Often an interactive copywriter will need to write, fix, or replace some copy on a pre-existing website. Sometimes, you need to “write to space” or you need a quick and dirty comp to show your team or the client. Rather than involve development or design and burn costly hours, with a little bit of HTML knowledge and a few free online tools, copywriters can take things into their own hands.
3 tools you'll need before we get started:
1. To begin, install Firefox and the extensions, and open any page in the Firefox browser. (For this example, I'll be using our #SXSBX hub site, switching the copy to past tense.)
2. After the page loads, click Miscellaneous > Edit HTML on the Web Developer toolbar.
3. A window will pop up showing the HTML code for the page. You can use the search box to navigate to the bit of copy you want to replace.
4. Once you find the copy, you can then simply replace it in the textbox window (keeping any HTML code in tact) and the updated copy will appear in the browser with its original style.
5. Once you have the copy just right, you can now copy and paste the code into a text editor and send it to your dev team. Or, if you need a comp of the page, you can navigate to the Pearl Cresent camera icon, click the drop-down menu, and click Save Image of Entire Page. A dialog screen will appear, allowing you to save a .png file of the page to your hard drive.
6. Find the .png on your hard drive, and voila! You have a perfectly usable comp:
Check out our #SXSBX hub page →