Best Format for Submissions

[bridgeburner]

What is the format least likely to cause problems when submitting stories to Literotica?

I get Word files and RTF files and Works files etc. in my capacity as a volunteer editor and I'd really like to be able to recommend the best format.

Would that be Plain Text a la Notepad?


Thx,
B

 

[sophia jane]

I use word, but I copy and paste it when submitting, instead of attaching. I haven't had any problems that way.

 

[rgraham666]

I use Appleworks, save the file as a PC word document, and attach it.

This works for me because I often use bolding etc. for emphasis.

Haven't had any problems with it yet.

 

[lucky-E-leven]

I don't know that there are many advantages to one or the other format. I do know that by copy/pasting the story into the submission page that it will post faster. You will, however, lose formatting done by your computer. So, unless you know the proper formatting code, most people I've spoken with have had few problems with attaching word.doc files and their formatting is maintained just fine.

Good luck.

~lucky

 

[yui]

If cutting and pasting from Word, remember to turn off the "smart quotes" and such.

 

[R. Richard]

What is the format least likely to cause problems when submitting stories to Literotica?

I use both Word and WordPerfect to support my business customers. I have found that WordPerfect does not work well with Literotica submissions. The WordPerfect cut and paste seems to split up lines of text, while Word does not. I always use Word for my Literotica submissions.

 

[bridgeburner]

Thanks everybody!


-B

 

[brightlyiburn]

I'm for text files. Small, compact, don't take any time to load, and they go up pretty quick.

 

[Alex De Kok]

Might I just suggest my 'How-To'? Originally written for the Bold and Italic in its title, it covers the elements of submission. You'll find it here.

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

I believe kneeling is traditional.

What?

Oh!

In that case, go back to Alex's link to his How-To.

 

[Weird Harold]

I get Word files and RTF files and Works files etc. in my capacity as a volunteer editor and I'd really like to be able to recommend the best format.

Would that be Plain Text a la Notepad?

ADK's How to is very good for understanding what Lit needs for minumum problems.

I find MS Word to be the most useful for preparing a document for submission, but it does require customizing the PlainText Style to make it a true Plain Text.

The format Lit expects is called a "Flat Text File." It's plain ASCII Text with no line breaks and double paragraph breaks. (What MS Word produces with "Save As/Plain Text" except for the paragraph breaks and manual line breaks -- you need to use the "show hidden characters" function to find and remove them.)

Lit can also accept some HTML coding for -- the bold, italics, and accented characters your story needs -- but will normally strip any font or other HTML tags from your text.

For Editing, MS Word or Wordperfect are the only formats that allow "foolproof" editor to client communication -- and WordPerfect is very bad about embedding formatting codes and special characters in C&P or text conversion operations.

A properly formatted text file will show up in Notepad or WordPad with each paragraph as a single line double-spaced line if you turn word-wrap off. (Edit/Wordwrap in notepad and View/options/wordwrap (no wrap) in Wordpad.)

 

[cantdog]

What is the format least likely to cause problems when submitting stories to Literotica?

I get Word files and RTF files and Works files etc. in my capacity as a volunteer editor and I'd really like to be able to recommend the best format.

Would that be Plain Text a la Notepad?


Thx,
B

Text has been more foolproof for me, but I am forced into using RTF when I have higher-order characters in the body of the work. C's with a cedilla, accented vowels, that sort of thing. I do paste in, not attach. The site says the attached, formatted files entail an extra step. I also include Alex de Kok's little caret codes for italics.

 

[bridgeburner]

Harold,

I usually just write [NOTE #] in the story where I want to make a comment and then list my notes in a separate file. I've used the editorial note function in Word before and, while handy, it's sometimes confusing for authors to remember to remove.

I'm curious about something you mentioned with NotePad. Even though it's a "plain text" file, it does not store or restore as ASCII, correct? So it's better to use Word and then save as plain text rather than to use Notepad with wordwrap turned off?

Sorry, I can't believe I don't know this stuff, but...well, at least I'm not afraid to ask!


-B

 

[Weird Harold]

I usually just write [NOTE #] in the story where I want to make a comment and then list my notes in a separate file. I've used the editorial note function in Word before and, while handy, it's sometimes confusing for authors to remember to remove.

The thing about your method vs the reviewing tools (comments and tracked changes) in MS Word is that if you choose "save as/Text file" your note markers are saved and Word's are not.

Aside frrom that, withthe reviewing tools toolbar displayed, there is an immediate indicator whether there are tracked changes or comments in the file (the find next/previous buttons grey out if there is none to find) that isn't there for your manual markers.

I see about one story a week around the 'Net that has unremoved editorial comments or unremoved editoral markers left in place. I do NOT see Word's characteristic comment markers anywhere on the 'Net.

Teaching a client witha compatible version of MS Word to use the reviewing tools to accept/reject changes and view/delete comments is a relatively simple proposition as compared to teaching them to use the Find function to find and remove inline comments or editorial footnote markers.

I'm curious about something you mentioned with NotePad. Even though it's a "plain text" file, it does not store or restore as ASCII, correct? So it's better to use Word and then save as plain text rather than to use Notepad with wordwrap turned off?

Notepad is a pure ASCII text editor and saves/opens files ONLY as flat text files without line breaks. It can only open files up to 64KB and only edit file about half that size without problems.

WordPad is a replacement for Notepad that can handle larger files, but it's native format is Word 6.0/Windows 95 DOC format. It can read and edit RTF or pure ASCII flat text files and save ASCII Text files with Line Breaks inserted to match the adjustable margins.

The problem with both Notepad and Wordpad is that they cannot display "invisible characters" like Tab characters, manual line breaks and paragraph breaks.

Turning off wordwrap in either program will show where inadvertant paragraph breaks are by showing which paragraphs don't unwrap to a single line of text, but finding other hidden characters requires watching the cursor as you arrow-key through the text to see where it moves too much or too little through the white spaces.

Wordpad is also problematical in that it can read DOC files created by MSWord and properly display Smart Quotes and other special charcaters and doesn't save them to ASCII Text format properly as Word itself does (in most cases.)

IMHO, the best method for error free conversion to Lit's format is to configure a special "plain text" template (DOT file) with smart quotes and autocorrect while typing turned off and with paragraph formatting set for no space between paragraphs and no indents.

Write and edit the story based on that Template/Style and make free use of Italics, Bold and the reviewing tools to compose and perfect the story.

Before submitting, turn on the "show hidden characters" and remove all extraneous spaces (HTML will only display one space no matter how many you type) and make sure that you have two paragraph breaks between paragraphs and no manual line breaks or extraneous paragraph breaks in your text.

Use the "find format" ability to find and convert all Italics and Bold to HTML tags, and save as copy with "Save AS Plain Text" for a final check in Notepad or WordPad for bad translation of "special characters."

Once the text version is correct, submit with a cut and paste operation from Word into the Submission form or by uploading the text version so that the Italics and Bold HTML tags can be checked in the Preview function.

As an editor, my first step is always to remove the paragraph formating and double up the paragraph breaks if required. Then I turn on the change tracking and begin editing. (I've given up on editing anything that is not in MS Word 97 format or a compatible format that will properly utilize the reviewing tools -- not that I do very much editing anymore; I've been burned out on editing for about three years now.)

 

[SlickTony]

Alex's How-to article is right on the money. Ever since I started submitting stories in this manner I have had no trouble with the formatting.

 

[bridgeburner]

Thanks, Harold!

 

[cantdog]

I do not own a copy of Word. Three of my five editors have used some kind of proprietary proofreader's tool such as the Word function you describe. One of them is up for "Influential Editor of the Year," too. The returned file from them was absolutely useless. One returned in Word format, despite a lengthy discussion of format constraints, and the other two sent a truncated and uninterpretable file.

I have stopped using editors at all. The last one I did use, Ay Eee or some name like that, was very good on generalities, teaching me some things, as if I were in the SDC board, under review. But he did not edit my copy. I liked what he said. I found him competent and a great critic. But I had to do the proofread myself. I am not surrounded, here, with people who will carefully proofread my screeds.

So the editor program here is not helping me. When I edited, myself, for others, I did interlinear notes, inserting a blank line as required, into which I typed my changes and discussions. Interlinear notes can be exported as text, which any program can read. Only once, when someone had set Word to stripping hard returns when converting from ANSI/ASCII text, did it not work, and when it didn't we tried a different way which did.

I could have asked for help from my three no-output editors, too, but every correspondence with them took at least three weeks of time from query to response, and I had already lost a month.

 

[Weird Harold]

I do not own a copy of Word. Three of my five editors have used some kind of proprietary proofreader's tool such as the Word function you describe. One of them is up for "Influential Editor of the Year," too. The returned file from them was absolutely useless. One returned in Word format, despite a lengthy discussion of format constraints, and the other two sent a truncated and uninterpretable file.

That's precisely the kind of problems that drove me to decline to edit anything not in a Word 97 compatible format.

What word processor do you use? If it has a compare files function, you can exchange plain text files with your editor and let the compare function highlight the changes.

Unfortunately, the trend in computer literacy is to minimize the inner workings in favor of idiot-proof WSIWYG word processing optimized for print output. Those formats don't often convert to HTML easily unless the word processor has the capability to do a good translation internally -- a SaveAs HTML option.

HTML is only a pure ASCII text file with embedded formatting commands -- definitely NOT WYSIWYG.

 

[3dipper]

help on usable formats

courier new1black

I have just completed a story, of around 2400 words; which is my first attempt. I would like to submit is for consideration but I have concerns.

I do not have word on my computer, but have installed Open Office. Iquite like Microsoft Word, and I do like it very much.

Will documents submitted in this format be acceptable nd usable at your end?

Do I submit the story as an attachment to an e-mail to this forum? If not, how do I submit my story?

Thank you in advance for your help.

3dipper

 

[Alex De Kok]

courier new1black

I have just completed a story, of around 2400 words; which is my first attempt. I would like to submit is for consideration but I have concerns.

I do not have word on my computer, but have installed Open Office. Iquite like Microsoft Word, and I do like it very much.

Will documents submitted in this format be acceptable nd usable at your end?

Do I submit the story as an attachment to an e-mail to this forum? If not, how do I submit my story?

Thank you in advance for your help.

3dipper

Submissions are made via your member page. When you first enter open Literotica in your browser, one of the menu options on the first page is 'Stories & Pics', which is in the 'Site Index'. Click on that.

The page that opens has a 'Login' option near the top. Click on that. This will open the Literotica login screen where you enter your member ID and password. Entering these will open a new screen which is your member page, or if you have cookies enabled and the site remembers you you'll go straight to the member page.

In the menu at the left hand side is an option 'Submissions' - click on that. The screen which opens has options for 'Submit a story', 'Submit a poem' and 'View submissions' - which one you click on depends on what you're planning to do. Assuming it's a story, click on 'Submit a story'.

When the story submission page opens, you need to read my 'How-To' on 'Bold or Italic'. Ignore the fact that it's about bold and italic, as it also contains step by step instructions on submissions. You'll find it here

Open Office is fine, just don't submit in .sxw format! Use plain .txt and copy and paste into the submissions panel on the member page.

Any questions, PM me.

Alex