The double length dash

[EldridgeinOO]

Hey all,

Could someone please tell me how on earth I get Lit to actually put a PROPER double length dash into my stories?

I use Open Office, which simply turns two normal dashes -- into a double length dash without any problems. I copy the story over from Open Office into the submit box, and again, it shows as the double length dash without problem.

Once the story gets posted, all double length dashes have been reverted into --.

I specifically ASKED the editor, with my last submission, to make sure that it stays as a proper double length dash, and that was of course ignored, like basically any correspondence to Lit gets ignored.

Does anyone know how to do them properly? Seeing double dashes in my chapters is so freaking ugly!

Thanks!

Eldridge

 

[Stella_Omega]

Are you using Internet explorer?

Switch to firefox, if so, and you will find your em-dashes correctly rendered-- not to mention your entire browsing experience a little bit safer.

 

[EldridgeinOO]

No, I'm using Firefox already...

*confused*

 

[sr71plt]

That double-length dash is call an em dash.

I cut and paste post into the submission's box from Word, using Internet Explorer, and the em dashes hold just fine.

You might just not worry about it. Double hyphens are easily read as em dashes.

 

[DeeZire]

And here I thought this thread was about BPH, requiring afflicted men to dash to the bathroom at inappropriate times, and then dash back again - hence, the double length dash.

 

[EldridgeinOO]

But after you've gone, why would you have to dash back?


I actually had no clue what the thing was called, but I'll remember em dash from now on.

 

[glynndah]

But after you've gone, why would you have to dash back?


I actually had no clue what the thing was called, but I'll remember em dash from now on.

'Cause you might have missed something... or been in the middle of something!

 

[Darkniciad]

Lit's text processor catches some em dashes, and not others, depending upon the word processing program.

What I've ended up doing is replacing it with the character code before submitting. It always displays as an em dash, no matter what program you use.

—

 

[michchick98]

Hey all,

Could someone please tell me how on earth I get Lit to actually put a PROPER double length dash into my stories?

I use Open Office, which simply turns two normal dashes -- into a double length dash without any problems. I copy the story over from Open Office into the submit box, and again, it shows as the double length dash without problem.

Once the story gets posted, all double length dashes have been reverted into --.

I specifically ASKED the editor, with my last submission, to make sure that it stays as a proper double length dash, and that was of course ignored, like basically any correspondence to Lit gets ignored.

Does anyone know how to do them properly? Seeing double dashes in my chapters is so freaking ugly!

Thanks!

Eldridge

If you're on a regular desktop PC, instead of using the double dash, hold down the ALT key and on the side number pad on your keyboard, hit 0151. That'll make an em dash. ( — )

You could also go to Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Character Map and find it there, that's how I found out the ALT + 0151 thing. If you have a laptop and don't have the side number pad (which, I think, most laptops don't) and use this method, just copy it and paste it where you want in the story, although that can be a pain if you use it more than once.

Open Office has an "Insert" feature, just as MS Word does, and there should be something to insert special characters. I can't confirm that, however, since I don't yet have Open Office downloaded on this computer and my laptop is of no use to me since I can't see the screen, so I can't check it there.

 

[EldridgeinOO]

Lit's text processor catches some em dashes, and not others, depending upon the word processing program.

What I've ended up doing is replacing it with the character code before submitting. It always displays as an em dash, no matter what program you use.

—

Awesome, thanks. Do you just put that right into the text boxt?

So basically something like :

Diana's fetching — and quite revealing — dress fluttered in the wind?

 

[EldridgeinOO]

If you're on a regular desktop PC, instead of using the double dash, hold down the ALT key and on the side number pad on your keyboard, hit 0151. That'll make an em dash. ( — )

You could also go to Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Character Map and find it there, that's how I found out the ALT + 0151 thing. If you have a laptop and don't have the side number pad (which, I think, most laptops don't) and use this method, just copy it and paste it where you want in the story, although that can be a pain if you use it more than once.

Open Office has an "Insert" feature, just as MS Word does, and there should be something to insert special characters. I can't confirm that, however, since I don't yet have Open Office downloaded on this computer and my laptop is of no use to me since I can't see the screen, so I can't check it there.

I'll check that out too, thank you

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I like the copy and paste suggestion better. Let's go for easy!

 

[Darkniciad]

Awesome, thanks. Do you just put that right into the text boxt?

So basically something like :

Diana's fetching — and quite revealing — dress fluttered in the wind?

Yep, that's exactly it. I submit in .txt format, with all the formatting done via the necessary HTML tags inserted into the text. ( Copy/paste in the story text box will work the same way as uploading .txt )

If you submit in .doc format, I'm not sure how the text processor will handle it. It might print the character code as typed instead *laugh*

I think that Lit handles Word's em dash, but chokes on Wordperfect's. All of my older stories written in Word processed fine. Then, a few posted fine from WP, up until they made some changes. After that, the double hyphens started appearing.

 

[DeeZire]

But after you've gone, why would you have to dash back?

I was thinking of the TV commercial where the guy has to leave the baseball game to find the restrooms. Personally, I hate baseball, so if it was me, I'd probably go find a laptop and a wifi signal and fix all my M-dashes instead.