| The #1 Consistent
HTML Ezine
Formatting Secret-- Be in The Know
You want your ezine to look nice, don't you?
A common error I've seen over and over again is folks who make their ezine
look all pretty, but it arrives in their subscribers' inboxes in greater
disarray than a curly haired lad at the end of a 2000 mile motorcycle
road trip without a helmet.
As always, we're here to support you. If you need assistance
beginning or growing your own Ezine or Newsletter, feel free to contact
us.
The Secret....
Two words: Text Editor.
A text editor is a simple program that
composes plain text. Just text, nothing
but text. It does not allow for any formatting
(bold, underline, color, font changes,
etc.) like a word processing program does.
Every operating system comes with a built-in
text editor:
Windows: Notepad (start > programs > accessories
> notepad)
Mac: Simple Text, Word Text or Text Edit
The Anti-Formatter...
Word Processing, e.g. Microsoft Word. Such programs write in what is called
Rich Text Format (RTF). While you may think you are writing just plain
text, even if you are not adding formatting, you're really composing in
RTF, which has a whole lot of unseen things going on in the background
that may not show their ugly heads until it hits your subscriber's inbox.
The Mother of the Anti-Formatter...
To make RTF matters worse, many Word Processing
programs come with an HTML option. Sometimes
this is in the form of "save as HTML,"
other times it is presented as plain flat-out
"compose HTML document." There's
a reason these programs are called Word
Processors, and that's because word processing
is what they are designed to do. There's
a whole other type of application called
HTML editors, and that's what they're designed
to do. Never compose HTML in a Word Processing
program, it's asking for formatting trouble
from the get go!
Now What?
Now take that boring-looking ezine content
that you composed in your text editor,
and paste it into a reliable HTML
editor. I say reliable, because many HTML
editors write really bad HTML code (such
as Front Page), which also will birth formatting
nightmares. I recommend DreamWeaver or
EZezine's built-in HTML editor. Once your
content is pasted into your HTML editor,
now is the time to do all of your fancy
formatting.
Again, the point is to compose in plain text using a text
editor, and format in a reliable HTML editor. This will ensure that your
ezine formatting is pretty and consistent every time.
About The Author
Lisa Micklin is the co-founder of EZezine.com
and the moderator/hostess of the Ezine
Publishing Cafe.
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