Copying and Pasting Posts from Other Applications

For users who would prefer to compose their posts in an outside application and then paste the text into the TypePad post editor, we strongly recommend disabling rich text. Pasting content composed in an outside application can cause errors and conflicts on your weblog and the post editor.

Issues When Copying and Pasting
Copying and pasting from other applications such as Word can generate error messages in TypePad, cause validation errors in your weblog and prevent your selected theme from appearing as intended. When pasting in content composed in a different application, the format used by the other application merges with the format TypePad uses. This merging can cause errors in the TypePad application and prevent spellcheck from working correctly. This also adds unnecessary code into your weblog posts, thus causing validation errors.

Copying and Pasting from Other Websites
Even though copying and pasting from word processing programs like Word is discouraged, there are some applications that do not create conflicts with formatting or cause problems. Plain text editing applications like NotePad can be useful when copying and pasting from other websites or programs. These applications do not create unnecessary code or formatting that can be carried over into your weblog. First, copy the relevant information from the website and then paste the content into the plain text editor you are using. From there, you can copy and paste the text into a TypePad post.

Disabling Rich Text
If you would prefer to compose your posts in a different application such as Word, disable Rich Text by clicking on the Customize the display of this page link at the bottom of the Post page and then select Plain Text in the pop-up window. Once you have chosen Plain Text, you should be able to copy your text from a different application and paste it into the Post area without issue.

Correcting Formatting Issues
To correct issues that appear as a result of copying and pasting, you will need to remove the formatting code from your posts. The easiest way to accomplish this is to copy and paste your entries from your weblog into a plain text application like NotePad. You should then copy the text from NotePad and paste it back into TypePad with rich text disabled. You can then go back through your posts and apply formatting via the Rich Text Editor if necessary.

It is a good idea to do this for every post that was copied and pasted into TypePad. If the number of posts is a little overwhelming, at least work through the entries that are currently on your main index page. The entries on your main index page are the same entries that appear in your weblog's feed and this ensures that your feed does not contain any code that could cause it to be invalid

TypePad Featured Blogs and the TypePad Bookstore

How can I submit my site to be a TypePad Feature Blog?
The TypePad Featured Blogs site is a weblog where we spotlight interesting and innovative sites that use TypePad. These sites fall into many different categories from advocacy to travel to zoology and everything in between.

We are always on the lookout for TypePad blogs and would be happy to consider your blog for its inclusion. If you would like your weblog to be featured, simply complete this form and your site will be submitted to our editors for review.

How can I get my book added to the TypePad Bookstore?
We have many authors that use TypePad to present their books to the world. Our TypePad Bookstore offers both books from these bloggers and also books about blogging. We also have a Book of the Month Blog where we highlight a different book each month.

If you are an author using TypePad, have written a book about blogging, or know of an author that uses TypePad that should be considered for our Book of the Month, Featured Blog, and Bookstore programs, please fill out this form to be considered.

Languages Supported in TypePad

TypePad offers support for a selection of different languages. This includes displaying post links, dates and headers in your selected language on your published weblog.

Note: headers will only be localized in the selected language for Dutch, English, French, Finnish, German, Italian, and Spanish.

Supported languages:

Arabic
Chinese – Taiwan
Chinese – China
Chinese – Hong Kong
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dutch – Netherlands
Dutch – Belgium
English – Australia
English - Canada
English – New Zealand
English – United Kingdom
English – United States
Finnish – Finland
French – France
German – Germany
Greek
Hebrew
Hindi
Hungarian
Icelandic
Indonesian
Italian – Italy
Japanese – Japan
Korean
Lithuanian
Norwegian
Persian
Polish
Portuguese
Romanian
Russian
Serbian
Slovenian
Spanish – Spain
Swedish
Vietnamese
For subscribers who would like to display headers in a language other than the ones mentioned above, try creating a Links TypeList to link to these items and set up a custom header in your preferred language.

More information on changing this preference can be found under Setting Your Weblog Post Preferences.

Changing Your TypePad Password

Your TypePad Password is the password that you use to log into TypePad. This is set when you sign up and can be changed at any time.

It is a good idea to change your password every once in a while and pick a password that nobody will be able to guess. Use a combination of letters and numbers for a better password.

Click the Control Panel tab to access your Control Panel area. Then click the Profile tab to enter your Author Profile setup. Here you can change your TypePad password in the Password Settings section.

Enter a new password: type your new password once in the first box and again in the second box to confirm. The password you enter will be automatically masked by asterisks *** so it cannot be viewed on the screen.

Then press the “Update Author Profile” button at the bottom of the page. Your new password takes effect immediately. You will now use your new password when logging into the system.

Hint Question
If you would ever forget your user name or password and later want to retrieve it by Recovering Your TypePad Password, you will be asked a question to verify your identity. If your response matches the answer, you will able to recover your login information.

The hint question asks for Mother’s Maiden Name or Birthplace but you can enter anything you would like for the answer. Select a prompt from the choices listed, then enter your answer in the adjacent text field.

Press the “Update Author Profile” button at the bottom of the page to update your settings and you’ll now be able to recover your password with this answer later if needed.

Audit Firm Rotation as a Good Governance Practice for Non Profit Organizations

The following item was reported in a recent American Institute of Certified Public Accountants communication:

“The Exempt Organizations Division of the IRS had posted on the IRS web site a controversial document setting forth the Service’s view on what constitutes good governance practices for tax-exempt entities. Included in the document was the suggestion that audit firms be rotated on a regular basis, with five years as the suggested term. The Institute protested the inclusion of this item in face-to-face meetings and in writing. Last month, the IRS dropped the document from its website, explaining that the new Form 990 sets forth the IRS’ current position on good governance practices which do not include the five-year rotation suggestion. ”

This is another sad example of a professional organization placing the good of its members over the public interest. The Institute has a long history of this type of advocacy. Why would the IRS recommended a five year audit rotation as a good governance practice for non profit organizations?

Audit rotation is designed to overcome two problems that can occur if an organization hires the same audit firm year in and year out. The first problem is that there is a tendency for audit firms to get too cozy with the management of the organizations they are assigned to audit. Personal and professional ties can easily impede auditor independence. Secondly, audit rotation provides the opportunity for the organization to be examined with a fresh pair of eyes.

This second issue is subtle. Accountants are creatures of habit and checklists. Things are done the same way as they were last year and often in a very mechanical and non critical manner. Many audit procedures and tests are numbingly mechanical and clerical and it is very easy to not view the audit process from a sufficiently critical and analytical point of view. Sometimes the most glaring internal control weaknesses can be overlooked simply because the auditors were not looking at the big picture but only concentrating on the minutia. A change in auditors guarantees that the organization in its entirety will get a fresh look and glaring internal control problems that may have been overlooked by the prior auditor may get picked up by the new one.

Of course CPA firms with long standing engagements with non profit organizations do not want to give up them up for obvious financial reasons. So these firms use their professional association, the Institute, to advocate against the obvious good governance practice that is clearly in the public interest. Such cynicism is sadly the rule not the exception for most professional organizations.

The IRS also should share some of the blame for caving into the audit firms on this issue. But it probably was not the IRS staff that caved but the higher ups who were pressured from the Bush administration. Whenever there is a divergence between private sector interests and the public interest you can pretty much count on the Bush administration siding with the private interests.

In any event the IRS had the right idea to begin with. Non profits should rotate their audit firms on a regular basis.

Michael Sack Elmaleh is a Certified Public Accountant and Certified Valuation Analyst. His book, “Financial Accounting: A Mercifully Brief Introduction”, has received wide critical acclaim. He has nearly 30 years of accounting and 10 years of teaching experience.His web site is understand-accounting.net

Personal Domains

Question
Can my TypePad site have its own domain like example.com?

Answer
Yes, we have a feature called domain mapping which allows you to point any domain name that you own at your TypePad site.

We do not currently offer domain name registration services within TypePad, but there are many providers who do.

If you're looking for a provider to host your domain name and are interested in using TypePad, see the Domain Mapping Requirements for the requirements that your registrar should meet to be compatible with domain mapping.

Dating After Loss of a Spouse

When a relationship ends due to one partner dying, what is the correct time period to begin dating again? Grief is such a funny, unpredictable animal. Many people in years' past think a year is a suitable time to wait before incorporating life changes, and yet for many of us, a year into our loss - we're barely getting started on our grief journey. My experience has been that people and perhaps society as a whole, do not allow enough time or thought to the actual grief process. There is no quick fix or "getting over it" and moving on. We all move through grief in our own ways and means. There is nothing by formula that we can follow or hope to happen. Talking with others who have experienced a similar loss is definitely a plus.

Some days the road is more difficult than others days. At times, you feel enveloped in a mist of uncertainty. Even small decisions can sometimes stretch past your point of coping.

Personal decisions are just that, personal. What is suitable for anyone must be decided individually. Sometimes you have to let go of preconceived notions of the correct way to act and grieve.

I began dating too early, about a year after my husband passed away. I was incredibly lonely and in a real oxymoron, I was determined to be happy again, at any cost to myself. So, I started dating through online sites and I kept attracting the wrong type of man. Takers, emotionally unavailable, surface daters, serial daters, men who mirrored my own uncertainty about my readiness to date again.

None of these connections turned out to be anything substantial. In a fog of grief, I yearned to find someone to love, and yet I knew these men were wrong for me. They were just a short ride on a ferry to nowhere special. It was brought home to me gradually, through my dating experiences, that I had to value myself more than what I was doing. I couldn't settle with a partner just to have someone in my life. I deserved more. My dates deserved more than someone still traveling through grief.

In those early days, I was as unavailable as the men I dated. If I had realized this, perhaps I would have run fast in the opposite direction, but in two instances I hung on to a flagging relationship, hoping things would change. Of course they did not.

Gradually, I came to realize that I had to stop setting myself up for disappointment in relationships. How could I attract the right partner, unless I was equally ready for a commitment?

I made the decision to bring my standards up to a new level and part of this process involved not dating for over a year. Only then did I start meeting the quality of man that my higher consciousness demanded. I was no longer wasting my time, or theirs, in surface dating, where both of us knows after one date there is no chemistry or real interest.

We all deserve better for ourselves than settling in a relationship just to alleviate the loneliness. It is difficult being alone when you are used to so much more, but I have chosen to remain so until the right partner comes along. It's a personal decision, and for me, there is no other choice.