Creating a document that can be imported into WordPress

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toxdoc
Posts: 2
Joined: 2021-02-24 09:03:36

Creating a document that can be imported into WordPress

Post by toxdoc »

My wife writes her blog posts in Nisus Writer Pro and then I import them into her blog. I am using the Gutenberg block editor for setting up each post but there is a lot of additional work with creating all the section headers, bullets lists, number lists, etc. I tried using the built-in Nisus header levels to see whether they would import directly into WordPress - unfortunately they DON'T.

Wondering if anyone can give me some insights on how to create a Nisus Writer Pro document that will import directly into the Gutenberg editor.

Thanks

Simon
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phspaelti
Posts: 1313
Joined: 2007-02-07 00:58:12
Location: Japan

Re: Creating a document that can be imported into WordPress

Post by phspaelti »

I thought the whole point of the WordPress block editor is to allow you to write HTML without knowing how HTML works. If you want to create HTML pages outside of WordPress, then you should ditch the whole block editor concept.
philip
Vanceone
Posts: 211
Joined: 2013-05-03 07:06:31

Re: Creating a document that can be imported into WordPress

Post by Vanceone »

While I agree that Nisus isn't a perfect HTML editor (when I write HTML, I use sublime text) have you tried the File:Export as.... command? That will allow you to save a document in HTML or HTML chapter format. It might be what you need.
toxdoc
Posts: 2
Joined: 2021-02-24 09:03:36

Re: Creating a document that can be imported into WordPress

Post by toxdoc »

Thanks for your thoughtful response. No, I am afraid the idea of exporting to an HTML file is not the solution. Since when you copy that into WordPress it still just gives plain text.

Since my wife is blind she finds writing in Nisus much more convenient than trying to use the WP block editor. I then transfer the entire document to WP and have to go through and format for subheadings, bullets, etc. I thought it might be easier to do this in Nisus than having to go block-by-block to get the format correct for each block.
adryan
Posts: 561
Joined: 2014-02-08 12:57:03
Location: Australia

Re: Creating a document that can be imported into WordPress

Post by adryan »

G'day, Simon et al

That sounds like too much hard work! Which suggests that an entirely different strategy might be worth considering.

I've never used WordPress, and it's not entirely clear to me whether it acts as a blog host or merely as a blog construction kit. If the latter doesn't seem to be working for you, and your wife has her own Web Site (doesn't everyone?!), I suggest you ditch WordPress and roll your own HTML. It's not necessarily difficult if you avoid Javascript. You could probably teach yourself all you need in a few days.

A good place to start is the following Web Site which offers lots of template code and easy-to-follow tutorials:–

<https://www.w3schools.com/>

Construct a simple Web page in NWP, add in a heading, a paragraph and a list. Construct a simple CSS (stylesheet) document that is referenced in the head of your HTML document and insert some code to determine text colors, indentation, the type of bullet you want in bullet lists, etc. Nothing fancy at this stage. The file with the HTML should be saved as plain text, duplicated, and the .txt extension of the duplicate changed to .htm to produce the file to exhibit to a Web browser. The file with the CSS code shoud be treated likewise, but use the extension .css instead. Save and view your work in a Web browser as you go. For simple content and layouts, it's not that hard.

Once you're happy you understand how things work, agree with your wife on terms to use for delineating formatting. For example, she might write "Heading" and then the actual heading text occurs following a paragraph return. She might write "Start Numbered List", then put all the list items in subsequent paragraphs and conclude the list with "End Numbered List". Of course, you could use appropriate abbreviations, as long as their usage could not be mistaken for actual content.

When all the writing is finished, you use Find & Replace to convert her naïve markup to technical HTML markup tags as appropriate. A set of such commands could be incorporated in a Macro which your wife could summon with a keyboard shortcut while you sun yourself by the pool. When the mood moves you, check that everything looks OK in a Web browser, upload the file to the server, and grab another drink on your way back to the pool.

Admittedly, there is a bit of work needed to set up this system, but you do it only once.

I used to use Nisus Writer for coding a forum I ran many years ago, so it's quite possible to do what you need with NWP. These days, though, I find BBEdit better suited to the task.

Cheers,
Adrian
MacBook Pro (M1 Pro, 2021)
macOS Ventura
Nisus Writer user since 1996
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