Tag: pages

  • Paste Clean Text into WordPress Posts and Pages

    Avoid formatting problems when you update your posts and pages by pasting “clean text” into your pages.

    If you are pasting text in from a word processor such as Microsoft Word, your word processor may insert hidden HTML codes into your text to format it; for example, if text is bold or italic. Although this would seem to be helpful, word processors often add extra formatting codes that will mess up the appearance of your page. These unwanted codes may even look correct but interfere with SEO.

    Avoid all of these problems by stripping the formatting codes out, and then reformat the text using WordPress’s formatting tools. This ensures your page will load fast, display correctly, all while improving your page’s SEO performance.

    There are two ways to do this:

    • Use WordPress’ Paste as Text button
    • Use your browser’s Paste as plain text option (if available)

    Use The WordPress Paste as Text button

    WordPress already has a tool built into the Visual editor that will ensure you paste clean text into your pages and posts. It’s the Paste as Text button, on the second row of the Visual Editor tool bar, just below the B (bold) icon (you may need to click the Toolbar Toggle button on the right of the first row of the toolbar to see the second row of toolbar icons).

    To use it, just click on the suitcase icon with the “T” on it. When you mouse over this icon, the pop-up says “Paste as Text.” When Paste as Text is enabled, the icon appears highlighted in a box. Click the icon again and the highlight goes away, and anything you paste into the Visual Editor will contain extra formatting code, like “span” tags. When “Paste as Text” is enabled, WordPress will automatically strip out all HTML code embedded in the text in the clipboard.

    The first time you select Paste as Text, the following message may appear:

    Paste is now in plain text mode. Contents will now be pasted as plain text until you toggle this option off. If you’re looking to paste rich content from Microsoft Word, try turning this option off. The editor will clean up text pasted from Word automatically.

    Click the x in the upper right corner of this message box to dismiss it if needed. Click to place your cursor in the visual editor box. Paste your text using the keyboard command, Ctrl-V or Cmd-V; or select Edit : Paste from the menu bar.

    Use Your Browser’s “Paste as plain text” Command

    Most modern browsers let you paste text as plain (unformatted) text, effectively stripping all formatting codes in one step. If you are using Google Chrome,

    1. Right-click in the Edit Page text box where you want to paste your text.
    2. In the pop-up menu that appears, select Paste as plain text

    Or, if you prefer the keyboard:

    1. Click or use the arrow keys to position the cursor where you want to paste your text.
    2. Press Ctrl-Shift-V (Cmd-Shift-V on the Mac) to paste in plain text.

  • Update an Existing WordPress Page

    To update an existing WordPress page on your site, first log in using your favorite browser.

    You can edit your site’s pages using a smaller screen device, like a tablet or a smart phone, but it’s much easier using a browser on your computer, or on a device with a larger screen, with a keyboard and a mouse. These instructions and screen images apply to that kind of setup.

    Find the Existing Page You Want to Edit

    To find an existing page to edit, from the Dashboard, select Pages : All Pages

    Pages are often organized by how they appear in your site menus. Pages with a dash prefix (like this: — Sample Subpage) appear as sub-menu items under the parent page’s menu item, which is listed above, with no dash next to the title (like this: Sample Page).

    If your site contains a lot of pages, you can also use the search box in the upper right corner to locate a page quickly by typing a search term. Type your search text in the box and click [Search Pages]. Shorter search terms will match more pages. Matching pages appear in the page listing below.

    To edit your page, mouse over the page title in the page listing and click Edit.

    Update the Page Contents

    On the Edit Page, you can update and format your selected page’s text, formatting, images, media, and page attributes.

    Page Editing Tips

    • Use the Visual editor to update the content on your page. The Visual editor is fast, accurate, and shows you a formatted version of your page. It creates pages that are quick to load and optimized for SEO. You can use other WordPress editing tools besides the Visual editor on your page, but the Visual editor is the first and best choice.
    • When you paste text into your page from other sources (like Word or other word processors) be sure to paste clean text to avoid formatting problems, and improve performance and SEO.
    • Format your text in WordPress so it’s easier to read, This will also improve your page’s SEO performance.

    Publish and Review Changes to Your Page

    After you’ve updated your page, you’ll need to save your changes so that they are visible to visitors to your site.

    To save and update your page, in the Publish box (top of the right hand column), click the [Update] button.

    Important: you must click [Update] to save your changes and see your changes appear on your site.

    After your page saves (updates), a message appears right below the Edit Page title:

    Page updated. View page

    Click the View page link to see your changes as they appear to visitors to your site.

    Click Edit Page on the WordPress Toolbar to return to the page editor quickly. Once you’re done editing your page, click [Update], then click any menu item on the left menu to leave the page editor. You can always go to the Dashboard, or click Pages : All Pages to view the list of pages in your site and select another page to update.