'Carriage Returns'...

[Boo96]

I use Pages on a Mac, and I'm having consistently trying times with 'carriage returns'. When I believe I have it sorted, I upload my story. Then yeah, when I go and view it, I end up with some sentences 'moving down' and the spacing all off. If this is distracting for me, Gods knows how it is for the poor reader.
Under 'View', I have the Layout and Invisibles showing, especially before I send it to my editor. ( he doesn't use Pages so can offer little help). I am constantly checking for these returns, and adjust accordingly, but they 'come back'.
Any ideas?
You can see more-than-a-few under the stories, Take Me, Tom by Boo96.
I appreciate any and all help.
Regards
Tom...

 

[NotWise]

I use Pages on a Mac, and I'm having consistently trying times with 'carriage returns'. When I believe I have it sorted, I upload my story. Then yeah, when I go and view it, I end up with some sentences 'moving down' and the spacing all off. If this is distracting for me, Gods knows how it is for the poor reader.
Under 'View', I have the Layout and Invisibles showing, especially before I send it to my editor. ( he doesn't use Pages so can offer little help). I am constantly checking for these returns, and adjust accordingly, but they 'come back'.
Any ideas?
You can see more-than-a-few under the stories, Take Me, Tom by Boo96.
I appreciate any and all help.
Regards
Tom...

I'm not familiar with Pages, so it's hard for me to see the problem.

For Lit, use "carriage returns" only to end a paragraph, and there you need to use a pair of them--one to end the paragraph and one to provide the blank line between paragraphs. The text within a paragraph should be continuous. Lit's story page takes care of formatting the paragraph for the reader.

 

[SimonDoom]

I don't understand what you are saying. I don't know what you mean by "moving down."

I would suggest converting documents you create to a universal format like .rtf and viewing them before you submit them. Eliminate all paragraph spacing functions and manually enter spacing at the end of a paragraph. I draft on Word, and I have to make a point of getting rid of the default paragraph spacing functions. I format everything as single spaced with no indents or paragraph formatting. When I come to the end of a paragraph I hit "enter" an extra time and begin the next paragraph.

By the way, make it easier for people to respond to you by linking to your story submission page in your signature.

 

[MrPixel]

I use Pages, and MSWord 2007. I upload after converting to .doc (and not .docx). That's under "File -> Export To -> Word..." and you have to click on "Advanced Options" to export into .doc.

Are you trying to force your own line breaks? That's not going to work. <return> marks the end of a paragraph. <shift><return> can be used to force line breaks, but that's inadvisable because what you see on your screen with your fonts is not going to be how it displays on LitE. Also, LitE eliminates extra returns. Their spacing is their spacing.

You don't specify how you are uploading your docs. As .pages files (is that even accepted)? .rtf? .doc?

Anyway... bottom line is don't try to format pages in your word processing program. Limit it to simple things like bold, italic and underscore, and left/center/right/justified (justified will become left) with a single return between paragraphs. LitE is all HTML all the time, and unless you know you have a direct way to convert to HTML from your word processing program - still inadvisable - just KISS (Keep It Simple... uh... you know).

 

[MillieDynamite]

I use Pages, and MSWord 2007. I upload after converting to .doc (and not .docx). That's under "File -> Export To -> Word..." and you have to click on "Advanced Options" to export into .doc.

Are you trying to force your own line breaks? That's not going to work. <return> marks the end of a paragraph. <shift><return> can be used to force line breaks, but that's inadvisable because what you see on your screen with your fonts is not going to be how it displays on LitE. Also, LitE eliminates extra returns. Their spacing is their spacing.

You don't specify how you are uploading your docs. As .pages files (is that even accepted)? .rtf? .doc?

Anyway... bottom line is don't try to format pages in your word processing program. Limit it to simple things like bold, italic and underscore, and left/center/right/justified (justified will become left). LitE is all HTML all the time, and unless you know you have a direct way to convert to HTML from your word processing program - still inadvisable - just KISS (Keep It Simple... uh... you know).

What, they/them/her/him, said!

 

[Boo96]

Thanks to all for your insight into this.
I convert to Word for uploading.
I don’t believe I’m ‘forcing’ anything. I just type then, when I want a new paragraph, hit ‘enter’ twice.
I shall check out the .rtf, MrPixel. Thanks…
And yeah, Simon, a link would have been handy. Oops…
And Millie? I thought I was keeping it simple! Lol
Thanks to you all, though.
I do appreciate your help.
Regards…

 

[Lifestyle66]

I use Pages on a Mac, and I'm having consistently trying times with 'carriage returns'. When I believe I have it sorted, I upload my story. Then yeah, when I go and view it, I end up with some sentences 'moving down' and the spacing all off. If this is distracting for me, Gods knows how it is for the poor reader.
Under 'View', I have the Layout and Invisibles showing, especially before I send it to my editor. ( he doesn't use Pages so can offer little help). I am constantly checking for these returns, and adjust accordingly, but they 'come back'.
Any ideas?
You can see more-than-a-few under the stories, Take Me, Tom by Boo96.
I appreciate any and all help.
Regards
Tom...

I had similar problems with the first stories I posted when uploading them as Word docs. You can do as some here suggest with using a universal format such as .rtf or .txt.

But I found the best solution was to highlight my whole story to copy and paste it into the "New Story" text box. After saving, when you then click on "Preview & Publish", you will see EXACTLY how it will look, and you can go back to correct the line spacing carriage returns and recopy & paste until it looks right.

 

[Boo96]

See, keep it simple, eh Lifestyle?
Wonderful idea.
Thanks…
Regards…

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I write for more than just Literotica, so I use the same Microsoft Word 2020 for everything. I leave my line spacing set to "single" and while the paragraph spacing looks fine in the application, it loses the spacing when copied and pasted into the submission box here.

For shorter stories with five or fewer Lit pages, it's not that big a deal to go back and add the carriage returns myself. For longer stories, I just save the file as a "doc" version and upload it. I let Laurel fix the spacing on her end. It may take a little longer for the story to post, but it's easier for me, and I can move on to my next project.

 

[Boo96]

Thanks, Bobby. I had uploaded the latest a few days ago, so went in, deleted it, cut/pasted the version ( instead of uploading) then went in and checked, and adjusted a few 'Carriage returns'.
Whew...
It seems to have worked, but I'll find out then Lit finally publishes it.
I've decided, per Millie, to keep it simple.
Thanks again to everyone!
Can't tell how much I appreciate all your help...
Regards...

 

[oggbashan]

I upload my stories from Word by copy/paste and only have a very few problems with spacing.

 

[Boo96]

Ta, Ogg. I’ll see how the copy/paste works out, then move onto and check out a few other suggestions. Thanks though. I appreciate your comments and help.
Regards…

 

[MillieDynamite]

I double space between paragraphs, save them in RTF, and upload the files. So far, I haven't had any issues.

 

[Boo96]

Thanks, Millie…
I’ll check that out,too…
Ta…

 

[MillieDynamite]

Okey Dokey

 

[ElectricBlue]

But I found the best solution was to highlight my whole story to copy and paste it into the "New Story" text box. After saving, when you then click on "Preview & Publish", you will see EXACTLY how it will look, and you can go back to correct the line spacing carriage returns and recopy & paste until it looks right.

Yep, this is foolproof, and what the Preview Form is for.

I used .txt files for years, until one day something happened that I could never figure out, which cocked up what little formatting I used. It might have coincided with a site upgrade, but whatever it was, .txt didn't work any longer. I shifted to .rtf for a while which worked fine, but then got into the habit of Copy Paste into the submission Form, which was ideal, because I could immediately see if any formatting worked.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I use Pages on a Mac, and I'm having consistently trying times with 'carriage returns'. When I believe I have it sorted, I upload my story. Then yeah, when I go and view it, I end up with some sentences 'moving down' and the spacing all off. If this is distracting for me, Gods knows how it is for the poor reader.
Under 'View', I have the Layout and Invisibles showing, especially before I send it to my editor. ( he doesn't use Pages so can offer little help). I am constantly checking for these returns, and adjust accordingly, but they 'come back'.
Any ideas?
You can see more-than-a-few under the stories, Take Me, Tom by Boo96.

Story link: https://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=1070373&page=submissions

Example of how your stories look to me:



You do have a lot of very short paragraphs, but as far as I can tell that's a stylistic choice rather than a technical issue? The spacing between paragraphs looks fine, that's how it's meant to appear here.

I write for more than just Literotica, so I use the same Microsoft Word 2020 for everything. I leave my line spacing set to "single" and while the paragraph spacing looks fine in the application, it loses the spacing when copied and pasted into the submission box here.

For shorter stories with five or fewer Lit pages, it's not that big a deal to go back and add the carriage returns myself. For longer stories, I just save the file as a "doc" version and upload it.

Your other option would be to use search and replace to convert every paragraph break into two.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Story link: https://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=1070373&page=submissions

Example of how your stories look to me:

View attachment 2171120

You do have a lot of very short paragraphs, but as far as I can tell that's a stylistic choice rather than a technical issue? The spacing between paragraphs looks fine, that's how it's meant to appear here.



Your other option would be to use search and replace to convert every paragraph break into two.

That's what I do with shorter stories targeted just to Literotica.

 

[Boo96]

In that instance, yes, I was going for shorter paragraphs, but if you look at Chapters 99-102, specifically chapter 100, 4th paragraph beginning, "I was home..."
Do you see how it 'splits' the sentence and thought? God knows why this happens, but I'm hoping the cut/paste on the newest storyline sorts out my 'problem'. I'm going to look into other ways to upload.
Thanks again for your help.
Regards...

 

[Bramblethorn]

In that instance, yes, I was going for shorter paragraphs, but if you look at Chapters 99-102, specifically chapter 100, 4th paragraph beginning, "I was home..."
Do you see how it 'splits' the sentence and thought? God knows why this happens, but I'm hoping the cut/paste on the newest storyline sorts out my 'problem'. I'm going to look into other ways to upload.
Thanks again for your help.
Regards...

Ah, I see it. Looks like a stray carriage return in the middle of the paragraph, and another further down with "another domestic evening".

Usually when I've seen that kind of thing, it happened because somebody was working in an editor that doesn't automatically line-wrap. So they're hitting return every 80-100 characters to stop the lines just going on forever. Then they paste it into something like Word, which does automatically line-wrap, and they remove those manual line breaks... but they miss some.

If you've checked through with invisibles showing, and there wasn't a carriage return there, then I don't know what's going on. You might want to check "before editor" and "after editor" versions just in case that's where it's sneaking in.

 

[Boo96]

Thanks, Bramble. Again, I'm hoping the cut/paste method, then manually going in and rechecking and adjusting, will put paid to that.
Thanks for the head up, though.
As long as I'm here, I have another question: I have uploaded Chapters 103-105, and had a message saying they were on there, but I don't see them.
They do not show up in my list of stories. Any ideas? I have written to Lit and asked about this, but no reply yet. Do I have too many stories? If so, what can I do?
Thanks, and regards....

 

[ElectricBlue]

Thanks, Bramble. Again, I'm hoping the cut/paste method, then manually going in and rechecking and adjusting, will put paid to that.

Thanks for the head up, though.

As long as I'm here, I have another question: I have uploaded Chapters 103-105, and had a message saying they were on there, but I don't see them.

They do not show up in my list of stories. Any ideas? I have written to Lit and asked about this, but no reply yet. Do I have too many stories? If so, what can I do?

Thanks, and regards....

They're there, but you've lost the correct order sequence.

The chapter sort software is alpha-numeric, so Chaps 103-105 now show up after Chaps 10-12.

Chaps 106-10whatever will follow on from 103-105, but will now stay up the top of your story list, not the bottom.

You'll have the same problem if you get up to Chaps 130-13x - that will follow Chaps 13-14. And so on.

Time for a new story, I'd say. There's no easy fix - you'd have to submit title changes for every chapter cluster, changing them to a 001 - 010 numbering sequence.

 

[Boo96]

Damn, Electric. I didn't see that! Thanks...
And yeah, a new storyline has been uploaded. Whew, eh?
I've promised it will not go on...and on like that one did but who knows!
I'll 'consider' renumbering, but as it's only the last chapters, hopefully readers will pick up on that.
As always, thanks to everyone for your invaluable guidance.
You're making my life easier!
Regards...

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I know nothing about Pages... but, most word processing programs handle paragraphs the same. First, make sure you paragraph definition doesn't have leading or trailing heights. Make all of them 0(zero). Also don't have line spacing at anything other than 1(one).

This is from Word...

 

[Boo96]

Thanks, Zeb. Yet another good idea for my problems! I'm sure that Pages should have something like that, too.
Appreciate the heads up...
Regards...