing I'll do -- go step by step and apply formating to each individual section of text at at time. <shrug> I dunno.. goin' nuts over here, what can i say

Thanks
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Sire

13 years ago

I'm not sure why you paste word to notepade.exe and then copy it from there and paste it into your blog?

I don't usually use Word but when I have I copy it from there and paste it directly into the visual editor of WP using the past from word function.

Thanks
1 reply

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Sire

13 years ago

OK, I've been thinking about your dilemma.

Forget notepad.exe because when you paste a word document into notepad you lose all that formatting so when you copy from notepad into WP you're doing it without all the Word format.

Now, I've mentioned a the 'paste from word' option a couple of times and I'm thinking that perhaps you can't see it because you haven't activated WP's kitchen sink feature. When you are in WP's visual editor mode how many rows of icons do you see? If it's only one you need to activate the 'kitchen sink' mode. You do this by clicking on the icon on the far right that looks like three rows of colored dots. You can also toggle it on and off by hitting the 'alt'+'shift'+'z' keys which will reveal another set of icons one of which is the paste from word icon. This way you can paste straight from word directly into WordPress.

I hope that helps.

Thanks
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LA Grouch 13 years ago

You should not format in Word then copy/paste into WP. Certain characters won't be interpreted properly plus WP will adopt all the formatting code that Word uses and this just creates a messy HTML.

The safest way is to simply do your write-up in notepad as plain text, then paste it in WP, and format using the editor toolbar.

When creating certain styles like a header or Un-ordered List, you need to separate the word(s) or sentences with a space before applying the format or WP will automatically grab all the connected lines of text and format them together.

WP is not perfect but it is a better solution for those who aren't comfortable working with HTML.

One other thing to note... Your theme could be overriding the text editor.
I have a client who uses the "Kratong" theme and this is the case. The WP editor does not function properly because of the way the theme is coded. IE: no paragraphs.
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Monja 13 years ago

there is the problem then - if you use the icon it will format correctly :-)
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verneir 13 years ago

The reason I don't use paste from word is due to the fact I don't want any more fancy-pants garbage from word being brought over into WP, thus likely creating more problems.

Anyway. I have a few things worked out. Getting through it. Thanks for the help.

P.S. ALL those 'make money online' two-bit hacks that talk about how easy everything is, etc.. DON'T believe them. ;P

There's some stuff in here that has helped me with this & opened up a couple other ideas for this & other things. Thanks! (Time for me to let the thread die I suppose)
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- Sire 13 years ago
  
  May I ask why you use Word at all then if you don't like the way it formats the post?
  
  Why not just write it straight into WSP's visual editor?
  
  Thanks
  
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Wordpress Post Content Formatting Questions

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