Dear WordCount is a weekly advice column answering your questions about writing, blogging and running a freelance business. During the 2013 WordCount Blogathon, Dear WordCount will be answering questions about the Blogathon, and blogging mechanics and etiquette. Send questions to wordcountfreelance@gmail.com.
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WordPress Formatting
Dear WordCount:
How do I format a post on WordPress to look like I want it to look? I can’t get the spacing between paragraphs and pictures right. They are usually too close together for my taste. Is it me, or is there a trick to formatting? — D.B.
Dear D.B.:
I’m going to make a calculated guess that you’re new to blogging. If so, this should be easy. If you use WordPress, you probably use the “Visual” view of the Post dashboard for writing and editing posts. The “Visual” view hides the HTML coding that WordPress (and other blog software) use to create blog posts. Sometimes, though, extra HTML commands get into posts, commands that could be messing up the spacing between paragraphs, or in your case, between a picture and a paragraph.
To fix that, you’ll need to switch to the “Text” view of the Post dashboard. Look at the top right of the Dashboard window where you add text and click on the “Text” tab. When you do, you’ll see your post, but with all of the HTML coding in it. For example, here’s what your questions looks like with the HTML code showing:
If as you say, there’s too much space between a photo and the paragraph that follows it, you may just need to go into the “Text” view and remove a line of white space. Try that and see what happens.
If you write blog posts in a different program, say Microsoft Word, and then copy and paste them into WordPress, the text could contain some coding that doesn’t play well with WordPress, and as a result, could affect the spacing, font or font size. In those cases, you can use the “Text” view to see what extra coding is there and remove it. Try that, and see what the result is.
Spacing issues also could be related to the theme you use. The theme is the design template or the layout grid that you’re using for your blog. Here’s more on line spacing issues from the WordPress support forum.
If the problem is not enough space, you can add it yourself. In the “Text” view, use the following HTML code to at the end of a sentence or paragraph, and then immediately after: < br/ > < br/ >.
Read more on this topic:
- Single spacing in WordPress
- How to fix the WordPress word spacing issue
- How to fix weird formatting and spacing on a WordPress post or page (YouTube video)
Blogathon Raffle Prize Eligibility
Dear WordCount:
I’m doing the 2013 Blogathon. To qualify fo the raffle, do I have to have posted my posts on the WordCount Facebook page every day? I think I may have missed a couple of the early days, so wanted to know if I need to go back and post the links. I’m obviously not doing the Blogathon for the raffle, but since I’m going to complete it, I’m sure going to make sure it gets counted! – Elizabeth
Dear Elizabeth:
If you’re doing the Blogathon, there’s no requirement to share links to your daily posts on the WordCount Facebook page. A few years back, we started providing a way for bloggers to share links because people wanted to see what other people were blogging, and having all of the links in a single list made them easier to find and use.
We use a different method for checking whether bloggers posted all 30 days to see if they’re eligible for the raffle prize drawing. On the evening of June 30, we copy and paste the names of everyone who signed up for the event into Random.org’s list randomizer program – it’s the online equivalent of picking names out of a hat. Then starting with the first name on the list, we manually check to see if the blogger posted every day in June. If they did, they win the first prize on the list. If they didn’t, we move on to the next name. We continue through the randomized list of blogger names until we’ve matched enough bloggers who made it through all 30 days to go with all of the prizes.
Here’s the list of all the 2013 Blogathon bloggers, and here’s the list of the raffle prizes.
[Flickr photo by kevin dooley]
I had the same problem in blogger. You are absolutely correct with the html code messing things up. I often compose many of my blog posts in Word. When I am finished, I open up Notepad and copy and paste my whole post into Notepad. Then I copy the blog post from Notepad and paste it into my blog. There is no html code in Notepad. I find that doing that extra step (copying and pasting in and out of Notepad) eliminated many of my spacing and font issues and I don’t “fight” to fix things.