Scene Breaks in AFF

[Pokeprof]

One thing that I've always had an issue with when uploading my stories to AFF.net was making sure that it looked good. IE, everything that needed to be bold, italicized, or underlined was so, there wasn't a HUGE gap between paragraphs, and my markers that showed a change in scene or character view were visible. As such, for the most part, I copy/paste the HTML code from Fanfiction.net's editor when you upload a story and, for the most part, I've find that useful.

However, the last couple of times, I've found that my marks for scene chances, the '--' mark, hasn't worked. Either something wrong with ff.net's code or Aff.net not recognizing it, but either way, I ask this. Is there a better way to upload everything and make sure it's all there? I'm a bit of a lazy man, I must admit, so I'd prefer to just be able to copy past when needed, but if anyone could give me a good suggestion to help with this, or perhaps a mark that would show up with my current method, I'd appreciate it.

[Danyealle]

Actually, your doing it the hard way in both places. All you have to do, if you use things like Open Office or Word, is save it in HTML format and then upload it rather than copy and paste and everything is persevered (except centering on AFF for some reason). You can upload the HTML file in both places without having to copy and paste then worry about certain things transferring over after upgrades on ff.net (that's probably the issue, they just upgraded some stuff again and that always fuggles things up).

[Pokeprof]

Actually, your doing it the hard way in both places. All you have to do, if you use things like Open Office or Word, is save it in HTML format and then upload it rather than copy and paste and everything is persevered (except centering on AFF for some reason). You can upload the HTML file in both places without having to copy and paste then worry about certain things transferring over after upgrades on ff.net (that's probably the issue, they just upgraded some stuff again and that always fuggles things up).

And this would save my mark's that I used for scene changes, regardless of what they are?

[Danyealle]

the only one it doesn't save is if you do the three - then hit enter making it a line across the page. That doesn't register at all but if you do a custom one like --------------------------------------- or something else, it does. I use the one in format--> borders and shading then horizontal line and it put it in fine.

[CloverReef]

And this would save my mark's that I used for scene changes, regardless of what they are?

I won't suggest any ways to help fix the problem. Danyealle clearly knows way more than me in that department XD. But I can at least suggest alternative scene breaks.

If what you're using now for scenebreaks isn't working, I find that a simple <hr> never fails to give me a solid horizontal line. it might be difficult to find where you want the scene breaks in the messy code programs create for you. I usually do my own html tags, so I'm not sure if putting the <hr> tag in during the writing process would help at all so failing that, try any symbol. ~~~~, @@@, |||| \\\\/////, etc. One of em's bound to work. Before I knew basic HTML or how to do any form of accepted horizontal lines, I usually did a "... .... ..." for scene breaks. Readers will usually get the hint with just about anything that breaks up the flow of text. Hell even a bunch of Zeros. But of course, use in moderation. If using a strange symbol, it would be jarring to use much more than three in a row.

Hope that helps. If I misunderstood the problem, sorry!

[DemonGoddess]

Something else to keep in mind, is that if you use characters for scene breaks, if it exceeds 75 continuous characters you get that gawdawful endless horizontal scrolling thing. So, you need to be sure it doesn't do that.

Something ALL of you need to bear in mind, is that if you export in html format, you really do need to go back in a plain text editor and strip OUT the disallowed and extra html that the word processing programs always always ALWAYS insert. Granted, I say this from my perspective, as it is ME that goes in and cleans that mess UP. It doesn't necessarily hurt anything, other than make a file generally 3 to 4 times bigger than it needs to be. Which, with the database being an overgrown and bloated old bitch as it is, is not very good for it.

[CloverReef]

Something else to keep in mind, is that if you use characters for scene breaks, if it exceeds 75 continuous characters you get that gawdawful endless horizontal scrolling thing. So, you need to be sure it doesn't do that.

Something ALL of you need to bear in mind, is that if you export in html format, you really do need to go back in a plain text editor and strip OUT the disallowed and extra html that the word processing programs always always ALWAYS insert. Granted, I say this from my perspective, as it is ME that goes in and cleans that mess UP. It doesn't necessarily hurt anything, other than make a file generally 3 to 4 times bigger than it needs to be. Which, with the database being an overgrown and bloated old bitch as it is, is not very good for it.

Oh jeez, you clean that stuff up? That must be such a pain in the arse task! I get dizzy just looking at the code from processors.

[TyrantSinner]

I use transitions (meanwhile, etc.) as scene breaks because it makes the story read much smoother.