Adjusting Paragraph Format for Literotica ???

[HeyAll]

Does anyone know how to change the spacing a text? Sometimes when things get copy/pasted around, the formatting gets messed up.

For instance, if a story looks like this on a Doc:

Paragraph
(space)
Paragraph
(space)
Paragraph


Then when it's copy/paste on Lit, it ends up looking like this:

Paragraph
Paragraph
Paragraph


The only thing I know how to do is highlight the entire text on my Doc, then click 1.15 for line spacing (which is my default) and then put "prevent single line."

Any knowledge?

 

[KeithD]

I think that giving it one-and-a-half paragraph spacing will be ignored by the Lit. transfer program. Can't imagine if you are putting an extra line space between paragraphs it isn't coming out that way since that's the Lit. style.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

Keith is correct that you need to be sure you're physically adding the blank line in Word that you want to show up here. If you allow Word to add 10, 12, or whatever points after a paragraph as the blank line (as is often done in Word-only documents), my experience is that the Lit editor strips those out as if there's nothing there.

 

[WinsomeWeb]

I don't know what program you're using, but Word and Google Docs both come with default styles which add spaces at the end (and sometime beginnings) of paragraphs, which can make it seem like there's an extra break between your paragraphs when really it's just a display option in the software. Those formatting choices aren't preserved when copy and pasting text into basic text boxes.

If you're using Word you can Clear All Formatting to show you what everything 'actually' looks like, and if you've already written everything and don't want to go through adding paragraph breaks between each paragraph, you can go into the Replace function and set the text to be replaced to ^p and the text to replace it to ^p^p

This will replace all paragraph breaks with two paragraphs breaks, and your story will then be formatted properly for when you copy and paste it, the same way you formatted the first post in this thread.

 

[KeithD]

Just about everything I write I set the "paragraph" style in Word to 0 on all spacing, (none), and single, and I manually hit the return bar twice between paragraphs. This meets the Literotica submission standards and I just adjust it from there for any other style need I have for anything else. Hitting the space bar twice just becomes an automatic habit.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Does anyone know how to change the spacing a text? Sometimes when things get copy/pasted around, the formatting gets messed up.

Two Returns at the end of each paragraph.

Sounds like your Word paragraph default is just adding spaces before and after paragraphs, which is not the same as two Returns.

 

[astushkin]

Is this a recent problem? I recently had an edited version of a story come out. Some of my edits included splitting some longer paragraphs. But as it shows on the site, these newly split paragraphs are missing a blank line between them. They're smushed together. Makes it harder to read. This only affected italicized sections of the story.

I split the paragraphs by hitting enter ONCE on Word (it's set at 8 pts after a paragraph). This sounds wrong according to what you're saying, but I made the edits the exact same way that I separated the paragraphs in the original version...the way that has always worked before when I've submitted stories. So I'm at a loss what to do...

Wish I'd never submitted the edited chapter; it's so crazy looking...

 

[ElectricBlue]

Is this a recent problem? I recently had an edited version of a story come out. Some of my edits included splitting some longer paragraphs. But as it shows on the site, these newly split paragraphs are missing a blank line between them. They're smushed together. Makes it harder to read. This only affected italicized sections of the story.

I split the paragraphs by hitting enter ONCE on Word (it's set at 8 pts after a paragraph). This sounds wrong according to what you're saying, but I made the edits the exact same way that I separated the paragraphs in the original version...the way that has always worked before when I've submitted stories. So I'm at a loss what to do...

Wish I'd never submitted the edited chapter; it's so crazy looking...

Sounds like your italics html might have inadvertently got in the way of the Returns. I've been caught out by that, and it's one reason I minimise use of italics and bold. When you accidentally bugger up the html it can go spectacularly wrong, especially if you manage to hit a Lit page break at the same time.

I always save my final submission as a .rft file (which strips out hidden formatting), then hit the pilcrow formatting symbol to check the Line Returns. It's easy and works. There are too many hidden format commands in docx files - and the Lit submission page finds them all and handles them in ways I don't understand - so I do what works - save as .rft and two Returns at the end of each paragraph.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Is this a recent problem? I recently had an edited version of a story come out. Some of my edits included splitting some longer paragraphs. But as it shows on the site, these newly split paragraphs are missing a blank line between them. They're smushed together. Makes it harder to read. This only affected italicized sections of the story.

I split the paragraphs by hitting enter ONCE on Word (it's set at 8 pts after a paragraph). This sounds wrong according to what you're saying, but I made the edits the exact same way that I separated the paragraphs in the original version...the way that has always worked before when I've submitted stories. So I'm at a loss what to do...

Wish I'd never submitted the edited chapter; it's so crazy looking...

Your word or doc paragraph setting should look like this...

Then you just hit return twice between paragraphs.

 

[SimonDoom]

Two Returns at the end of each paragraph.

Where does it say in the submission guidelines to do this? I can't find it.

When I look closely at a Literotica story on my computer screen, it does not appear to have two blank lines between paragraphs, it appears to have one. There clearly is not room to have two additional lines of text, spaced the same way as in the paragraphs, between the paragraphs. So it doesn't look like two returns to me.

I have my Word settings at 0 spacings before and after, and I hit one return. I've never had a story rejected because of doing this. Is my way of doing this creating extra work for them to reformat the story?

 

[KeithD]

Where does it say in the submission guidelines to do this? I can't find it.

When I look closely at a Literotica story on my computer screen, it does not appear to have two blank lines between paragraphs, it appears to have one. There clearly is not room to have two additional lines of text, spaced the same way as in the paragraphs, between the paragraphs. So it doesn't look like two returns to me.

I have my Word settings at 0 spacings before and after, and I hit one return. I've never had a story rejected because of doing this. Is my way of doing this creating extra work for them to reformat the story?

Hitting two returns only gives you one extra line space between paragraphs. The first return, hit at the end of a paragraph, puts you on the next line. It's the second return that leaves the one extra line space before the start of the next paragraph.

 

[SimonDoom]

Hitting two returns only gives you one extra line space between paragraphs. The first return, hit at the end of a paragraph, puts you on the next line. It's the second return that leaves the one extra line space before the start of the next paragraph.

I read "two returns" as an extra one beyond what's needed to create the extra space. Foolish me. I get it.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Where does it say in the submission guidelines to do this? I can't find it.

No idea. It's always worked for me, so I do what works.

If I remember rightly, I cut and paste my very first story, typed in Word with a single paragraph Return, into the Lit submission box, and it turned into a bloody great long wall of text, so I tediously added the paragraph breaks back in. The next one, I thought, "Fuck that, let's see what happens if I do two Returns in the draft." That worked just fine, so my advice has always been, "Use two Returns".

I used .txt files for several years until something changed in the new CP, but now I usually save my last 'submit ready' draft as .rtf as a final way of purging hidden formatting. But I always type two para returns, it's as automatic as breathing.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I read "two returns" as an extra one beyond what's needed to create the extra space. Foolish me. I get it.

Crossed messages.

That would be three returns, the way I count .

 

[SimonDoom]

That would be three returns, the way I count .

You mean . . . the right way?

Go ahead. Be a stickler about it.

 

[RejectReality]

No idea. It's always worked for me, so I do what works.

If I remember rightly, I cut and paste my very first story, typed in Word with a single paragraph Return, into the Lit submission box, and it turned into a bloody great long wall of text, so I tediously added the paragraph breaks back in. The next one, I thought, "Fuck that, let's see what happens if I do two Returns in the draft." That worked just fine, so my advice has always been, "Use two Returns".

I used .txt files for several years until something changed in the new CP, but now I usually save my last 'submit ready' draft as .rtf as a final way of purging hidden formatting. But I always type two para returns, it's as automatic as breathing.

I used to upload .txt as well, but it quit working for me, so I went to cut-n-paste from a .txt document.

All four sites I post on ( including my own ) require different submission formatting, so I've got folders for all the sites + each pen name to keep final drafts in case I need to do edits.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I used to upload .txt as well, but it quit working for me, so I went to cut-n-paste from a .txt document.

All four sites I post on ( including my own ) require different submission formatting, so I've got folders for all the sites + each pen name to keep final drafts in case I need to do edits.

Yep, .txt worked okay for about the first six months or so with the new Control Panel, and then for some unknown reason, glitched. Being curious, I tried loading the .txt from an earlier submitted story, and it too glitched, so I knew it wasn't anything I'd done. I then saved the draft as .rtf, and that's been fine ever since.

Really long stories I might load as a docx, but of course I don't get a preview. They've been fine too - but I have no idea if they require an extra processing stage from Laurel.