Does AFF.n not like Mac users? :-(

[Guest prairiecrow]

Hello, and apologies if this has already been posted by someone else...

I can't seem to upload stories to the main archive, at least not in a way that formats them properly. I've tried using different fonts in creating the HTML documents (Arial and Verdana) -- no soap. I've tried saving the files in Tex-Edit and TextEdit. I've done pretty much everything short of sacrificing a chicken, and nothing seems to work. The previews keep showing weird characters in place of apostrophes and dashes.

Also, when I attempt to use the pop-up windows that explain disclaimer formatting protocols and so forth, all I find is a blank page.

Truly hoping that someone can help me out with this... and thanks in advance to anyone who can.

[Guest prairiecrow]

Oh, and I suppose I should add what I'm running: a 24" iMac with Mac OS 10.4.7, with Safari version 2.0.4 (although neither Firefox nor iCab seem to be having any more luck with the formatting or with the non-visible information).

[DemonGoddess]

First of all, the html tags allowed are limited, whether in a plain text file (.txt) or an html file (.htm, .html). There are NO font formattting options available at this time, including choice of font.

Secondly (for an html file), if you do not strip out all the extra html that is generated by most programs so that ONLY the text formatting tags remain, the upload will generally become garbled at best, at worst it MIGHT display only the first paragraph of a chapter.

Try copy/pasting, and then adding the formatting tags in that window, if nothing else. Let me know how that works.

It would be helpful if I knew WHICH subdomain you're trying to post in, so I can see if the error can be duplicated.

[Guest prairiecrow]

First of all, the html tags allowed are limited, whether in a plain text file (.txt) or an html file (.htm, .html). There are NO font formattting options available at this time, including choice of font.

Secondly (for an html file), if you do not strip out all the extra html that is generated by most programs so that ONLY the text formatting tags remain, the upload will generally become garbled at best, at worst it MIGHT display only the first paragraph of a chapter.

Try copy/pasting, and then adding the formatting tags in that window, if nothing else. Let me know how that works.

It would be helpful if I knew WHICH subdomain you're trying to post in, so I can see if the error can be duplicated.

Thank you for getting back to me so quickly, and for moving the discussion to the proper section of the forums.

1) I didn't mean that I'm trying to format the final product into a different font, only that I thought the font in my original text document might somehow be queering the HTML outcome.

2) Re: stripping out the extra html, how would one do that in a program where the html underpinning isn't showing up? Re-enter all the punctuation that is showing up oddly? I can do that, but man, will it be time-consuming...

3) I will do that and let you know what happens.

4) Cartoons > ReBoot.

An equally big concern to me is the inability to see windows with things like formatting information and so forth. They don't seem to display any text no matter which browser I use. If it's a Mac problem, I'm pretty much screwed -- we don't have a PC in the house.

[Guest prairiecrow]

I just tested my TextEdit document by double-clicking to open it in Safari and it's formatting just fine (including those troublesome apostrophes and dashes), so I'm not sure what the problem is with the AFF.n uploader.

[Guest prairiecrow]

... and now when I'm trying to upload a test document, it isn't allowing me access to the ReBoot catagory at all. *headdesk*

[Guest prairiecrow]

... and now when I'm trying to upload a test document, it isn't allowing me access to the ReBoot catagory at all. *headdesk*

Never mind. Figured that part out. Still learning the navigation system...

[Guest prairiecrow]

All right... going into the TextEdit document and manually retyping the punctuation seems to be solving the problem. It's a bitch of a workaround and will be a real pain the butt on stories of any length, but it'll do for the relatively short piece I'd like to upload tonight.

If you come up with any shortcuts to solving the punctuation problem, please let me know. Thanks!

[DemonGoddess]

Actually there are many Mac users, but I've not heard this as a problem before. Can you give me a link to the story itself? Or better yet, email me the file you were trying to upload so I can have a look at it. If I actually SEE what the file is constructed like, I can help you better.

[prairiecrow]

Actually there are many Mac users, but I've not heard this as a problem before. Can you give me a link to the story itself? Or better yet, email me the file you were trying to upload so I can have a look at it. If I actually SEE what the file is constructed like, I can help you better.

I've sent you an html file with a small section of the story in question. Part of it, once I got down to the html in the AFF.n editor, were odd space tags that were somehow being inserted. Strange are the ways of word processing documents...

[DemonGoddess]

check your mail, you should have a reply with how to correct it. I found out that TextEdit saves as html by default. Much like word, it adds extra tags which the archive does not parse at all. When it tries to, you get the weirdness.

[prairiecrow]

check your mail, you should have a reply with how to correct it. I found out that TextEdit saves as html by default. Much like word, it adds extra tags which the archive does not parse at all. When it tries to, you get the weirdness.

Thank you. That should solve the problem. *bows*