Embed, Drag, Drop, Delete

Things you can and can't do in the Substack editor

I like the Substack text editor. I think many newsletter creators do. Many creators are experienced writers; I haven't noticed many complaints about the editor.¹

Like many of you, I’m becoming more familiar with the editor as I use it more. I’ve learned a few things – even while writing this post! – that might be useful, especially if you’re relatively new to writing on Substack.

I don’t normally ask this; but I hope you’ll share this post if you think it will help other Substackers.

Embed

Embedding is one important feature. In case you’re not familiar with embedding, I'll embed a tweet about another type of embed:

Substack @SubstackInc

You can now embed SoundCloud audio into your Substack posts. Just copy-paste the URL and it will magically appear.

I think Substack can improve embedding.

Embedding is allowed for several sites: Bandcamp, GitHub, Instagram, SoundCloud, Spotify, Twitter, Vimeo, YouTube.² But what about Pinterest? Or TikTok? Or hundreds of other sites, such as those supported by Embed.ly?

(Of course, Substack probably can't use Embed.ly itself, because it's owned by Medium. But it's the idea that counts.)

Also, it would be nice if

• embeds could be resized

• text could be wrapped to the left or right of an embed

• a caption could be added

… though maybe these elements wouldn’t render properly in some email clients.³

Drag

Substack notes (in “How to use the text editor,” which is also included as a draft post when you start a newsletter) that the editor has two features you can use by dragging:

• add an image by dragging it into the editor

• resize an image by selecting it and dragging the handles at the bottom right of the image

Dragging an image into the editor works with an image on your computer. If you drag an image from a webpage into the editor, you’ll get the error message “URL is not an image.” Instead, you can copy the image from the webpage (right-click and copy on Windows) and paste it into the editor. Of course, you’ll want to consider whether you are permitted to copy and use that image.

Drop

However, Substack doesn’t mention – in this post or elsewhere as far as I know – that you can move buttons up or down in a draft by selecting, dragging, and dropping. You select and drag a button by holding a left-click (or a touch on a mobile device) to the left or right of the button.⁴

You can also select, drag, and drop some embeds. But that is easier said than done. I've found it's easiest with a tweet that doesn't include an image or video. It can also work with other embeds from Twitter, Instagram, and GitHub.⁵ In my experience, dragging and dropping these embeds is easier on a desktop than on a mobile device. I've had no luck with embeds in frames: Bandcamp, SoundCloud, Spotify, Vimeo, YouTube.

You can select a paragraph or similar block of text on a desktop by pressing “Ctrl” (or “Cmd” on a Mac, I presume) while left-clicking on or next to the text. You can drag the selected block up or down the page and drop it in its new location.

Delete

What if you want to delete an embed or an image? The only way I've found to do that is:

1. insert text (any text will do; just a few characters is fine) above and below the embed or image

2. highlight from the text you inserted above to the text you inserted below

3. delete or cut the highlighted portion

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Do you have any other tips or tricks for using the Substack editor?

1. Some creators have lamented the inability to use alternative fonts – Comic Sans, anyone? Substack notes that email clients don't always support custom fonts.

2. If you want to paste a URL from one of these sites as text rather than an embed, you can:

• select bold, italics, or code formatting in the editor’s options;

• then paste the URL;

• and finally remove the bold, italics, or code formatting from the URL.

3. See footnote 1.

4. Selecting a button also allows you to delete the button.

5. Videos in Twitter and Instagram embeds – as well as animated GIFs in Instagram embeds – become images. If you click the video, you won’t play the video within the embed. Instead, you’ll go to the Twitter or Instagram webpage, where you can play the video. An animated GIF on Twitter remains animated when embedded in a Substack post.