What am I doing wrong?

[JeannO]

I'm sory, I'm not sure this question is in the right place, but I didn't see anywhere better.

A few weeks ago, I tried to submit a story that I wrote in Microsoft Office Word 2007. It came back rejected because "The file is not one we can open, came through garbled, or the text field is blank. "
I then saved it as a '97-2003 word document and tried again. The same response came back to me.
I coppied and pasted it into notepad and uploaded that... same response.
I coppied and pasted it into the text box on the submission page. This time I got 2 reasons for rejection. 1. The file is not one we can open, came through garbled, or the text field is blank.
and 2. Please re-upload and submit as a Word file.

Any suggestions?

This is the first time I've written a story and it was a spur of the moment thing. I had my husband read it and he suggested I submit it. It's probably no good, but I'd at least like to give it a chance...

 

[TheeGoatPig]

I don't know what is wrong with your word files. Maybe you are using an odd font?

If you aren't using any special formatting like bolding or italics I would suggest copy and pasting the story directly into the submission page.

 

[Hisscarlett]

I have only submitted a couple of stories so am in no way an expert about the whole process - all I can suggest is that you copy it from your document and paste it into the submissions page

I hope it works for you

s

 

[Guest]

I'm sory, I'm not sure this question is in the right place, but I didn't see anywhere better.

A few weeks ago, I tried to submit a story that I wrote in Microsoft Office Word 2007. It came back rejected because "The file is not one we can open, came through garbled, or the text field is blank. "
I then saved it as a '97-2003 word document and tried again. The same response came back to me.
I coppied and pasted it into notepad and uploaded that... same response.
I coppied and pasted it into the text box on the submission page. This time I got 2 reasons for rejection. 1. The file is not one we can open, came through garbled, or the text field is blank.
and 2. Please re-upload and submit as a Word file.

Any suggestions?

This is the first time I've written a story and it was a spur of the moment thing. I had my husband read it and he suggested I submit it. It's probably no good, but I'd at least like to give it a chance...

Not knowing what's wrong I can only offer a work-around:

Save the file as a .txt or .rtf file. It'll play merry hell with your Word formatting, so go back through it carefully. Then, copy and paste the file into the submissions box. Check your formatting again and preview before submitting.

Good luck.

 

[only_more_so]

Like Gnome said, try saving it as a .txt file or a .rtf file. Another thing to try is when you paste the file use the paste special command and paste it as unformatted text.

I'm guessing that you used a template of some sort, or a lot of text formatting. You will most likely have to clean up the formatting as a result.

 

[sr71plt]

Ah, yes, I think Only_More_So might have a thumb on the problem. I was scratching my head because I've had no trouble myself simply copying and poasting into the text box from any of those Word levels you mention. But I can see that there might be a problem if you've used a lot of styles.

This is a typical author problem, and when I edit for a publisher, the first thing I have to do is wipe out all of the styling the author has put into it. (The publisher's book designer styles the book, not the author). These styles muck up whatever the publisher has to do to get the book into its own styles. If you've used style macros, that may be your problem.

Everything should be set on basic "Normal" and in the paragraph box, all spacing set on 0 and indent on "none" and paragraph on "single."

All line feeds should be done manually.

For Lit. submission, there should be no indents and paragraphs should be separated with a manual line feed. Any bolding (which shouldn't happen) or italics has to be set by codes.

Try taking your manuscript down to this stripped down version and try just copy/pasting it into the submissions text box.

 

[JeannO]

Hmm, as far as I know, I only used Italics in some places. I did nothing else special. I'll try it again.

 

[sr71plt]

Hmm, as far as I know, I only used Italics in some places. I did nothing else special. I'll try it again.

If that fails, you could send it to me as an attachment (if you PMed me, I'd give you an e-mail address) and I can look at it. Because it must be something in the formatting that's gone wrong. I've never had one rejected when I cut and paste it into the text box from Word.

(And it you haven't coded the italics, they are not going to be preserved in submission, no matter what filing technique you use.)

 

[gauchecritic]

I'm far from certain about this but:

try cut'n'paste to wordpad which I think will strip out any coding oddities and then cut'n'paste from wordpad directly into the submissions box.

For the possibly definitive answer wait and see if Weird Harold essays a reply to this.

ETA there is a preview button on the submissions page that may give you a clue as to what's wrong.

 

[SlickTony]

You'd do well to use html code for stuff like italics. Use the regular chevron-shaped ones, not the odd ones we use here.

That said, if you do that, you want to be sure to close your tags, lest you wind up with blocks of text italicized that you didn't want that way.

 

[only_more_so]

And always check the preview!

 

[fifty5]

I'm far from certain about this but:

try cut'n'paste to wordpad which I think will strip out any coding oddities and then cut'n'paste from wordpad directly into the submissions box.

Go a step further and use notepad as the middle step rather than wordpad. That only supports basic ASCII so will strip off even more.

You'll lose even your italics, but may get your story accepted...

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Just a word of advice...

HTML codes excepted by the cut and paste method:

<b>bold</b>
<i>italics</i>
<center>Center</center>
<right>Right</right>
<left>Left</left>

Do not try and change font or font size. Do not try to insert a table. Do not use any other, except maybe <u>underline</u>, html code in you document.

 

[Elianna]

Just a word of advice...

HTML codes excepted by the cut and paste method:

<b>bold</b>
<i>italics</i>
<center>Center</center>
<right>Right</right>
<left>Left</left>

Do not try and change font or font size. Do not try to insert a table. Do not use any other, except maybe <u>underline</u>, html code in you document.

Where were you when I was first figuring things out? I ended up going on a thread and going "How do I make Italics?!!!"

We should make a thread with all these little tricks for newbies.

Edited to add: I think there is one already, but it keeps dissappearing. Maybe we should see if we can make it a sticky somewhere.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Where were you when I was first figuring things out? I ended up going on a thread and going "How do I make Italics?!!!"

We should make a thread with all these little tricks for newbies.

Edited to add: I think there is one already, but it keeps dissappearing. Maybe we should see if we can make it a sticky somewhere.

Might be a How To somewhere...the only reason I know about this stuff is tried to use all kinds of html in one on my stories and I received a polite note from Laural about what can and can't be used.

 

[Elianna]

Might be a How To somewhere...the only reason I know about this stuff is tried to use all kinds of html in one on my stories and I received a polite note from Laural about what can and can't be used.

Hey, your errors are our gain. I've only used Italics in my writing. However, it's nice to know how to do everything else, too. Just for informational purposes.

 

[_Lynn_]

Hey, your errors are our gain. I've only used Italics in my writing. However, it's nice to know how to do everything else, too. Just for informational purposes.

Check this for tips:

http://www.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=45432

 

[JeannO]

Thanks guys. I sent it in again useing Word but removing all formating and got it rejected again. This time the reason was the same "came through garbled" along with a longer explanation telling me to put parts of a conversation in different paragraphs... I had done that originally, but un-formating it... I don't even know. Technically, they are in seperate paragraphs, but with no spaces between paragraphs and no indents, I guess it didn't look like they were. (Does this mean that it wasn't nonsense, it just wasn't very easy to read because it was all bunched together?)

I have cut and pasted it into notepad, but I tried to upload that file rather than pasteing it from there to the text box. I guess I'll try that next.

I noticed the preview pane the last time I submited it and that looked fine. GRRRRR

Thanks for the tip on how to use italics... I was wondering about that.

 

[glynndah]

Thanks guys. I sent it in again useing Word but removing all formating and got it rejected again. This time the reason was the same "came through garbled" along with a longer explanation telling me to put parts of a conversation in different paragraphs... I had done that originally, but un-formating it... I don't even know. Technically, they are in seperate paragraphs, but with no spaces between paragraphs and no indents, I guess it didn't look like they were. (Does this mean that it wasn't nonsense, it just wasn't very easy to read because it was all bunched together?)

I have cut and pasted it into notepad, but I tried to upload that file rather than pasteing it from there to the text box. I guess I'll try that next.

I noticed the preview pane the last time I submited it and that looked fine. GRRRRR

Thanks for the tip on how to use italics... I was wondering about that.

I copy and paste from Works and skip a line between paragraphs. I've had no trouble, but perhaps I've just been lucky.

 

[TE999]

Thanks guys. I sent it in again useing Word but removing all formating and got it rejected again. This time the reason was the same "came through garbled" along with a longer explanation telling me to put parts of a conversation in different paragraphs... I had done that originally, but un-formating it... I don't even know. Technically, they are in seperate paragraphs, but with no spaces between paragraphs and no indents, I guess it didn't look like they were. (Does this mean that it wasn't nonsense, it just wasn't very easy to read because it was all bunched together?)

I have cut and pasted it into notepad, but I tried to upload that file rather than pasteing it from there to the text box. I guess I'll try that next.

I noticed the preview pane the last time I submited it and that looked fine. GRRRRR

Thanks for the tip on how to use italics... I was wondering about that.

I write in Micro$haft Office Word '97...I use italics, bold lettering and other stuff. I submit my work as an e-mail attachment to submit@literotica.com. I've submitted close to 50 stories this way and never had a problem.

(I've prolly just jinxed myself)

 

[fifty5]

Thanks guys. I sent it in again useing Word but removing all formatting and got it rejected again. This time the reason was the same "came through garbled" along with a longer explanation telling me to put parts of a conversation in different paragraphs... I had done that originally, but un-formatting it... I don't even know. Technically, they are in separate paragraphs, but with no spaces between paragraphs and no indents, I guess it didn't look like they were. (Does this mean that it wasn't nonsense, it just wasn't very easy to read because it was all bunched together?).

My guess is that the blank lines between paragraphs are essential. In general, Web-browsers treat all 'white space' as a single space, so (in simplified form - there are alternatives at each stage) there are pre-processors that look for blank lines (2 carriage returns in succession) and put in line-break characters. Without the blank lines, the entire text rolls up into a single paragraph.

My guess is that this is your problem.

Look at this message, or any of the stories. You'll see that blank line between paragraphs convention (without indents) in operation.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Your template in word is probably using space after or space before paragraph breaks to put that blank space between paragraphs. Unfortunately this does not translate to text as the space required for proper formatting. Add an extra carriage return between paragraphs just as you do here.

Two CR's to get here.


Three CR's to get here.



Etc.

I'll bet in word you hit CR once and it looks like the first example above.

 

[sr71plt]

Seems to be a lot of wheels spinning. If you'd just send it to someone to check for the problem as I suggested (and offered) some time ago . . .

 

[Weird Harold]

Technically, they are in seperate paragraphs, but with no spaces between paragraphs and no indents, I guess it didn't look like they were. (Does this mean that it wasn't nonsense, it just wasn't very easy to read because it was all bunched together?)

Go to your story and call up find and replace -- CTRL-H, in older versions of MSWord.

Search for ^p (or go down the "more" list to "Paragraph Break")

Replace with ^p^p (two paragraph breaks)

Replace All - (Alt-A in older versions)

Save your story AS (File/Save As) a plain ASCII text file. (.txt)

Close Word and open the file with Notepad and read through it for special characters like Smart Quotes or single character ellipses or dashes that don't display properly in ASCII text format. (you may have to turn on wordwrap in notepad to keep each paragraph from displaying as a single line of text, but DO NOT break them manually to fit your screen; doing that screwsup Lit's dynamic formatting to different screen resolutions.)

Add any HTML tags as necessary or desired and save your story.

Upload the .TXT file or C&P from Notepad.

For future stories, make sure that you set the document to the "Plain Text" style in NORMAL.DOT to keep Word from applying WYSIWYG formatting to your text.

 

[gauchecritic]

For the possibly definitive answer wait and see if Weird Harold essays a reply to this.

Told you.