Uploading a word file for the first time

[Katie_Mae]

Hi all.
I'm looking to upload a word file for an upcoming story. I've only ever copied/pasted in the submission box before, but I'm looking to do an illustrated story. (yes, I've read the guidelines on illustrations. Yes, I also know they take ages to be posted, it will take me ages to write/draw anyway, no rush.) It seems uploading a word doc would be far less work for the site than emailing my drawings to the site and having them insert them into my story at the required places, and less prone to error.

Imagine for a moment I am an idiot and know nothing about this, what do I need to know re formatting? Is there an "idiot's guide" you could link me to please?

Currently I write with all the formatting typed in as I go, eg I'll type the coding in the <> marks as I write when I need italics or bold etc. Do I still still do this if I'm writing in word? Or will I have to go through and delete these? (Yes, I did wait until I was about 6k words into the story before looking into this, haha)

Thanks for any advice.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

You don't need to do anything other than upload your Word file. No additional coding or marking is needed. Once your story is published, the text will appear exactly the same as it was in the Word file.

 

[Katie_Mae]

You don't need to do anything other than upload your Word file. No additional coding or marking is needed. Once your story is published, the text will appear exactly the same as it was in the Word file.

Thanks, so I'll need to take the coding out and select the text and use word's formatting to format it? eg change all the instances of <i >italics</ i> to italics?

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Thanks, so I'll need to take the coding out and select the text and use word's formatting to format it? eg change all the instances of <i >italics</ i> to italics?

Yes, I've always used Word's own formatting when submitting my stories. No HTML marking is needed. Use Word's italics, bold, and everything else.

 

[AllenWoody]

Yes, I use bolding and italics without difficulty.

Buuut, does anyone know if strikethrough translates from a .docx file?

 

[Katie_Mae]

Thank you! Looks like I've got a fair bit of CTRL Fing to do.

Another question, how does paragraph spacing work? My story will have some parts which should be formatted as poetry. When I copy and past into the box here on lit, if I only put a single break between paragraphs (or lines of poetry) then the website converts it to a double pace. To get single line spacing for poetry I have to use the <br >

For uploading a file would I put the paragraph formatting in singe space, hit one return at the end of each like of poetry and two at the end of each paragraph to render single spacing for poetry and double spacing between paragraphs? Or not? Appreciate the help

 

[NCostello]

Hi all.
I'm looking to upload a word file for an upcoming story. I've only ever copied/pasted in the submission box before, but I'm looking to do an illustrated story. (yes, I've read the guidelines on illustrations. Yes, I also know they take ages to be posted, it will take me ages to write/draw anyway, no rush.) It seems uploading a word doc would be far less work for the site than emailing my drawings to the site and having them insert them into my story at the required places, and less prone to error.

Imagine for a moment I am an idiot and know nothing about this, what do I need to know re formatting? Is there an "idiot's guide" you could link me to please?

Currently I write with all the formatting typed in as I go, eg I'll type the coding in the <> marks as I write when I need italics or bold etc. Do I still still do this if I'm writing in word? Or will I have to go through and delete these? (Yes, I did wait until I was about 6k words into the story before looking into this, haha)

Thanks for any advice.

A "Beginners Guide" for uploading documents (or tips and tricks) would be interesting.
I had one story I uploaded which had some embedded characters which caused confusion.

Thanks

 

[ElectricBlue]

A "Beginners Guide" for uploading documents (or tips and tricks) would be interesting.
I had one story I uploaded which had some embedded characters which caused confusion.

Thanks

The safest "advice" is to submit using the text box, because you can Preview, see what it will look like when published, and fix it within the Form itself. Mostly, getting your html right.

I've found over the years that .txt .rtf .doc .doc(x) have all caused me problems eventually, but using the Form and using plain text to the maximum extent possible, never an issue in the last five years.

Using the Form always works; loading files, glitches happen.

 

[Katie_Mae]

The safest "advice" is to submit using the text box, because you can Preview, see what it will look like when published, and fix it within the Form itself. Mostly, getting your html right.

I've found over the years that .txt .rtf .doc .doc(x) have all caused me problems eventually, but using the Form and using plain text to the maximum extent possible, never an issue in the last five years.

Using the Form always works; loading files, glitches happen.

This is my preference, but in this case it sounds like more work for laurel, and also more prone to error. Eg something getting lost or missed between the text being uploaded in the form and the files sent by email and everything coming together where and how I want it to.

 

[NCostello]

This is what I just did in my last story

• authored it in MS word (not saved to onedrive for privacy reasons)
• "save as html"
• close the original documents (to avoid confusion)
• Open the saved html file in my browser of choice."

The uploaded file was very close to the local html version. I probably cloud have found a local html editor or conversion tool if I looked hard enough (I would personally not upload to one of those online services)

One advantage I found was that by reading it via a browser, it was as if I had a fresh copy, which helped me to pick up some typos and issues with tenses (past vs present tense).

 

[M_K_Babalon]

I just upload the document as is. If you're on a computer, I would do as Smashwords advise, and wipe all of Words formatting, so only the formatting you do is present. I've never had problems submitting either way, but one less site that I have to copy/paste, and do other bullshit to, is nice. I hate all that shit the most, when it comes to publishing a story online. Especially sites where I need to put my formatting back in, like on sexstories and FFN.

Uploading a document isn't that complicsted. You'd have only needed to add html tags if you're copying into a plain html text box. Which Lits is. Most basic html boxes--which the forums text box is--will retain formatting... usually.

 

[MillieDynamite]

If you have formatting you want to preserve, it is best to use the rtf file format.

 

[cadeauxxx]

In my experience, uploading a file might take an extra day or two to get approved, but it's worth it.

 

[Britva415]

it's worth it

Why so?

 

[MillieDynamite]

Because it is easier. If you use .Docx and, even better .RTF, your formatting should survive. Your italics will be italic, and your bold will be bold, without you having to do your own coding.

Why so?

 

[AllenWoody]

I unfortunately have a data point on this topic. I have a series wherein I use a small but important amount of strikethroughs in each chapter. I just published the first installment and that particular piece of formatting didn't carry over from .docx format. Underlining and italics work (always have) but the strikethrough text showed up plain.

Does anyone have any experience or a solution for this? From some of the comments above should I export into HTML and copy that into the text box?

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Strikethrough is not available on Literotica. See @FrancesScott's excellent howto:
https://www.literotica.com/s/how-to-format-a-story-with-html

 

[TheLobster]

Another question, how does paragraph spacing work? My story will have some parts which should be formatted as poetry. When I copy and past into the box here on lit, if I only put a single break between paragraphs (or lines of poetry) then the website converts it to a double pace. To get single line spacing for poetry I have to use the <br >

Paragraphs in Word are basically the same kind of animal as paragraphs in HTML, so I'd assume they are translated directly. Format your poem as a single paragraph with line breaks (Ctrl+Enter rather than just Enter, IIRC) and hopefully it translates to <br>'s in the final HTML.

Strikethrough is not available on Literotica. See @FrancesScott's excellent howto:
https://www.literotica.com/s/how-to-format-a-story-with-html

I don't see any mention of strikethrough in there, and the <del> tag certainly works in Preview (which, to be fair, is a weak argument in favor). Do we know if it's explicitly stripped off during the publication process?

 

[Writer61]

I second the recommendation above on FrancesScott's post.

Thank you! Looks like I've got a fair bit of CTRL Fing to do.

Not if you use Find & Replace.

My own workflow is write in Word, save as RTF, and upload that.

 

[BeechLeaf]

How do the two methods compare on the bug where tags only apply to a single line? Like you've got a poem all in italics, or an e-mail exchange all in monospace or <kbd>. I believe (from this forum and seeing an example in a published story) that what applies to a whole range of lines in preview only applies to the first line when published. (And how does <br> affect this?)

 

[old_prof]

How do the two methods compare on the bug where tags only apply to a single line? Like you've got a poem all in italics, or an e-mail exchange all in monospace or <kbd>. I believe (from this forum and seeing an example in a published story) that what applies to a whole range of lines in preview only applies to the first line when published. (And how does <br> affect this?)

I will re-iterate the earlier recommendation to read @FrancesScott's really good How To on HTML formatting for the site.

It is true that formatting cannot cross paragraphs. Tag each paragraph individually. If you want simple breaks in a block of text, for example in a block quote, use<br>

 

[TheLobster]

How do the two methods compare on the bug where tags only apply to a single line? Like you've got a poem all in italics, or an e-mail exchange all in monospace or <kbd>. I believe (from this forum and seeing an example in a published story) that what applies to a whole range of lines in preview only applies to the first line when published. (And how does <br> affect this?)

If you submit as text in the form, you need to make sure that:

• every paragraph has the formatting tags applied separately
• poems and the like, where line breaks are forced with <br>, are all physically a single line of text

If you attach a formatted text file, then the formatting should take care of everything.

 

[BeechLeaf]

Thank you, that's what I needed to know. Frances's article is explicit about HTML tags, but I wasn't sure whether the same bug applied to .doc and .rtf.

For now I'm sticking to plain text, and I've got used to typing <em> as I go.

 

[old_prof]

I write in a word processor, but I copy/paste the text into the new story submission. To make it look more like it will, I bold (or whatever the styling is) the text that will be bolded. This gets lost in the plain text copy/paste, but I have more of a sense of what it will look like.

 

[redgarters]

All my stories are uploaded as Word .docx files. Never had any problems with the formatting and all of them published within 48 hours. I'd go mad if I had to html format the whole bloody thing every time.

The only time I had to edit, it was because the Lit system understood text messages in < > brackets as formatting so they disappeared.