Italics (Good God, not this again...)

[beachbum1958]

I know this has probably been asked before, but, as it's never come up with me before, I've never actually paid attention, more fool me. Now I need to know how to do it, so any kind soul out there who can tell me how in words of one syllable or less will be féted and offered undying friendship and a lifetime supply of dog-biscuits (don't look at me like that, they're delicious...)

My problem is, I want to include several lines of text in italic, a stanza from a poem, in fact, in a story I want to submit. Normally, I write in Word 2007, then save the document as a .txt file and upload it, then go into the submission box and do any simple tweaking to paragraph spacing, punctuation etc. and I've never yet had occasion to include any special characters or formatting. So far this has worked fine, all quick and easy, and I've never needed to do any more except wait for it to post.

Now, however, I really need the lines of the poem to both post in line order, one under the other, and to be in italic, so if someone could please tell me how to do it effectively I would be most grateful.

(I know, I should know these things by now, mea culpa, but the fact is I'm not that good with word-processing programmes, or technology in general; a can-opener is about my level most days)

Thank you in advance,

Will

 

[sr71plt]

Just carriage return after every line of poetry

Once upon a midnight dreary
as I pondered weak and weary

In the story file, the italics tags are marked with acute angle brackets--<i> to open and </i> to close. (which is different from the forum, which uses square brackets: [ and ])

While I nodded, nearly napping
Suddenly there came a tapping

 

[beachbum1958]

Just carriage return after every line of poetry

Once upon a midnight dreary
as I pondered weak and weary

In the story file, the italics tags are marked with acute angle brackets--<i> to open and </i> to close. (which is different from the forum, which uses square brackets: [ and ])

While I nodded, nearly napping
Suddenly there came a tapping

Thank you Pilot, most appreciated. Just one more thing, please; do I insert the <i>**** </i> for every line or at the start and finish of the stanza? Sorry to be so dense, I just wanted to be absolutely sure so I don't make a balls-up of the whole thing.

Will

 

[ChloeTzang]

Thank you Pilot, most appreciated. Just one more thing, please; do I insert the <i>**** </i> for every line or at the start and finish of the stanza? Sorry to be so dense, I just wanted to be absolutely sure so I don't make a balls-up of the whole thing.

Will

At the start and finish is all you need. Everything in between will be italics.

 

[beachbum1958]

At the start and finish is all you need. Everything in between will be italics.

Many thanks, CT

Will

 

[Zeb_Carter]

There should be a sticky for those html tags you can use in a story.....AHMOD?


<i>text you want to be italics</i>
<b>text you want to be bold</b>
<u>text you want to be underlined</u>

<center>text you want centered on the page</center>

<blockquote>text you want indented</blockquote> - 5 spaces, at each end - you can nest this one, but there will come a time when there is not enough space to print the text and the story will be rejected

&nbsp - Non-breaking space. Of course with lit pages you could get in trouble with the text creeping out of the border.

 

[Nezhul]

Erm, and can't you just upload your worc as a .doc file? That's what I always do and it keeps all the formatting

 

[beachbum1958]

Erm, and can't you just upload your worc as a .doc file? That's what I always do and it keeps all the formatting

I didn't know that, thank you for telling me, I think I'll be doing that in future; someone told me it takes longer to post, but not that it retained the original formatting. That's good to know, thank you for clearing that up for me.

Will

 

[Hypoxia]

Keep in mind that half of LIT readers don't read here with browsers but with the Android app, which ignores all those HTML tags. I'm weaning myself off HTML (and I've been scripting HTML since about 1992). Think of ways to use spacing and capitols to give your desired effects.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Erm, and can't you just upload your worc as a .doc file? That's what I always do and it keeps all the formatting

So you want Laurel to work just a little harder to get your word .doc file to a .txt file and hope she gets that formatting just the way you want it?

Be a stand up guy/girl and do the formatting yourself. There are no automated processes on Lit. Everything is down manually, by Laurel.

So, take the time to put your own html tags in where you want them. It's not that hard people.

 

[beachbum1958]

So you want Laurel to work just a little harder to get your word .doc file to a .txt file and hope she gets that formatting just the way you want it?

Be a stand up guy/girl and do the formatting yourself. There are no automated processes on Lit. Everything is down manually, by Laurel.

So, take the time to put your own html tags in where you want them. It's not that hard people.

Query:

Please be patient with me, this is all virgin territory for me. Here goes:

Should I put the html tags in the Word document before saving it as a .txt file (in other words, will the html tags transfer over in the conversion process?) or should I first save the document as a .txt then manually insert the tags where I need them to be, and before or after uploading it to the text box on the submission screen?

Answers on a postcard to Confused, Narnia

 

[oggbashan]

Query:

Please be patient with me, this is all virgin territory for me. Here goes:

Should I put the html tags in the Word document before saving it as a .txt file (in other words, will the html tags transfer over in the conversion process?) or should I first save the document as a .txt then manually insert the tags where I need them to be, and before or after uploading it to the text box on the submission screen?

Answers on a postcard to Confused, Narnia

It is safer to manually insert the tags on the submission screen and check on the Preview - but as mentioned above, some readers using some devices will NOT see the italics at all. If you can, avoid any html tags or use them very sparingly.

 

[Carnevil9]

Keep in mind that half of LIT readers don't read here with browsers but with the Android app, which ignores all those HTML tags. I'm weaning myself off HTML (and I've been scripting HTML since about 1992). Think of ways to use spacing and capitols to give your desired effects.

I agree with this. Shakespeare didn't use italics. Homer didn't use HTML tags. Euripides didn't use BBCode. They got their point across using the best possible words. I try to do the same.

 

[NicoleZ]

So you want Laurel to work just a little harder to get your word .doc file to a .txt file and hope she gets that formatting just the way you want it?

Be a stand up guy/girl and do the formatting yourself. There are no automated processes on Lit. Everything is down manually, by Laurel.

So, take the time to put your own html tags in where you want them. It's not that hard people.

The upload system is quite antiquated, Zeb, and as a newbie, there are no good instructions available or readily apparent as you try to post your first or first few stories. The "copy paste" version does away with all your doc formatting, the "upload file" version apparently has Laurel doing the HTML for us although it doesn't specifically state this. It's not the newbie's fault, is it!!!

"It's not that hard people."

<b>Really?</b> Try editing in the <i>appropriate</I> coding in a 60-page word.doc, then copy-paste, shift to "preview"! <b>Oops?!?</b> Why does it look that way? <center>Click "make changes" and try and figure out.</center> Hmm, forgot the / in the end code. Back to "preview". Where was I? <i>Page five?</I> Scroll down. Page 2 in the preview, new mistake. Click "make changes", scroll down, make correction, click "preview", click "page 2", recommence check. Page 4, What's all <b><u>this then?!?</b></u> Click make changes", scroll down, hmmm... Was it because I missed putting in the final > after </center?? Uhmm, let's try that and see if that's it. "preview". Now <i>which</i> page was I on??? Next page, next page, no, next page. Ah! Here we are. <blockquote><i><b>Yesss!!!</i></b>>bollocksquote</b> Next page. Oh <i>dear!</i> "make changes", scroll down, down, deeper and down, get down, deeper and down. <u><b>Noo!</b></u> :caning: I've juxtaposed the I and the /...

Getting tired yet?

 

[HandsInTheDark]

Erm, and can't you just upload your worc as a .doc file? That's what I always do and it keeps all the formatting

You can. but don't. For a long story at least, the manual process performed by Lit leads to formatting errors. Do it yourself, by hand. Or if you've got a lot of italics (some of my characters are in college and prone to dramatic delivery), in Word it's possible to come with with a search/replace command that automatically wraps the right tags around italic and bold text - not easy, but possible, and very worth it for long stories with a lot of scattered formatting. There's a thread around somewhere in AH that shows how.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Query:

Please be patient with me, this is all virgin territory for me. Here goes:

Should I put the html tags in the Word document before saving it as a .txt file (in other words, will the html tags transfer over in the conversion process?) or should I first save the document as a .txt then manually insert the tags where I need them to be, and before or after uploading it to the text box on the submission screen?

Answers on a postcard to Confused, Narnia

Personally, I put the html tags in the word document then copy the text and paste it into the submission window. All the tags carry over that way.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

The upload system is quite antiquated, Zeb, and as a newbie, there are no good instructions available or readily apparent as you try to post your first or first few stories. The "copy paste" version does away with all your doc formatting, the "upload file" version apparently has Laurel doing the HTML for us although it doesn't specifically state this. It's not the newbie's fault, is it!!!

"It's not that hard people."

<b>Really?</b> Try editing in the <i>appropriate</I> coding in a 60-page word.doc, then copy-paste, shift to "preview"! <b>Oops?!?</b> Why does it look that way? <center>Click "make changes" and try and figure out.</center> Hmm, forgot the / in the end code. Back to "preview". Where was I? <i>Page five?</I> Scroll down. Page 2 in the preview, new mistake. Click "make changes", scroll down, make correction, click "preview", click "page 2", recommence check. Page 4, What's all <b><u>this then?!?</b></u> Click make changes", scroll down, hmmm... Was it because I missed putting in the final > after </center?? Uhmm, let's try that and see if that's it. "preview". Now <i>which</i> page was I on??? Next page, next page, no, next page. Ah! Here we are. <blockquote><i><b>Yesss!!!</i></b>>bollocksquote</b> Next page. Oh <i>dear!</i> "make changes", scroll down, down, deeper and down, get down, deeper and down. <u><b>Noo!</b></u> :caning: I've juxtaposed the I and the /...

Getting tired yet?

Yeah, my first time I screwed up too. I learned from that mistake and hardly ever make it anymore. I don't use html tags anymore or rarely. I find that just plain text is a lot easier to read than a bunch of different styles of that text.

Also in your example, it will really looked fucked up because you left out a lot of carriage returns.

But, still, Laurel is the only one converting, promoting stories on the site.

 

[Haulover]

CAVEAT:

A vast number (I've heard it's actually the majority?) of LIT readers use the APP to read their stories.

And the app does not show italics.

 

[sr71plt]

CAVEAT:

A vast number (I've heard it's actually the majority?) of LIT readers use the APP to read their stories.

And the app does not show italics.

What's your source for that claim?

 

[Bramblethorn]

<b>Really?</b> Try editing in the <i>appropriate</I> coding in a 60-page word.doc, then copy-paste, shift to "preview"! <b>Oops?!?</b> Why does it look that way? <center>Click "make changes" and try and figure out.</center> Hmm, forgot the / in the end code. Back to "preview". Where was I? <i>Page five?</I> Scroll down. Page 2 in the preview, new mistake. Click "make changes", scroll down, make correction, click "preview", click "page 2", recommence check. Page 4, What's all <b><u>this then?!?</b></u> Click make changes", scroll down, hmmm... Was it because I missed putting in the final > after </center?? Uhmm, let's try that and see if that's it. "preview". Now <i>which</i> page was I on??? Next page, next page, no, next page. Ah! Here we are. <blockquote><i><b>Yesss!!!</i></b>>bollocksquote</b> Next page. Oh <i>dear!</i> "make changes", scroll down, down, deeper and down, get down, deeper and down. <u><b>Noo!</b></u> :caning: I've juxtaposed the I and the /...

Getting tired yet?

Plugging this very useful tip again.

I'm used to writing HTML as I go for other purposes, but it doesn't work for me here because I also publish some of mine to another site which expects Word input. It's easier to write it in Word, then HTML-ise it using the method above for Literotica.

 

[NicoleZ]

Plugging this very useful tip again.

I'm used to writing HTML as I go for other purposes, but it doesn't work for me here because I also publish some of mine to another site which expects Word input. It's easier to write it in Word, then HTML-ise it using the method above for Literotica.

Thank you!

I don't think I'm the only one to say that it would be very helpful to new members if there was an "article" linked to from the submission page(-s) where all of this is explained in a manner us newbies will understand.