No, this time we're not talking Typepad but a simple little programme that can save you time, energy and lots of wasted effort.
It's called Notepad...
...and luckily for you it's free, easy to use, and already installed on your computer.
You'll find it in the list of programmes when you click on your 'Start' menu (probably bottom left of your screen). Mine comes up in a list of icons that looks like this.
It looks very plain and simple, just like a blank sheet of paper, and that's precisely why it saves you blogging time and energy. It has the effect of stripping out bits of code from things you might have copied or worked on elsewhere, keeping things nice and clean to go into your post.
This is a real stitch in time to save nine - although it might not seem like much we promise it will save you time in the long run... and might cause you hassle if you don't.
The reason is that there are little bits of code that are invisible to you but often come attached to text, links and other things you're copying. If you don't strip them out they can really mess up your posts.
This is often the explanation for the weird glitches you only notice when you hit publish and view your post on the site:
Have you ever experienced that thing where you put your post together, carefully formatting to get the paragraph spacing right, and then once you publish it, the paragraph space seems to have vanished? And no matter how many times you hit the enter key to create new paragraph spacing, the space always gets swallowed up?
Or you find that something which looks fine in the 'Compose Post' box before you publish, somehow changes to giant or teeny size letters as soon as you publish it?
Yes, we've all been there :-)
It can also be the cause of much heartache (and wasted time and energy) over a broken feed. (And if that's ever happened to you - you'll know much time it can waste.)
There's a simple solution.
Just copy whatever you're working on - a bit of text, a quote from elsewhere, a link, a draft post from Word - and paste it into Notepad.
Then you need to do copy and paste again: copy the material from Notepad, and then paste it into your Typepad post.
Once you get used to working with Notepad you won't just prevent problems but save yourself time in other ways. It's a quick and easy way to save links, quotes, interesting comments, titles, trackback links, material you want to come back to - saving you searching time when you're ready to write your post.
You can also use it for material that you're using a lot in posts - like the code that provides the link to your RSS sign up perhaps, or the style that you've got on your signature, or the explanation and background that's going as a footer on lots of posts (like the one I'm going to cut and paste here).
Maybe it doesn't seem like much but these little tricks will save you time if you're blogging a lot - and save you wasting an awful lot more.
This is part 4 of the mini-series Showing Off Your Content, part of the Practical Tips for Business Bloggers programme at Business Blog Angel.
Episodes to date include:
Intro: Showing off Your Content
Part 1: Should I Have A Welcome Post On My Blog?
Part 2: Use Bold And Bullets To Break Up Your Posts
Part 3: Break Up Your Posts With Quotes
Part 4: One Simple Programme That Can Save You Blogging Time
Part 5: "Continue Reading" With Style
Part 6: How Do I Format Links?
Part 7: How A Footer Helps You Blog for Business
Don't forget to subscribe to the feed to make sure you catch the rest of the series.
If you'd like some practical coaching assistance with formatting on your blog - either fixing something that's gone wrong or keeping yourself right in the future - you can now book coaching sessions with Business Blog Angel Claire by the hour.
Follow this link for more details and access to the booking calendar.
