Typing text into the templates

The text you type directly into any of Dadooda's templates is formatted ready for display on our website. Whenever possible we recommend you type directly into the templates, especially for the shorter text elements, namely:

Title (limited to 50 characters)
Introduction (limited to 500 characters)
Image Caption (limited to 50 characters)

If you are planning to submit an Article item type, which is limited to 12,000 characters or about 2,000 words, or a Book item type of a similar length, we also recommend that you type the main text directly into the template.

Remember, if you can’t finish an item in a single session you can upload it to Dadooda partially completed and return to finish it later by using the Edit option. You can do this as often as you wish until the item is finished to your satisfaction.

Preparing text in another application

For the main text of an Article or a Book, especially if it will have more than about 2,000 words, you may prefer to prepare your text in a separate text application. For example you may not always have access to the Internet and Dadooda when you want to work on your item.

In this case you should use a simple text editor in preference to a full word processing application such as Microsoft Word.

If you have Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Vista, we recommend you use the Notepad application. This can normally be found by selecting Start > All Programs > Accessories > Notepad. Simply prepare your text in Notepad, then copy and paste it into the appropriate Dadooda template. We recommend you use Verdana Regular 8 font, which is the standard font used in Dadooda templates.

If you want to use work you have already prepared in a word processing application such as Microsoft Word you have two options. Either you can copy and paste it into Notepad or a similar text editor before copying and pasting it to a Dadooda template, or you can copy and paste it directly into a Dadooda template.

Whichever option you choose, you will lose some of the advanced formatting features you were able to use in the word processing application, such as different font styles and sizes, bullets and indents, although basic formatting such as paragraphs, line breaks and punctuation will be retained. We recommend you review the reformatted text after you have pasted it into a Dadooda template.

FYI

As is evident from the above adding text to website pages is not just a case of copying and pasting a document from your favourite word processing application. The basic problem is that most popular word processing applications such as Microsoft Word have advanced formatting features that make a document look good but also add significantly to the size of the file.

However, text files used on websites need to be as small as possible so they download from the host computer and appear on your screen as quickly as possible. By stripping out all the “unnecessary” formatting the file size can be reduced and optimised for use as website text. This is what a simple text editor such as Notepad or Dadooda's own text editor achieves.

To put this into perspective, the page you are reading represents a Microsoft Word file of about 32 kilobytes. When copied and pasted into Notepad it is reduced to about 4 kilobytes. Same words with a similar appearance, but one-eighth of the file size.