In which I finally accept someone's offer for help. Two months late.

Keeping a blog makes me very happy, for many reasons. One reason is that it’s a source of challenge and novelty, which, studies demonstrate, are critical to happiness.

Unfortuantely, along with challenge and novelty come frustration and feeling stupid.

A very kind reader—I’ll call her CB—emailed me to say that when she read my blog in her RSS feed, symbols like “curly quotes” showed up as ???. To help me, she thoughtfully included instructions on two separate ways to fix this problem.

I was so overwhelmed by trying to fix this glitch that I just…did nothing. I didn’t try to fix the problem. I didn’t respond to her email. I just left her message in my in-box, where I’d read it from time to time, and feel guilty and defeated. I didn’t even write her back! Which was so, so rude. This was in early AUGUST!

Yesterday, another reader wrote about the same problem. Okay, I decided, now I really need to get a grip on this.

I went back to CB’s email and tried to see if I could follow her directions. There was something I didn’t understand, about using Wordpad. Remembering one of my Secrets of Adulthood, I told myself, “It’s okay to ask for help.”

So I wrote CB back, apologized for my rudeness, and asked for more help. She answered, just as nice as before. I followed her directions.

So, here goes. If you’re reading this in an RSS feed, does the post look better? Does it look worse? Have I fixed anything?

I hope that CB’s good deed makes HER feel happy – that’s the “Do good, feel good” principle.

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I'm finding Gimundo dangerously addictive -- I started reading this post about the importance of scent to happiness, and then clicked from one story to the next for about half an hour. And I'm supposed to be fixing my formatting problem!

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Comments

[Jen Zingsheim]

Yes, the post looks much better in my feed reader (SharpReader). It also seems to have fixed an underlying error message that would come in when my feeds refreshed!

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yipeee! I hope this is true across the board. How about you Google Readers? Blogliners?

[roxy]

I also use an RSS feeder (Google Reader) and I've noticed that I get one post that looks okay and then I get one full of question marks.

I had considered commenting on it, but I figured you were working on it. :-)

In any case, I'm not seeing any problems now.

[Veerniliel]

Yes, just like roxy I'm using Google reader and I used to receive every post twice, one okay, and the other with question marks. I didn't even receive them at the same time. Sometimes it took several hours before the second came, so I can't tell right now if it's fixed.
I hope it can help.

[Ronni]

I'm a Google Reader, and today's post looked great! :)

[Mrs. Micah]

I'm using Google and today's post actually came up as the html version of your post...

[Zac]

Sorry, but I have the same problem as Mrs. Micah (I also use Google Reader) ... lots of raw html tags with stuff in it like onclick="window.open(this.href, '_blank', 'width=108,height=122,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0'); return false" ... which is even a little javascript.

I'll see what I can see in the raw RSS feed; it's hard to say why a curly quotes change would cause this problem.

It might be helpful to know what tools and method you use to compose and upload your posts.

[Sugar Mouse In The Rain]

I get some HTML code in my reader (Google reader).

[Gretchen Rubin]

test

[Gretchen Rubin]

Oh dear. This is what I was afraid of. Fix one problem, start another.

I compose my emails in Microsoft Word, then paste them into Typepad. CB suggested that before posting directly into Typepad, I save the text in WordPad, which in theory would convert curly quotes, etc., into a form so they wouldn't convert into weirdness.

But it seems that that step must have done too much.

If anyone has a suggestion about how to fix this, I would love to hear it, BUT I am very un-tech-savvy, so can only take in advice that is given at a veeeerrry simple level.

I've always wondered why FeedBlitz sends out double copies of each post; maybe it's in two different forms so that one reads properly. Though that's Feedblitz, not RSS...or maybe Feedblitz is a form of RSS delivered via email.

BTW, what is "javascript" exactly? Sometimes I figure it out from the context, but I don't get exactly what it is.

Aargh...

[Val Ann C]

I use the Bloglines feed reader. Your posts look much better!

[robin j.]

I too use google reader and never noticed a problem until this very post. :/ it's not just the quotes, ever single html tag is in there.

[Jon]

Heya,

I've been reading the feed with Google Reader in Firefox for a while now (with the ???) but today's post was fixed! Hoorah for ' and " !

I'm not seeing any raw HTML. Don't know how my setup is any different.

/jon

[Helen]

Gretchen,

At the risk of raising more questions than answers regarding thew new display problem, this guy seems to be having the same problem:
http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/2006/12/14/IssuesWithTypePadsAtom03Feeds.aspx
As is this guy: http://archives.free.net.ph/message/20050818.174453.84512d19.en.html

Not being a Typepad user, I don't know much about how things work at your end, but can think of one easy fix that might work for you. It's possible to redirect your feed through a website called Feedburner which may reprocess it into a form that is more palatable for Google Reader:
http://support.typepad.com/cgi-bin/typepad.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=424
(If anyone reading this has actually tried using Feedburner with a Typepad feed, maybe they can comment and let you know whether it worked?)

Alternatively, have you tried asking Typepad's tech support? I have no idea whether they're helpful or not, but it's probably worth a try!

Re: Javascript, it's a programming language that is used to write a lot of online content: http://www.topxml.com/javascript/

And finally (sorry, mega-sized comment!) hurrah for accepting the help and ending the procrastination.

[sonia]

i'm not tech savvy either, but if curly quotes are the problem, could you just turn off smart tags in word?

[Kathy]

Hey, thanks for the plug, Gretchen! Glad you've been enjoying our site as much as I've been enjoying yours.

Feel free to add us to your blog roll, by the way... If we ever add a links section, we'll make sure to put you on.

[Nora]

Hi there -- rather than use Word Pad or Notepad to paste your text in, try creating in or pasting into Text Monkey (PC based) or TextWrangler (Mac based). Word and other apps leave little hidden goodies that can mess up your code when you paste it into your blog.

Just my two cents...

I enjoy the blog!

[eric]

hurrah... I've been meaning to email about those curly quotes on the RSS feed for MONTHS! thx CB + Gretchen for the fix.

[maria]

thanks for the link to the wonderful website Gimundo. Check out the story "Dying Boy Crowned Homecoming King", it made me cry my heart out. http://www.gimundo.com/Articles/Daily/619

[J Robinson]

I'm afraid I'm with those who never had a problem until this post :-( I use Google Reader btw. Best of luck with finding a solution.

[Liz]

I use Bloglines and only subscribed yesterday. I wondered what was up with the question marks but thought I'd got the wrong display font or something. It looks so much better today! Thanks for fixing it!

[Dan B]

Yes Gretchen - all fine in Bloglines....thanks for change and thanks for your great blog...I read it every day. When will you launch the book?

[Gretchen Rubin]

Thanks so much for these comments. Seems like the change has made it better for some, worse for others.

Typepad tech support, hang on! Here I come.

Not sure whether I should stick with the change or not, hard to know which way annoys more people. Hmmmm. I'll try to figure this out by Monday, at the very latest.

I really appreciate everyone's advice and feedback, a huge help.

[Wouter]

It's funny, but I had no problems whatsoever until this post (I get the raw HTML now, which make the feed pretty useless).

Using Google Reader under Firefox.

I hope you'll be able to fix it :)

[olya]

It works well now! Thank you for fixing it, and thank you to CB as well!

[Molly]

Much better. Thanks! (using Googlereader)

[Jen Zingsheim]

Gretchen, sorry to add (yet another) suggestion, but I am as untechnical as they get, and I use Windows LiveWriter http://tinyurl.com/s77yo with TypePad and it works great. It's very easy to post, add tags, etc.

Good Luck!

[Beverly]

I'm geting your column from FeedBlitz and it's not fixed at all. Today's column, ironically about the problem, was nearly unreadable!

[Daria]

ohh Gretchen, first just wanted to say, I also sometimes get frozen like this, when I don't know how to fix things ahhh... :) we're human, so we can just live and let live and even laugh about it. (and be happier)

Also for in-person support no doubt there a meetup groups in NY where you could link up with some bloggers - in person - next time you find yourself in some such situation! It might even be fun!

[Brynith Ensor-Estes]

I love reading your blog but haven't posted a comment yet- I just wanted to give a shout out and say keep them coming, they're great!! I agree with the last comment, I use Google Reader in Firefox and until today it was going great- now it's all question marks.

Good luck! And thanks again for the great blog!

[Gretchen Rubin]

Book is tentatively due to come out January 2010. That sounds like a long time from now, but it's closer than it seems -- given that I need to write this book!

[Simon]

I'm using Google Reader in Firefox and was meaning to write to you about the question marks. Today's post was the first one I was able to read clearly. I find your blog very uplifting by the way.

[mari]

yes, your feed looks much better now! thanks for fixing it.