Here’s a simple tip that I use all the time. In fact, I use it multiple times a day. It’s fast and efficient.

Create a blank text file on your desktop for quick access.

That’s it?

Simple. Right?

Here are three reasons why this is a good tip.

Create a Temporary Holding Area

The text doc isn’t bloated or media rich, so it opens really fast. I have a blank text file on my desktop. I click on it all the time. I jot down some quick ideas, take a note, or use it to temporarily hold some text on my clipboard.

I’ve tried other ideas and apps over the years, but I find the text doc has always remained faithful because of its simplicity and how fast it is to use.

Get Rid of Text Formatting

Often I copy and paste text from one thing to another. It may be a PowerPoint slide, Word document, or web page. Often it’s a PDF, where this tip really make a lot of sense.

Often the text I copy has some sort of formatting. And I don’t want the formatting of the text to make it’s way into other documents. You may have run into issues in the past where you copy and paste text and then the text doesn’t look right or align properly. And it can be a hassle to try and fix it.

Pasting into a text file (and then copying from there) gets rid of those formatting issues.

Quick Access to Code Snippets

There are many times where I need some code while I’m working with my courses. One of the most common is when I use an iframe in Rise. In those cases, I duplicate my iframe code, paste the URL, and the copy and paste into the embed block in Rise.

Or perhaps I need a local web object, so I need to create a simple web page. Easy enough. Open my placeholder text file and create a quick web page that I name index.html and can then insert as a web object. I also have a lot of little HTML code snippets I use for the blog.

In either case, I access the text file, locate my code, and paste it where it needs to go.

I usually keep three text files on my desktop. One is for blog stuff, another for code snippets, and the other is just an empty file I can open quickly for pasting text.

This is a simple tip, but it is one that I use all the time when building e-learning courses.

What simple tips do you have that help in your day-to-day production?

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