For those of you using the DIY website builder, you may notice when copying and pasting text that the formatting (bold, text size, colour etc) sometimes doesn't seem quite right. The following tips will help you design visually appealing pages and stop those pesky glitches!

The DIY Website Builder uses a WYSIWYG editor (what you see is what you get) allowing you to view your web page exactly as it will appear to your visitors. However, behind the scenes, all websites use code which tells the editor what type of font you want to use, whether you want the text centred or left-aligned, whether you are adding a title, and so forth.

So, when you copy and paste sections of information from, say, another website, or from a Word document, any code contained in that text section will also be pasted into your editor. This is what can cause some issues.

To create content using the WYSIWYG editor, follow these simple rules -

When typing information directly into the editor, add all your information FIRST, and then add your formatting. So, type out your titles, paragraphs, links, sub-headings etc in your default font and then, once complete, go back over your text and format the areas you want to make titles, bold, centered etc. This is the best way to add content as, if you format text as you are going, occasionally when you press the enter key after, say, creating a title, the editor will bring that title formatting onto the next line.

When you need to copy and paste content, it is best to "clean it up" first - which means, to remove any formatting the text already has so that it pastes neatly into your editor, where you then add your own formatting.

Any content copied from another website will undoubtedly also contain code. To tidy this up, the best practice is to paste it into NotePad first. NotePad is a text editor added as an application (usual in "Accessories" on most PC's. Simply paste your content into NotePad, then copy and paste it from their into your editor for neat and tidy text which can then be formatted to suit your website.

If you don't have NotePad, or are not inclined to use it, the next best thing is to paste the content into a Word document, and then copy from here to paste into your website. You'll notice, when you do this, the editor pops-up to say "You are pasting from Word, would you like to clean it up first" - this is a fantastic help, and just follow the prompts to have the editor clean up the text for you!