BR Writer’s Tips: Submission Module Troubleshooting

In a perfect world, publishing on Bleacher Report would be as simple as typing your article and clicking “Submit.”

In this one, things don’t always always go quite so smoothly.

The B/R Submission Module is generally pretty serviceable, and we’re always working to make it better—but snafus are bound to happen. When they do, three general tricks may just save you from throwing your laptop out the window in frustration…

1. Switch to Firefox

The B/R interface works best with Mozilla’s Firefox browser. If you’re running into functionality problems—e.g. you can’t add a picture or change tags—a browser switch might be the answer. Firefox is a free app and can be downloaded on the Mozilla website. (Open-sourcers of the world, unite!)

2. Do your formatting in the Submission Module, not your word processor.

Special formatting features—including ordered lists, block quotes, and tables—often translate improperly from word processor documents to the Submission Module. If you want to add bells and whistles, your best bet is to do so in the Submission Module itself, either manually or by using the buttons in the Editing Toolbar.

You may also find that line and paragraph breaks get mistranslated from the Submission Module to the live Article Page. In such cases, you can usually solve the problem by removing and then reinserting the line breaks in the Submission Module—i.e. delete the blank space until the first sentence of one paragraph is on the same line as the last sentence of the preceding paragraph, then press RETURN twice to reestablish the break.

3. Learn to love HTML code.

The vast majority of B/R formatting problems originate in an article’s HTML code, which can be accessed by clicking on the “HTML” button on the right side of the Editing Toolbar. If you have the time and inclination to teach yourself the basics, you’ll be able to hack your way through most issues—especially those related to line and paragraph breaks (and the corresponding <br /> and <p> HTML tags).

Anyone seeking to nurture his inner nerd would do well to start with this online tutorial…and to remember that pocket protectors are no more or less cool than the individuals who wear them.

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Of course, these are only general suggestions, and may or may not be applicable to your particular headache. If you have specific questions, please note them in the Comments section below. I won’t always be able to help, but at least you’ll know that someone else shares your technically challenged and hopelessly impotent cyber-angst.

And hey—that’s what the Internet’s all about, isn’t it?