How come my show notes formatting doesn't look correct in Apple Podcasts, Spotify etc?
If your show notes look properly formatted in Transistor, but not in podcast apps like Apple Podcasts, there are two main causes:
Copying and pasting from other applications (like Word, Google Docs, Apple Notes) can bring over hidden HTML formatting that you can't see in our editor, but gets rendered in podcast apps.
Podcast apps all render HTML differently, and some formatting won't work in Apple Podcasts.
Copying and pasting formatted text from Microsoft Word, Google Docs, etc.. can be problematic in any online editor.
For example, when you copy text from Word for example, it doesn't just copy the text you see, it also copies HTML and styling code:
As Gabe Sumner says:
Styling that worked wonderfully in one environment (MS Word) will behave very poorly in another environment (your web site).
It might look fine in Transistor's editor, but once podcast apps pick it up, it can cause rendering problems.
The best bet is to copy and paste as plain-text into Transistor, and do your formatting there.
Copy you content (from Word, Google Docs, etc).
Open Notepad and paste in your content. It will automatically strip the formatting and convert it to plain text.
Copy the plain text from Notepad document.
Go to Transistor, and paste in the plain text content into your the Episode Show Notes section.
Click Save.
Copy you content (from Word, Google Docs, etc).
Open TextEdit and paste in your content.
In the top menu, go to Format > Make Plain Text (or Shift Command T). This will convert the text to plain text.
Copy the plain text from TextEdit document.
Go to Transistor, and paste in the plain text content into your the Episode Show Notes section.
Click Save.
As noted by Podnews, each podcast listening app has limitations when it comes to formatting:
Apple Podcasts does not support bold/italic, and in the newest version of the app, no longer supports any bullet points, hyperlinked text. The recommendation: don’t use bullet points, use line breaks to separate paragraphs, and write out URLs for links as plain text (Apple will hyperlink them in the app).
Spotify does not support bold/italic, but does support bullet points and hyperlinked text.
Copying and pasting from other applications (like Word, Google Docs, Apple Notes) can bring over hidden HTML formatting that you can't see in our editor, but gets rendered in podcast apps.
Podcast apps all render HTML differently, and some formatting won't work in Apple Podcasts.
Copying and pasting from other applications
Copying and pasting formatted text from Microsoft Word, Google Docs, etc.. can be problematic in any online editor.
For example, when you copy text from Word for example, it doesn't just copy the text you see, it also copies HTML and styling code:
As Gabe Sumner says:
Styling that worked wonderfully in one environment (MS Word) will behave very poorly in another environment (your web site).
It might look fine in Transistor's editor, but once podcast apps pick it up, it can cause rendering problems.
The best bet is to copy and paste as plain-text into Transistor, and do your formatting there.
PC users: how to paste plain text content
Copy you content (from Word, Google Docs, etc).
Open Notepad and paste in your content. It will automatically strip the formatting and convert it to plain text.
Copy the plain text from Notepad document.
Go to Transistor, and paste in the plain text content into your the Episode Show Notes section.
Click Save.
Mac users: how to paste plain text content
Copy you content (from Word, Google Docs, etc).
Open TextEdit and paste in your content.
In the top menu, go to Format > Make Plain Text (or Shift Command T). This will convert the text to plain text.
Copy the plain text from TextEdit document.
Go to Transistor, and paste in the plain text content into your the Episode Show Notes section.
Click Save.
Formatting limitations in Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
As noted by Podnews, each podcast listening app has limitations when it comes to formatting:
Apple Podcasts does not support bold/italic, and in the newest version of the app, no longer supports any bullet points, hyperlinked text. The recommendation: don’t use bullet points, use line breaks to separate paragraphs, and write out URLs for links as plain text (Apple will hyperlink them in the app).
Spotify does not support bold/italic, but does support bullet points and hyperlinked text.
Updated on: 09/04/2024
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