I love blogging, but invariably I find a few typos and readability issues when I publish a new post. It drives me crazy! I try to fix them as soon as possible, but it’s often difficult to get to it immediately. That was a problem last night. It was late when I posted and I had to hit the sack. This morning, to my horror, I found several such issues, and a number of readers had already clicked through from a link in social media.

Worse yet, when I pulled-up the edit screen, I was prompted to choose a “saved version of the file,” a pop-up prompt that I see occasionally. I was a little foggy then, and I’m a little foggy now as to the sequence of events, but somehow the media file I added last night at the top of the post  — the cartoon — was not in the “saved version”. I did not notice. That was unfortunate because I referenced the cartoon explicitly in the text. I made several edits and other additions, then unsuspectingly clicked “Update.” A friend emailed this afternoon to inform me that there was NO CARTOON in the post!

The missing cartoon was probably a consequence of editing drafts on both a laptop and a phone, depending on my location. I’ve long been aware of the potential this creates for version control problems, but I’m unlikely to end the practice. I just have to be more careful. Sure!

I always reread my posts multiple times before clicking “publish”, but it helps to get away from the draft for a while. One quirk I have is that it seems much easier to spot problems when a post is in the final format, as opposed to viewing it the editing screen in WordPress. There is a “Preview” option, which shows the post in the final format. For some reason, however, I seldom avail myself of that capability. I think it’s because I’m always too eager to get my posts out there, to be timely, yet so often I lament typos, mangled sentences, discontinuities, and omissions of pertinent thoughts that I’d intended to cover.

Occasionally, following one or two of these episodes, I have gone so far as to offer a veiled repentance on the link to a post in social media. Something like: “Fixed typos and improved readability”. I assume the readers will know I messed up, and I want them to know that I know it. I also have imagined giving my contacts a disclaimer at the time of initial posting: “You might want to wait a few hours before you read this, or check back in the morning…  I need a chance to review.” But of course I won’t ever do that. Except right now!

I must start using the preview option. I’ll start with this very post, tonight, but I will still review it in the morning and I’ll probably change something. Then I’ll hope there no typos within my new fixes! It happens. I’m not sure I can check my eagerness to post, so this post is a meta-repentance for my past and future blogging blemishes. So sorry! I’ll let this post serve as my umbrella disclaimer. I might not find every glitch, but I’ll try. If it’s within a day of the original posting, check back later for an improved experience.