Formatting your website text
This page guides you through formatting your text using the Soothed administration area.
Topics:
- The formatting toolbar
- Defining paragraphs and headings
- Emphasizing text
- Making lists
- Troubleshooting
The formatting toolbar
The toolbar allows you to change the appearance of the text on your page. It can be found just above every field in your web site where you can control the formatting.
Hint: If you forget what an icon does, you can roll over it with the mouse and wait until a reminder appears.
| Tool | Description | Keyboard shortcut |
|---|---|---|
| Format menu | Choose a format for the paragraph (eg. heading, normal paragraph). | |
| Bold | Bold the selected text. | Ctrl-B |
| Italic | Italicise the selected text. | Ctrl-I |
| Bulleted list | Add a bulleted list. | |
| Numbered list | Add a numbered list. | |
| Indent text | Indent selected text. Can also be used to create nested lists. | |
| Reduce indent | Reduce indenting of selected text. | |
| Insert image | Insert or modify an image. | |
| Insert a link | Insert a link to another web page. | Ctrl-K |
| Remove link | Remove links from selected text. | |
| Insert a table | Insert a table. | |
| View HTML | If you are familiar with working in HTML, you can switch to working in HTML mode using this icon. | |
| Undo | Undo the last change. | Ctrl-Z |
| Redo | Redo what was last undone. | Ctrl-Y |
| Cut | Cut the selected text. | Ctrl-X |
| Copy | Copy the selected text to the clipboard. | Ctrl-C |
| Paste | Paste text from the clipboard. | Ctrl-V |
| Paste from Word | Paste in text copied from Microsoft Word. | |
| Remove formatting | Remove all formatting from selected text. |
Defining paragraphs and headings
Each paragraph of text on your page should have a format applied using the format menu. The options will usually be:
- Paragraph - make this a normal paragraph of text
- Heading 1 - make this a top-level heading (level 1)
- Heading 2 - make this a sub-heading (level 2)
- Heading 3 - make this a level 3 heading
To apply a format, just position the cursor anywhere within the paragraph and choose an option from the format menu. You'll see the text instantly change to reflect the style you've chosen. (If you type something and it looks much bigger than the normal text on your web site, you probably need to select it as a paragraph in the editor.)
Try to use headings liberally within your text - they make it easier to take in your page at a glance, and are also good for SEO.
Emphasizing text
There are 2 ways to add emphasis to important words within your text:
- Bold - make some text bold (Ctrl-B)
- Italic - make some text italic (Ctrl-I)
Simply select the word you want to emphasize and click the bold or the italic icon, or you can hold down the Ctrl key and press B to bold, or Ctrl and I to italicise.
Please do not use underlining for emphasis. Underlining is usually reserved for links on the web, and can confuse readers if it's used for another purpose.
Some clients also have a style menu (to the right of the format menu) which allows you to emphasise words using a pre-defined style.
Making lists
Lists are another boon for skim-readers. There are 2 types:
- Bulleted lists (like this one)
- Numeric lists (numbered as 1, 2, 3 etc...)
To create a list, click either the bulleted list or the numbered list icon, then start typing. Hit return to create a new list item. When you've finished, click the icon again to return to normal text. You can also convert an existing paragraph to a list by positioning the cursor anywhere within the paragraph and clicking on of the list icons.
Troubleshooting
Q. My formatting is all over the place. How do I start again?
Simply select the text you want to reformat and click the Remove formatting icon to remove all formatting. You can then reapply formatting using the help given in this page.
Q. How do I change the font or colour of my text?
All fonts and colours are controlled by a central stylesheet (the answer below explains why). If you'd like to use different fonts or colours than the ones we've set up for you, please ask us to organise this for you.
Q. Why can't I choose the colours, fonts and text-size in the editor?
The formatting of your web site is controlled through a central stylesheet. This ensures that your pages look consistent which is important for a professional appearance. Using a central stylesheet also has the following benefits:
- Your pages are more search-engine friendly (as they aren't cluttered with formatting codes)
- Your pages are more accessible to people using assistive technologies (eg. blind people)
- Your pages load faster keeping all your visitors happy!
We've set up your headings, normal text, link colours and so on, to be automatically applied when you use the toolbar. If you would like us to change the global setting for any of these, or would like to have a specific colour set up for highlighting etc, please ask us to change your set up.
Q. How do I retain formatting pasted in from Word?
Unfortunately Word formatting codes are largely uncompatible with web editors. Whilst some formatting can be carried over, you will need to reapply some formatting using the toolbar. We highly recommend using the Paste from Word button to paste in content copied from Microsoft Word.
Q. Some of my text is too large. Why?
All text needs to be defined as a paragraph or a heading. If your text is too large (like this), you need to convert it to a paragraph. If you have any other problems, please ask us for help.