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What on earth happened to the conversion programme? Bold bits and gaps in the words all over the place.I think Timmy had an 'off day'.
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13771
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Perhaps you should talk to me rather than about me. That is what a friendly email is for, not an overtly hostile post
Since you ask, your source documents may look good to the naked eye, but they are full of gremlins which do strange things to documents when exported to HTML. When I publish them I go through them and catch many of the errors. That takes a load of time.
[Updated on: Fri, 10 May 2024 17:55]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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joecasey
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Toe is in the water |
Location: American Midwest
Registered: December 2017
Messages: 44
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Are there document formats that you prefer to receive? Ones that best preserve what the author hopes to see as the final output? My software (Apple Pages v.14) used to output to a .doc format and now outputs only to .docx. I remember seeing at one time on your site that you prefer documents in .odt, which one can do through an open-source program such as LibreOffice. For that matter, is there a preferred writing software that does a better job at preserving format and outputting a useful and accurate file? Lastly, is there something that an author can do on his or her end to insure that the final output matches what he or she expects to see? I imagine that it would be software that can output a .html file. I think there is one site (Awesome Dude) whose editors will send you a .html for your review prior to actual publication; that would probably mean more work on your end, but it might be useful for the author to review what will actually be posted on the web prior to that actually happening.
I think I have been mostly happy with how my stories showed up on your website; I'm sure you must have to do quite a bit of work to publish the stories you receive in a timely manner.
Thanks!
Joe Casey
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13771
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I can work with almost anything except a PDF if it is clean. If I have to I can handle native output from Pages, but I have to convert it to .docx before I can present it to the conversion suite. RTF is the same, I need to load it on my client and convert it prior to the site conversiom suite being able to accept it. Problems arise in circumstances including:
- Editors using different software from the author and passing the source file back and forwads "once too often"
- Weird changes of font, often because the editor's standard font differs from the author's, but see also the next bullet
- Mutiple, "Shall I BOLD or Italic?" and changes of mind. Many WP engines put multiple on and off tags, invisible to the reader but present in the file
- Insertions of comments and failure to delete them
- Use of Track Changes, especially with editors, and failing to accept all and turn that subsystem off and saving the finished result
Those are the main issues I see and have to clean up from, but, somehow, sometimes, the things I refer to as Gremlins arrive in the source, totally invisible until exporting to HTML either converts them to a blank space in a weird place, or inserts a valid-but-unwanted HTML tag in the wrong place
I have added most of this to "How to submit a story" just now.
What is the conversion suite? A LINUX version of Libre Office, running on the server, with automatic control. I have no physical input at this stage. LO converts to XHTML, whcih the site uses.
If any author spots errors I am really happy to correct them. I even correct author re-thinks and typos on request. If the errors are wide ranging, all we need is a "who should do what" conversation. I may push it back to the author to do their best to ensure I have clean copy, I may give it a try myself and ask for remaining issues to be reported to me, and we agree the approach.
I cannot send a pre-publication proof easily, and many editors would try to edit it and save it were I able to share it with them, and woud use arbitrary editors, creating extra bunting and frolics. That can cause more trouble. Of the stories published 95% go smoothly. 4% need a gentle touch. 1% require serious intervention. I think we can all live with that.
Independently of this, when I have time, I am re-reading 100% of the stories and editing the glitches I find. I'm not making a big thing out of this and it may never be completed!
[Updated on: Sat, 11 May 2024 15:39]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Sorry Tim My comment was mean to be humerous. I DO realise how much work you put it and I truly appreciate what you do.I am sorry if I offended. It was not my intention.
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13771
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Apology happily accepted
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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