Using MS-Word to Compose Blog Posts

This topic has come up three times in the past two weeks.

Almost everyone is comfortable using MS-Word. Spell-check and all the editing and formatting features make it seem like a great way to compose and format a blog post, right?

Wrong. Or Maybe.

It is easy to be fooled. You can copy and paste directly from MS-Word into the 'New Post' or 'edit Post' form and it looks like it will work just fine. The problem is that the code that MS-Word creates is not web-compatible.

The biggest offender is Word's ability to change straight quotes into curly quotes. (Look for "Replace straight quotes with Smart Quotes" on the AutoCorrect dialog box.) Those curly quotes are not web-compatible characters and will play havoc with your RSS feed, among other things.

It is possible though to use MS-Word as a blog composition tool.

Option 1: Use MS-Word to Compose, Format in Typepad

Use this option when you are mainly interested in using Word for spell-checking and getting your thoughts out of your brain and onto the screen.

Before you copy-and-past your entry from MS-Word into Typepad, locate the Display Options link on Typepad's 'New Post' or 'Edit Post' form. click on it and select 'Markdown'. (None of Word's formatting will be copied to Typepad.)

Then click on Display Options again and select 'Rich Text + HTML' instead of 'Markdown'. You can then use Typepad's controls to format your post.

Option 2: Office 2007

The Word Blogging Tool - included in the new Microsoft Word as part of Microsoft Office 2007 - lets you publish to your blog from inside the familiar Word environment with a single click. TypePad is a default option in Microsoft Word, which makes it simple and straightforward; all you'll need is your Typepad username and password. Better yet, the HTML the tool writes to your blog is in a simple, blog-friendly format.

To use Word 2007 to Compose your posts and publish them right within Word:

1. Open MS-Word 2007
2. Click File -> New -> New Blog Post
3. Enter the information about your blog
4. Write your post
5. Click 'Publish'

Option 3: Other Options

Microsoft has a great new free tool called Windows Live Writer that makes it easy to publish rich content to your blog. If you are familiar with MS-Word, you'll have no trouble with Windows Live Writer:

http://get.live.com/writer/overview

There are several other options and Typepad has a Knowledge Base article describing some of them:

http://kb.typepad.com/id/87

Comments

[Jason Dragon]

Hello. Great blog. I would add one thing for your readers. Many times when you cut and paste from Word to your blog some unwanted formatting will also be sent over and cause problems. The way I fix this is to paste it into notepad first, which strips out all the formatting, the copy and paste it from notepad to the blog entry form. After that I format it in the blog program. Then add links, and ad photos and other media.

Hope that helps.
http://blog.capitalactive.com/