Topic: Posting tip I discovered

Hey everyone,

Copying and pasting your chapter to Notepad (in Windows) first, and then copying and pasting the chapter to TheNextBigWriter may help with wonky formatting.

I noticed some of the chapter postings have a bit of wonky formatting, with paragraph spaces and line breaks, etc., which I'm sure is frustrating to the original poster. I figured out this simple tip that might help everyone with their formatting, when posting to TNBW.

I found that if you copy your chapter from Word or Open Office or whatever, and first paste it into Notepad it will strip off all the weird formatting.  Next, simply copy your text from Notepad and then paste it to the TNBW site. This should keep all of your original line-breaks and paragraphs, etc. I find this works well for me. I also use this process when posting in Gmail as well.

Italics will not be preserved with this process, however.

Maybe everyone already knows this? Anyways, hope this helps someone.

Cheers,

Dae D. Shields

Quote Post 1

Re: Posting tip I discovered

I've had no problems posting from either Open Office or Word (depending on which computer I write on - Linux or Wondoze). The formatting always stays the same from source to destination. Where a person runs into trouble is MODIFYING text already posted with edits inside TNBWs edit panel. Formatting can, and most like will, go wrong doing that.

If I decide to alter anything at all in a chapter post, I highlight ALL in the source document, hit COPY, then move to TNBW and highlight ALL inside the edit panel. Then, choose PASTE. This will completely replace everything you've posted previously with the new version, and thus preserve everything as you want it. I rely somewhat heavily on italics and, as you say, they are not kept using Notepad. This process also preserves the complete copy of your source document should you ever need to recover it from TNBW for whatever reason.

Bill

Quote Post 2

Re: Posting tip I discovered

Back in the day, I had no formatting issues copying from Word and pasting it to TNBW. The last two years, though, there have been no paragraph breaks and no italics when I’ve done this, so it’s a pain in the ass to edit my posted chapter to get those things in. And I often miss some. Interestingly, when I’m done posting, the review copy looks like the MS, but when I look at what the public will see, those problems are there.

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Re: Posting tip I discovered

Jack, what version of Word are you using? I've rarely had problems with Word 2007 and, more recently, Word 2019. For what it's worth, I use CTRL-V to paste my Word content directly into the TNBW text field. If I'm editing an existing chapter, I use CTRL-A, then CTRL-V. I never use the popup window.

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Re: Posting tip I discovered

I'm subscribed to Office 365, so I always have Word's latest version. Pasting from Word to TBNW represents no formating issues except that, from time to time, there are some phantom question marks at the end of some paragraphs.

Pasting from Microsoft One Note to TNBW messes the thing up, so it's a no-no. I write in Word, but I keep, my project in One Note and that's where I have my cards, etc. While One Note is great of all that stuff, I need to paste the chapter into Word first, and then copy it from Word and paste it into TNBW.

Kiss,

Gacela

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Re: Posting tip I discovered

Mariana Reuter wrote:

I'm subscribed to Office 365, so I always have Word's latest version. Pasting from Word to TBNW represents no formating issues except that, from time to time, there are some phantom question marks at the end of some paragraphs.

Those phantoms are the ghosts of stories past, present, and future. Take care. Vern

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7 Reply by Linda Lee (edited by Linda Lee 2020-06-22 14:34:53)

Re: Posting tip I discovered

I've never once had formatting issues when pasting into the TNBW box from Word (using control C and V). As another person said however, problems DO crop up if you use the TNBW edit pane to make changes after the fact. 

Also, it's been a while since I've posted new content, but the other thing I always made sure to do is to click the Word icon on the header of the TNBW edit pane whenever I added new content. A small box pops up to paste your document into which accepts and holds the formatting coming over from Word.

Edited to add: I just checked and the Word icon is still there on the header of the edit pane. When/if you need to edit a published doc, don't do it directly in the TNBW edit pane---revise your doc in word first and repeat the process.

Quote Post 7

Re: Posting tip I discovered

Dirk B. wrote:

Jack, what version of Word are you using? I've rarely had problems with Word 2007 and, more recently, Word 2019. For what it's worth, I use CTRL-V to paste my Word content directly into the TNBW text field. If I'm editing an existing chapter, I use CTRL-A, then CTRL-V. I never use the popup window.

Dirk, I use Word 2007 too. But I’ll try your technique of avoiding the pop-up window. There didn’t used to be that window. Thanks!

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Re: Posting tip I discovered

The pop up window is designed for holding the formatting of word docs and has always worked flawlessly for me. NOT using it, or editing in the TNBW pane is what's caused all the formatting issues

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Re: Posting tip I discovered

Linda Lee wrote:

The pop up window is designed for holding the formatting of word docs and has always worked flawlessly for me. NOT using it, or editing in the TNBW pane is what's caused all the formatting issues

The pop-up window doesn't work for me. I just tried Dirk's remedy, and that didn't work either. Still no paragraph separation or italics.

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11 Reply by Dirk B. (edited by Dirk B. 2020-06-22 17:57:47)

Re: Posting tip I discovered

What browser do you use, Jack? I use Google Chrome. Also, what format do you save your Word documents in? I use the default (.docx).

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Re: Posting tip I discovered

And for comparison, I use Firefox and my file format is also .docx

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Re: Posting tip I discovered

I used to have a problem with transferring my work from word to the site, but little by little, Word updated, the site updated, and about two years ago I stopped having a problem. I don't know if that helps anyone, it's just my experience.

smile

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Re: Posting tip I discovered

jack the knife wrote:
Dirk B. wrote:

Jack, what version of Word are you using? I've rarely had problems with Word 2007 and, more recently, Word 2019. For what it's worth, I use CTRL-V to paste my Word content directly into the TNBW text field. If I'm editing an existing chapter, I use CTRL-A, then CTRL-V. I never use the popup window.

Dirk, I use Word 2007 too. But I’ll try your technique of avoiding the pop-up window. There didn’t used to be that window. Thanks!

Jack,
You might want to update to Microsoft 365, it is a subscription service, 10.00 a month. I use it and it's such good tool.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microso … :primaryr1
smile

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