Websites, such as article directories, use CMS (Content Management Systems) and these CMS programs contain their own editor software. Because CMS software was designed by software engineers for IT personnel, they did not take into account that most users will use Microsoft Word to compose their content. And that's a big problem for the people who submit articles and to directories. Authors who submit articles to article directories are middle of the road software users. They use Microsoft Word, because it (A) came with the computer, and (B) will check spelling and grammar.
However, when you move content between your computer and the web, especially between Word and an editor box, the code in your Word document does not always translate into a well-formatted article.
Most of the time, if you cut and paste directly from Word, the editor software on the receiving end, deletes the space between paragraphs. You get run on paragraphs, that turn your well thought out and entertaining articles to blocks of text that can't approved by human editors or enjoyed by your readers, if the directory bypasses a human editorial check.
The editors and readers will move on to someone else's article. However, there are several things you can do to stop this from happening.
On your Windows computer there is free editor software. I have a Windows XP machine and if you click on Start, the programs are located in the Accessories directory. One is called Wordpad, and the other is Notepad. You want to open up Notepad and have an empty document ready to use.
After you have typed your article out in Word, copy it to Notepad. The shortcut keys for this action are:
Select All
Ctrl + A (hold down the "Control" and letter "A" keys at the same time.)
Copy
Ctrl + C (hold down the "Control" and letter "C" keys at the same time.)
And then bring up your empty Notepad. Make sure that Notepad is the active screen.
Paste
Ctrl + V (hold down the "Control" and letter "V" keys at the same time.)
If you prefer to use a mouse, you can also find these commands in your Edit Menu.
Now that you have pasted your article into Notepad, what you see is generally what a CMS editor sees unless it is a pure html editor, which I will address in another article.
This is your chance to correct run on paragraphs by adding an extra return. If you know what codes the editor is using for bold, italic and quotes, this is a good time to put those in as well.
If you tend to do a lot of revisions, copy and paste your article back into Word. I revise extensively, and there are always fresh errors for Word to catch. And you are only looking for those types of errors, do not change your formatting. When you're finished send the document back to Notepad.
Once you have double-checked Notepad, turn off the Wordwrap option by clicking on Format on your Main Menu and selecting Wordwrap. Make sure there is no check next to it.
Select and copy the article, and bring up the website where you plan on submitting it. Go to the editor box and paste your revised article into the text box.
At this point, you need to slow down. Most sites let you review your article before submitting it. Reread your article. Make sure you caught all the formatting errors that you had in Notepad. It's also your last chance to check for grammar and spelling errors before you submit. (I make a lot of errors and need to check everything I submit, multiple times.)
Most software editors will prefer your Notepad formatting and will have no trouble "reading" it correctly.
|
Contributor's Note
Of course I did revisions on the fly to this article.
|
