Bad Practices when working with the Text / HTML module


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Bad Practices with the Text HTML module
By Lee Sykes
April 2006

This tutorial outlines what not to do when working with the Text/HTML module. We then outline the methods that you should use when adding content to the Text/HTML module.

This is a list of practices we have come across when beginners first use the Text/HTML module which you should try to avoid.

Pasting content from Word

It is good practice to write all of your text for a website in Word to check for spelling and grammar. The problem occurs when you copy the text from Word and paste it direct into the text editor within the Text/HTML module.

This is because Word adds its own junk HTML to the text. It creates very bloated source code which means that your pages will have a much larger file size than necessary.

The key rule of thumb for today’s web design is to separate the content from the presentation styles.

To work around this, copy the text from Word and then paste it into Notepad. Notepad automatically strips any of the Word formatting. Then copy the text from Notepad and paste it into the text editor within the Text/HTML module.

Within the FreeTextBox editor there is an option for pasting content from Word which strips most of the bloated code, but I have found that pasting into Notepad guarantees that all excess code is completely stripped.

If you are working with the FCKEditor, there are options for pasting from Word or Notepad so the editor automatically strips the excess HTML code for you.

This is a section of text copied from Word to demonstrate the excess HTML code that it creates.

Pasting from Word

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