New Fanfiction System Feedback

[panyasan]

Untiring?

BTW - I'll keep a rolling list of what I've fixed (including comments, don't worry, I am saving them - smilies and all!)

AnaM - Infinity

Panyasan - Captives - Chapter 7

The rest to come tonight after midnight CST when I get home.

Chapter 7 is up again in IE!!! The end of [endif]!! for all your work, guys.

[Alelou]

This is splendid.

At the risk of sounding like a nudge, though, is there anything to be done about the extra spacing? Perhaps something in the way we format our stories before we send them in?

[mjimeyg]

This is splendid.

At the risk of sounding like a nudge, though, is there anything to be done about the extra spacing? Perhaps something in the way we format our stories before we send them in?

I think it has to do with the fact that the newer types of paragraphs have automatic spacing. So when you press 'return' twice to add a paragraph... like I did in this post... it actually turns that seperating space into a paragraph....

Huh... I just confused myself.

In the newer versions of Word, when you press 'return' it automatically creates a new paragraph.

Which means that instead of:

Code: Select all

<p>
paragraph 1
</p>

<p>
Paragraph 2
</p>


You actually get:

Code: Select all

<p>
paragraph 1
</p>

<p>
</p>

<p>
Paragraph 2
</p>


So... in conclusion of this mind bending and brain melting revelation... the solution is... don't but paragraph seperation lines in your stories on purpose... if they appear automatically thats fine... otherwise hit 'return' once!

[Alelou]

Thanks, that makes sense.

I actually find this default formatting feature of Word 2007 really, really irritating, because among other things, it means that every time you go to print an envelope, the address lines are doublespaced, which looks really dorky. I keep having to cut out the address, paste it into a new file, fix the line spacing -- which 'looks' normal in the letter, for whatever reason -- THEN make an envelope.

I know there's a way to fix this in preferences. I'll figure it out. Not sure what this means to the 60,000-word file that already exists for The Locum, though.

[Dinah]

Huh? That just went WAY over my head. If I don't put a space between paragraphs, how do I have ending up with one big lump of text? I'm confused.

[Alelou]

Eh, that was easy, once I found the tiny little question mark on the menu bar and could ask it what to do. Oh mighty search help bar, how I love thee!

[Alelou]

Okay, here's the thing. If you're using a Word before Word 2007 (you know, it creates doc files instead of docx files), you shouldn't have an issue.

If you're in Word 2007, though, the default normal template automatically includes extra spacing after each paragraph. Which is fine, unless you ALSO add your own spacing because you have the habit of hitting enter to make paragraph space.

So ... in the old Word ... you probably don't do anything different.

In the new Word, hitting enter once will give you your paragraph spacing automatically -- just don't hit it twice.

Or, for ultimate control, or because you can't break the habit of hitting enter for every paragraph, go to the open file command (click on the Office logo on the top left), then click on open templates and then the normal template, and change it to do whatever you want from this time forward.

Since I actually like the default format for some purposes, I created a separate fiction template that I can use for stories. (In publishing, 12 pt. Times New Roman with double line spacing and a line between paragraphs and one inch margins all around is still the industry standard ... at least for people who haven't moved into the digital age yet.)

[Aquarius]

Does anyone know how to do the same in Open Office?

[Alelou]

Are you sure you have an issue to begin with?

If a program's own help function doesn't give me an answer, I usually try to go to the source's web site and try there, and if that doesn't work I google until some forum somewhere has an answer. An open-source program like that undoubtedly has forums.

[Aquarius]

I'm still learning this thing, and yeah, sometimes I ask if there happens to be a quick answer instead of digging and reading. Call me a cheater.

Any way, no, I'm not sure I have this issue or not, because I haven't yet tried to submit a fic under the new system. I do know, however, when I save a document, it asks me what format I want to save it in and I always choose "Microsoft 97/2000/XP", so I guess I'm just assuming I'm going to have the problem because of how I'm saving it.

[Elessar]

Just wanted to say thanks to Vaux and Alelou... the data you sent me definitely helped me fix the problem.

I was totally looking in the wrong place!

Awesome - you hadn't told me that.

Thanks Vaux! Alelou!

[anaM]

Many thanks to all of you for the work and dedication you put to keep TS going
I had never imagined that so much of both is needed!

[Elessar]

Alright, I'm sorry that I didn't get to putting up more fics last night, but I do have alternative good news:

Mike's determined that the 'pictures not appearing' problem was actually due to the slashes problem (which is resolved). As you can imagine, if the code is incorrectly recognizing and garbling 'slashes' when it sees them, then an HTML link to a picture (which has slashes in the address!) isn't going to show up very well is it!?

SHoulda thought of that one myself!

So, Linda's "And Water Provided", will be reposted. Forgive my memory but if anyone else has a story that went up with a defective picture link, let me know. (I'm thinkin Asso, but I can't remember which story , sorry bud!)

[Elessar]

We're getting so much done/fixed in such a short period of time... I haven't felt like this since we built the site! And I mean the exhilaration, not the exhaustion!

[Elessar]

"In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Asso is fixed

Both images should now appear to everyone, and also, we have the ability to label Prologues and Epilogues instead of them appearing as Chapter 1. This ability actually comes from the ability to "name" chapters, like at FF.net. So if you want your Chapter actually named something (we've never done this before), but we now have that capability.

If you do though, please make it clear in the submission.