What am I doing wrong

[Gulliver]

What the heck is going wrong here? The last 2 stories I have submitted have been rejected, because all the quotation marks are question marks when they get here. I am using MSWord and copy and paste submissions. They look fine in the submission box, but when it gets here all the apostrophes and quotation marks have turned to question marks. Any ideas?

 

[Pookie]

I always save my stories as text files. Try that and see what the quotation marks look like in the saved text file you create. It should be quotation marks. If not, I would change the font you are using in MS Word.

I go with a basic setup for my MS Word documents. It works well with all the places I have posted to, including newsgroups. Here is what I do:

I go to File | Page Setup, and change the left margin to 1" and the right margin to .98". Then, select all the text, and change it to Courier New. Then save the file as text, MS-DOS, and check both checkboxes (Insert Line Breaks and Substitute Characters).

Chaging the page setup margins to those margins gives you exactly 65 characters when it's in Courier New font (you don't want more than 75, but I've found that 65 is a good median).

Hope this helps.

Pookie

 

[MathGirl]

Tecks Phials

I always write with 'WordPad' in .rtf format. I change it to DOS.txt before submitting. Works fine.

I can't understand how your quotation marks get changed to question marks, though. That's very weird.

MG

 

[SlaveMasterUK]

From a techie point of view, it sounds like you're writing with an unusual (read non-standard) type font, something knocked up on-line. It could also be down to your keyboard settings - if it's not a US standard format you may have trouble, although mine is set to UK format and is OK.

I suppose it could even go as far as the operating system locality. Locale specific versions of Windows 9x (and poss Me, 2000, XP) such as Chinese and some European versions may interpret keyboard commands differently and therefore may not be directly compatible with US versions.

It sounds to me like you have a non-standard ASCII table, but I'm not even going to begin to explain that.

Try replying in this topic with some 'quotations' and "speechmarks" to see what happens.

ax

 

[Guest]

I write my stories in Microsoft Works Word Processor - Times New Roman 14, single space, with double spacing between paragraphs.

Don't worry about indenting paragraphs because the program Laurel uses to post stories removes them anyway.

I save my stories initially as Works Document (*.wps)

To submit you have to have a file ending in TXT - so then I Save As a Text File (*.txt;*.csv)

It is quicker to have a story post if you download the file - find the txt edition you have saved and click on it.

If I have special things in my story - italics and bold face - I preview the story right after I submit, add them there and then save the changes. I have found that to be easier for me.

I hope some of this helps? I'm sure you can use many different fonts but I know this one works for me! Good luck!

 

[oggbashan]

I write with an ancient DOS based package Wordstar 2000 plus which runs on my IBM XT (Your what?). I use its conversion tool to change to ASCII and then upload after changing the file extension from .asc to .txt.

That produces small files and seems compatible with everything. It even seems to work for those who have Russian (cyrillic) or Hebrew keyboards. So I don't have italics? I don't miss them.

As usual KISS applies.

Oggbashan

 

[Weird Harold]

...all the quotation marks are question marks when they get here. I am using MSWord and copy and paste submissions. ...

Turn off "Smart Quotes" and do a global find/replace of " with " to remove any already in your stories.

There are other "special characters that Word and WordPerfect use that don't cut and paste properly into the submission text box -- the single charcter versions of a long dash and ellipsis, fractions, subscripts and superscripts, to name just a few.

With MS Word, saving your file as "text only," or "MS-DOS text" will convert most of the special characters. WordPerfect isn't as good at converting it's special characters and formatting to plain text.

Saving your stories in Text format and previewing them with Notepad or other ASCII text editor is the easiest way to tell how they will C&P. NOTE: WordPad recognises MS Word's special characters although it can't create them, so it's not as reliable for previewing.

For more information on seeing how your story will look, check out my How To essay on previewing your story's formatting: http://www.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=57781

 

[SlickTony]

I haven't used WordStar in 18 years. I was astounded to find out that it not only still exists, but for Windows. Well, just about everything has to come through Windows nowadays, doesn't it? WordStar is the first word processing application I ever learned!

 

[oggbashan]

Wordstar for Windows does exist but I don't use it.

I use Wordstar 2000+ which was designed for occasional WP users and has multiple menus that can be permanently on screen for the computer illiterate. It runs under DOS so I am stuck with Windows98se because WinME won't run DOS - or will it? Help appreciated. I have heard of DOS for ME but I can't find where to download it.

Wordstar2000+ will run from a single 360k floppy on an IBM XT with 640k of RAM but I load the whole 2mb program on my XT's 20mb hard drive (such size and power!)

I also use Word97 but I have been using Wordstar2000+ for so long that I can use the control key combinations automatically when I am deep in writing mode.

I can use the Wordstar2000+ on every piece of hardware I've got except the newest which has WinME. I'm thinking of changing it back to Win98se just to keep my ancient and much loved wordprocessor.

I'm old fashioned. I still use my dot matrix printers because ribbons are cheaper than ink cartridges; the printers run faster, and fanfold paper is cheaper than inkjet paper. I can print 250 almostA4 newsletters from my dot matrix for about 3 dollars in total - try to beat that cost with an inkjet or laser.

Oggbashan (who started computing in 1963 with a punchcard driven IBM 1401 mainframe)

 

[SlaveMasterUK]

It runs under DOS so I am stuck with Windows98se because WinME won't run DOS - or will it? Help appreciated. I have heard of DOS for ME but I can't find where to download it.

I'd say stick with Win98se - IMHO there is nothing that Me does that that 98se doesn't do faster and with less fuss. My company will not support users on Me because of the problems it causes with our DOS based packages.

"WinMe is a square with rounded edges. It's impossible to cut yourself on it. About as dangerous as a blunt knife, and just as useful."

ax

 

[SlickTony]

I still use my dot matrix printers because ribbons are cheaper than ink cartridges; the printers run faster, and fanfold paper is cheaper than inkjet paper.

Is that so? I'm sorry we don't live in the same part of the world, then; I have almost a box (seriously; 4 reams' worth and a bit over) of fanfold paper that I would dearly love to get rid of; I am sending off a bunch of stuff by parcel post this coming weekend, and I could include that if I thought it was cheap enough to justify. I also have a Panasonic KXP-2123 dot matrix printer that it taking up space and gathering dust in my home, but you have given me no cause to dislike you, so I will not offer to include it.

 

[oggbashan]

Thanks for the offer, Slick Tony, but fanfold paper is so cheap here and I have boxes of my own.

I give my spare dot-matrix printers away to local charities. They use them to keep their admin costs low and they know if they have trouble with the printer they can always contact me.

That is self-perpetuating. Because I'm known to have dot-matrix, anyone local who wants to throw one, throws it at me. The stock is down to 8 this week.

Oggbashan

 

[SlickTony]

Oh, well...