Carriage Returns using Pages

[Boo96]

Morning;
I have broached this subject before and received some great feedback/advice.
I'm still flummoxed, though.
Scrolling through Apple's Help pages, I found that in Finder, I enter \n to see where my carriage returns are. At some points, I am seeing a 'yellow boxed return symbol' versus the usual blue. I would then hit 'backspace' then 'enter' and the yellow symbol is replaced by the blue, but the yellow symbol moved down a line. That's usually not a problem, as it's a line break.
What does this yellow symbol mean?
This whole carriage return thing is frustrating. Obviously, I'm not conversant with the minute in's and outs of word processing.
I appreciate your help and/or advice.
Regards
Tom...

 

[Boo96]

Okay. I 'think' I have, finally, figured it out. Shall I 'assume' that the 'yellow' symbol is where the cursor is? This seems to be the case...hopefully.
As I said, and it's even more obvious now, I'm not that versed with word processing.

 

[LongDraw]

I have a suggestion to solve your confusion. Put your manuscript on Google Drive and open it using the Google Docs app. Then you'll see exactly where line breaks and carriage returns are.

 

[Boo96]

Thanks, LongDraw.
I'll try that right now, as I'm part-way through a chapter.
Thanks again...

 

[LongDraw]

Thanks, LongDraw.
I'll try that right now, as I'm part-way through a chapter.
Thanks again...

Not a problem. Other suggestion I have is once you have a good chunk of your total planned manuscript typed up, get ProWritingAid and use the free trial to check for spelling, grammar and style errors.

 

[Boo96]

I haven't heard of that, so I'll check it out. Thanks. I do use Grammarly, which seems to pick a few mistakes here and there. I just transferred my document to GDocs. It doesn't have the Layout and Invisables like Pages, but I gather I won't need those, as it seems GDocs automatically takes care of that.
Thanks again. When I go into Lit after my story has been approved and uploaded, I'm so bloody embarrassed by all the carriage returns, although the instances have been fewer lately. But still...

 

[LongDraw]

Just remember, new paragraph only goes to next line, no indent. A greater span of time is denoted by double carriage return, or the ...

If you're still concerned about formatting, I can take a look at it on GDrive.

 

[Boo96]

Thanks…
i may take you up on that.
what I have been doing, longwinded as it is, is to cut and paste into Lit, then preview and see where any carriage returns are, fix them on the original, delete the Lit copy, and post the revised as a Word doc. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always work, as when Lit upload, I go in to check and yep, a few have slipped through. I feel for the readers.
My editor does highlight them, but as he doesn’t use Pages, there must be something that happens to the pages document. I may turn to GDocs if that works.
I may send it along to you, nonetheles, for you to check,too. Thanks. I do appreciate your help.
Regards…

 

[ElectricBlue]

Thanks…
i may take you up on that.
what I have been doing, longwinded as it is, is to cut and paste into Lit, then preview and see where any carriage returns are, fix them on the original, delete the Lit copy, and post the revised as a Word doc. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always work, as when Lit upload, I go in to check and yep, a few have slipped through. I feel for the readers.
My editor does highlight them, but as he doesn’t use Pages, there must be something that happens to the pages document. I may turn to GDocs if that works.
I may send it along to you, nonetheles, for you to check,too. Thanks. I do appreciate your help.
Regards…

If you've previewed in the Lit form, why bother with a .doc at all? Why don't you submit what you've previewed? You're adding extra steps, both for you and for Laurel. That makes no sense to me.

 

[Boo96]

Good question.
I use a lot of italics, and they don't show up when I use the doc. format, hence the 'extra' steps I need to do to see how the carriage returns are acting, on any given day.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Good question.
I use a lot of italics, and they don't show up when I use the doc. format, hence the 'extra' steps I need to do to see how the carriage returns are acting, on any given day.

All the more reason to submit straight from that preview box. Italics are so easy to cock up, with html errors you never see.

Why you have lots of italics is another question entirely, but you probably should ask yourself why you use them so much.

 

[Boo96]

The whole ‘italics thing’ happened as I wanted the reader to know the protagonist was thinking back to her past. I also use it when she is thinking something to herself. To me (and what the hell do I know?) it works. I agree, the ‘better’ option would be to get rid of them, but I’ll put up with the frustration and angst of carriage returns I guess. Thanks for your reply and advice though.
Regards…