Does submitting a .doc or .rtf file preserve formatting?

[ZeroCross]

According to the submission guideline,

If your story uses bolds ot [sic] italics, you will need to submit it as a .doc or .rtf.

However, I've seen comments going in the other direction and my attempts at google-fu have unfortunately have not given me a solid answer either way.

 

[ElectricBlue]

According to the submission guideline,However, I've seen comments going in the other direction and my attempts at google-fu have unfortunately have not given me a solid answer either way.

Submit as .rtf with italics, bold, center shown in html works best and quickest, I've found, as you are presenting Laurel with the cleanest copy. .doc means additional processing, which slows submits down.

 

[RejectReality]

It will only preserve allowed formatting, which includes bold, italics, center, blockquote, and horizontal rule.

You can also make things easier on Laurel by submitting via copy-paste and inserting the HTML tags for that allowed formatting yourself. This provides the bonus of letting you see the results in the preview. ( imperfectly, but at least you have an idea )

A basic primer is when you want an <i>italic</i> word, you insert the tags just like that. Same with <b>bold</b>. They'll show up without the tags, but with the formatting in preview and final presentation.

Just remember to check your closing tag ( the one with the forward slash ) or your formatting will run on to the end of the page.

 

[Emirus]

According to the submission guideline,

However, I've seen comments going in the other direction and my attempts at google-fu have unfortunately have not given me a solid answer either way.

I use Word and submitted my first story that way. It took about a week from submission to publishing. I was advised by EB66 to submit in .rtf because when submitting in Word Laurel has to convert it to .rtf which adds to the time. I submitted my latest story in .rtf and it was up in 48 hours.

It took me about 10 seconds from opening the file in Word to closing the file with the .rtf version so it’s no big deal. Everything remained the same.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Submit as .rtf with italics, bold, center shown in html works best and quickest, I've found, as you are presenting Laurel with the cleanest copy. .doc means additional processing, which slows submits down.

Seconded. One thing to add - if you have multiple paragraphs in italics, probably best to tag each paragraph individually (i.e. </i> at the end of every paragraph and then <i> again at the start of the next one.

Otherwise, your tagging may get b0rked if Lit puts a page break in the middle of your italics.

 

[ZeroCross]

Alright. Good to know. I'll probably just opt for Replace All with some regular expression, to make it easiest on Laurel, then.

 

[NoJo]

I do that trick you linked -- you don't actually need to use regexp in MS Word, you can leave "find what" blank.

Also, quickest is to cut and paste the story into the actual textarea box itself, rather than messing with uploads and file formats.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I do that trick you linked -- you don't actually need to use regexp in MS Word, you can leave "find what" blank.

Also, quickest is to cut and paste the story into the actual textarea box itself, rather than messing with uploads and file formats.

I used to do that with .txt, but the new dashboard won't allow it (from a kindle). .rtf solved all issues. I don't see the final text in the submit box though, so the final scrub has to be in the .rtf file itself.