Formatting Problems with Stories: Advice?

[JagOfferman]

I hope I'm posting this in the right thread on Forum. If not, please tell me.

The last two stories I've posted have major formatting problems, now that they are published. These are problems I haven't encountered before.

Paragraphs that were separate in the rtf copy I submitted are run together, sometimes with no space between the end of one sentence and start of another.

These two stories have two characters speaking in alternating paragraphs. When the first story appeared with incorrect formatting, I thought maybe the problem was that had italicized the characters' names. So for the sequel, I used all caps for the characters' names. But the same formatting problem appeared.

I've read the FAQs entitled "What text formatting can I use in stories published on Literotica?" and "I've edited my story and want to replace the published version with a new edit. How do I do that?"

I can't spot anything in either FAQ that tells me I've done something that is creating this problem, and I don't know how to resubmit these stories following the second set of guidelines to fix the problem – since I'd be resubmitting the same rtf file that got published in garbled form.

The two stories are entitled "Pete & Leah Learn the Ropes Ch. 01 and Ch. 02."

I'll be grateful for advice or assistance. Sorry this is so long. Don't know how to explain the problem otherwise.

 

[SyleusSnow]

Please help us help you by always linking to stories. To find what you were talking about I had to go to Literotica Search, search for your username, then find the title. Time I could have spent looking at the problem.

Your document has LSEP characters (shows up as that weird lsep box in the browser). A quick Internet search revealed that it is "That character is U+2028 or HTML entity code 
 which is a kind of newline character."

It is probably being used by text editor / word processor you're using to do line breaks. Obviously, Literotica should have replaced those with actual HTML <br> tags, but possibly their software just passed it on literally. Or whatever was in the original RTF was converted to that HTML entity by Literotica's filter. Who knows.

RTF is a weird file format so I can forgive them for making mistakes. You could post about it over in the technical "Site news and tech support forum" and maybe they'd be able to fix their filters but don't hold your breath.

What I'd suggest instead is avoiding RTF entirely. Whatever you use for a word processor / editor probably can save in MS Word format. That has a better chance of getting converted to HTML correctly.

If you're using MS Word, you could also use my MS Word to plain html macro to convert the document into simple HTML that can be posted directly into the submission box. Not only will the story get posted to the site faster, but you can preview the story before submitting to look for formatting errors.

There are other problems with formatting in Lit stories... notably the stylesheet Lit uses tends to run italicized words into the following non-italicized word without a space. To avoid that I continue the italics to the following space or character... e.g. "<em>Italics are fun, </em>she said." instead of "<em>Italics are fun</em>, she said."

 

[JagOfferman]

Thank you for these helpful suggestions. My apologies for not having including links to the two stories. I was concerned about making my posting even longer, though I now realize I could have embedded a hyperlink.

I will try resubmitting these stories in an MS Word format. What's strange is that I haven't experienced this problem until I submitted these last two stories. All previous ones were submitted in rtf format with no problems like this occurring when they were published.

I appreciate your having taken time to reply and the helpful advice you've provided.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I hope I'm posting this in the right thread on Forum. If not, please tell me.

The last two stories I've posted have major formatting problems, now that they are published. These are problems I haven't encountered before.

Paragraphs that were separate in the rtf copy I submitted are run together, sometimes with no space between the end of one sentence and start of another.

Your need double returns at each paragraph break. You can't rely on your Word (or whatever) formatting.

These two stories have two characters speaking in alternating paragraphs. When the first story appeared with incorrect formatting, I thought maybe the problem was that had italicized the characters' names. So for the sequel, I used all caps for the characters' names. But the same formatting problem appeared.

See above, you probably need double returns.

Why did you think italics or caps would be a good idea? You don't see that in stories.

I've read the FAQs entitled "What text formatting can I use in stories published on Literotica?" and "I've edited my story and want to replace the published version with a new edit. How do I do that?"

I can't spot anything in either FAQ that tells me I've done something that is creating this problem, and I don't know how to resubmit these stories following the second set of guidelines to fix the problem – since I'd be resubmitting the same rtf file that got published in garbled form.

Copy and paste your content into the submission box, and Preview. WYSIWYG. The Preview shows what the text will look like when it's published. You can edit in the Form.

I'd say your problem is in the rtf. Use the submission form's box, and you'll solve the problem.

To submit an edit, resubmit with the same story title plus the word EDIT, include a Note to the Editor, explaining what you've done. Lose the rtf.

 

[JagOfferman]

Thank you for your response. I appreciate the detailed advice and will use it.

 

[grey228]

Thank you for your response. I appreciate the detailed advice and will use it.

RTF (rich text) is the problem.

Stick with plain text, and inline HTML3.

The other users were correct about the other processes though.

I'm not sure how stable of an internet connection and how powerful your device is, but I edit and write from a desktop on cable line to Google Workspace (old Google Drive). Unless the document gets really long (over 100 pages / 200,000 words perhaps), you should have few issues writing directly to the cloud.

You can even separate your chapters by document and stick them into folders (one directory for each story).

 

[Kumquatqueen]

The best method is to copy and paste your story into the text box on the Lit submission page. Should work fine even for 30,000 words. Then you can Preview and see if any strange formatting has come across, and fix it before submission.

Apparently such stories also get processed more quickly. For some reason, I never got Libre Office files accepted, but pasting stories into the box works just fine.

 

[JagOfferman]

RTF (rich text) is the problem.

Stick with plain text, and inline HTML3.

The other users were correct about the other processes though.

I'm not sure how stable of an internet connection and how powerful your device is, but I edit and write from a desktop on cable line to Google Workspace (old Google Drive). Unless the document gets really long (over 100 pages / 200,000 words perhaps), you should have few issues writing directly to the cloud.

You can even separate your chapters by document and stick them into folders (one directory for each story).

Thank you very much for the good advice. Really helpful.

 

[JagOfferman]

The best method is to copy and paste your story into the text box on the Lit submission page. Should work fine even for 30,000 words. Then you can Preview and see if any strange formatting has come across, and fix it before submission.

Apparently such stories also get processed more quickly. For some reason, I never got Libre Office files accepted, but pasting stories into the box works just fine.

Thank you -- a valuable tip. I appreciate it.

 

[grey228]

The best method is to copy and paste your story into the text box on the Lit submission page. Should work fine even for 30,000 words. Then you can Preview and see if any strange formatting has come across, and fix it before submission.

Apparently such stories also get processed more quickly. For some reason, I never got Libre Office files accepted, but pasting stories into the box works just fine.

LOL. I've had OpenOffice for so long, I didn't even know it's been obsoleted by LibreOffice.

I'm like Old Man Logan, except I'm not a mutie, and I'm totes thirsty for college girls.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Apparently such stories also get processed more quickly. For some reason, I never got Libre Office files accepted, but pasting stories into the box works just fine.

They do, and you don't get glitches.