Too often when I see blog posts, I whisper a silent “Ouch!” at minor imperfections in formatting.

When you’ve uploaded your content and are ready to make it public, preview it first whenever possible and check for these little things:

1. Proper spacing between paragraphs. Sometimes there isn’t any at all, and paragraphs are all smushed together. If you indent every paragraph, this is technically OK, but it’s easier to read if you use flush left formatting and a space between paragraphs. Sometimes I see too much space. It’s also annoying.
2. Proper spacing between sentences. And by ‘proper,’ I mean one. One space between sentences – not two. Manual typewriters used monospaced type, because every letter occupied the same amount of horizontal space. Today, computers use proportional fonts, so we no longer need to manually enhance readability with two spaces.
3. Body copy aligns cleanly at the left. Even when it’s off by one character, it jumps out at the reader. Usually this happens at the beginning of a paragraph.

If you can’t preview your content before you publish it, be sure to view it soon after you hit “Publish.” Check for formatting issues, then correct them pronto.

Don’t let a few formatting bloopers spoil your content.

(c) 2016 Margie Dana