Uploading stories

[errihu]

Right now for uploading our story files, there is only the option for html and txt. I write in word, which saves in a .doc format, and I write LONG stories with LOTS of use of italics. For me to hunt out every single instance of italics and give it a code would take a LONG LONG TIME, and quite frankly, would probably end up with TAG CHAOS. The story handling system for starting new stories is the main reason why my work gets posted on more user friendly sites like FF.net rather than here.

Is there any way that 1. I can get my .doc files into an html WITHOUT losing all my precious formatting, or 2. that the uploader can start taking .docs (formatting and all)?

[FairySlayer]

While it's not an ideal solution, there are some helpful features in Word that will help you find the formatted text quickly so that you can tag it quickly. I use an old copy of Word. After saving the final copy of a story I make a copy with "AFFN version" or something like that in the new filename, just so I don't accidentally mess up the original.

Then I use the following steps:

• Go to the top of the document (Ctrl-Home).
  
• Find (usually Ctrl-F).
  
• Under Find what: enter ^?
  
• FYI ^? is the code for "any character"; make sure there are no spaces or anything like that.
  
• Click on More
  
• then Format
  
• then Font...
  
• Under Font Style: choose Bold or Italic, etc. Leave everything else alone or you may have to start over. Then click OK.
  
• Then click Find Next. It will find the first character with whichever attribute you selected.
  
• You can close the Find box. (Click Cancel or press Esc.)
  
• Add the tags. (Usually I copy it to the clipboard, say </i> and paste it at the beginning and end of the italicized section, being sure to remove the / from the first one. That's just what's fastest for me.)
  
• Use Ctrl-PageUp and Ctrl-PageDown to jump to the next or previous instance of that formatting.
  
• After doing all of the italics, go back to the top and go through the same steps to find all of the bold text. At least in my version, searching for either bold or italic will find bold-italic.
  
• Then I usually just copy-paste into the text area of The Archive's story editor. You can also save-as text and rename the file to .htm to use the file uploader.
  

That feature is a lifesaver for me, and doubly so since I make full use of styles too. I hope you find it helpful as well.

[pittwitch]

Some versions of Word allow users to Save As HTML:

File

Save As

under the file name, look for the file extension for HTML

Some versions do NOT allow users to save docs as HTML. You'll have to look.

[DemonGoddess]

When saving in html, you HAVE to strip out the extra tag options in a text editor. As to allowing uploads in other formats, with word being prone to viral attachments, I don't ever see it being included as an upload option. For that matter, once I can figure out how to add in an rtf editor, I expect that uploading files will be an option that will be removed.

[errihu]

I didn't know about the option to save as a webpage. I saved as a single file webpage and that took out word-specific html formatting. It worked. Now my only problem is that there is too much space between paragraphs - I'll have to find a way to fix that another way.

Thanks!

[pittwitch]

I didn't know about the option to save as a webpage. I saved as a single file webpage and that took out word-specific html formatting. It worked. Now my only problem is that there is too much space between paragraphs - I'll have to find a way to fix that another way.

Thanks!

If you figure it out, let me know!

Thanks!

[DemonGoddess]

A few things to do here, actually.

1. REMOVE any extra lines in between your paragraphs, as the paragraph tag automatically inserts a line after.

2. <p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US></span></p> change that tag to this - <p></p> and remove the span tag entirely.

3. Remove the division tag that is left as well. <div></div>

If you want visible line separators, use <hr>

Hope that helps.