The best part about writing a blog post is the writing, the worst part (for me) is the tagging and formatting. Wouldn’t it be good if you could import a pre-formatted post into a new post? Complete with tags etc. Well now, if you have a blog hosted on the WordPress.com platform, you can. This feature isn’t available in the self-hosted version of WordPress, but hopefully a future update will include it.
You access Writing Helper through a new box that sits just below the edit box on the Add New Post screen. If you prefer to move the box to another part of the screen you can do so, just drag and drop it in the usual way.
What does Writing Helper do?
Two things – the first is the time-saving feature Copy a Post. It allows you to import an existing post into a new post. It brings in everything including the tags, formatting, pictures etc.
You can only import published posts at this time. In future updates I would like to see importation of draft posts included as you could create pre-tagged and pre-formatted template files which are ready for new content.
To use Copy A Post simply create a new post then look in the list of your latest posts to see if the one you want to copy is there, if it isn’t, use the search feature to find it. When you find it, hit the copy button import the post. Now remove the parts of the post you don’t want and keep the rest.
The other feature of Writing Helper is Request Feedback. Another nice addition; it allows you to send an email to a friend or colleague who you would like to give feedback on your draft post before you hit the publish button.
This is what they see (with my response):
To see the feedback in your blog you have to hit the Request Feedback button.
What do you think of these new features? I’m pretty impressed and would love to see them incorporated into the self-hosted version too.
