Formatting Rejection...Problem Solved!

Area for content rejection questions.

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hknunzio
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Aug 13, 2010 11:27 am

Formatting Rejection...Problem Solved!

Post by hknunzio »

I have been getting rejections for formatting errors even though I read the guidelines and follow them diligently. This is what it looks like:

Please professionally format your articles in 12 pt. Times New Roman or Arial black font with single spaced paragraphs and a double space between paragraphs.

Anyway, I realized today that Paragraph-> Spacing-> Before and After (lines) was always set to Auto. When I change it to 0, the content looks exactly the same but the articles are accepted. This has been a source of frustration for me as a new writer, but I hope this little piece of advice might help others in the same situation. Happy writing! :)
sakura
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Sep 17, 2010 1:45 pm

Re: Formatting Rejection...Problem Solved!

Post by sakura »

Hi. I got the same message, although I followed those guidelines. At the line spacing did you put single or double? Thanks.
BarryDavidson
Posts: 561
Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2008 11:10 am

Re: Formatting Rejection...Problem Solved!

Post by BarryDavidson »

sakura wrote:Hi. I got the same message, although I followed those guidelines. At the line spacing did you put single or double? Thanks.

Line spacing is always single, and double spacing between paragraphs. Unless, of course, a customer requests double spacing. For the sake of ease leave the formatting options alone and just hit the "Enter" key twice when you'ending a paragraph.
Celeste Stewart
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Re: Formatting Rejection...Problem Solved!

Post by Celeste Stewart »

Actually Hknunzio's solution is best with Word 2007/2010 because by default these editions of Word add padding between paragraphs. If you were to use these default paragraph settings and hit enter twice, you'd have huge gaps between paragraphs in the Word document and I bet CC would reject for formatting. What happens with Word's paragraph padding is that the document looks pretty as is, but when you copy and paste the text into the long summary, the padding is lost. Thus, the text looks like one giant block of text with no spacing between paragraphs.

Get rid of auto spacing and set the Before and After line spacing settings to 0 pt and the problem goes away. I actually changed my default template in Word to include the Times New Roman 12-pt font (instead of Word's default Calibri) and to include the proper paragraph settings. Alternately, you could create your own CC template with the appropriate settings and use that for all CC articles.
sakura
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Sep 17, 2010 1:45 pm

Re: Formatting Rejection...Problem Solved!

Post by sakura »

I use Word 2003; it is set on the Times New Roman 12-pt font and Before and After line spacing settings to 0 pt, I don't think that was the problem. Probably the spacing... And I guess the long summary was not properly spaced.
Well, I'll try again. :)
Celeste Stewart wrote: What happens with Word's paragraph padding is that the document looks pretty as is, but when you copy and paste the text into the long summary, the padding is lost. Thus, the text looks like one giant block of text with no spacing between paragraphs.
I hadn't thought about that. Thank you.
Celeste Stewart
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Re: Formatting Rejection...Problem Solved!

Post by Celeste Stewart »

I'm pretty sure that this is an issue with 2007 and up. I don't think it affects Word 2003 but I could be wrong.
sakura
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Sep 17, 2010 1:45 pm

Re: Formatting Rejection...Problem Solved!

Post by sakura »

I just noticed in the long summary the font is changed - it looks awkward, not at all how it appears in my Word document. I don't know how to fix that. This formatting stuff kills me. :( :(
BarryDavidson
Posts: 561
Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2008 11:10 am

Re: Formatting Rejection...Problem Solved!

Post by BarryDavidson »

sakura wrote:I just noticed in the long summary the font is changed - it looks awkward, not at all how it appears in my Word document. I don't know how to fix that. This formatting stuff kills me. :( :(
One way to get over this is to paste the document to .txt (Notepad), then copy/paste from there. It won't be the same as your .doc or .docx file, but it won't be too weird either. I also have my Word 2007 set up to automatically save as a .doc file instead of the .docx format. It's annoying but Word 2007 has a habit of going back to the Calibri 10pt even if you have it set up for Times New Roman 12pt. Pasting to an open Notepad file, then copy/pasting to a web form will have the desired effect. Or, as I do most of the time, send the files created on the system with Word 2007 over to my system with Office XP.
m1ck1e
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Jan 11, 2011 10:31 am

Revision Problem

Post by m1ck1e »

I've had an article sent back for revisions for 'website links' but there were no links in the article. Should I re-submit the article with no changes? Has anyone else had revisions requested for problems that weren't there?
Celeste Stewart
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Re: Formatting Rejection...Problem Solved!

Post by Celeste Stewart »

Hi,
Sometimes a document has "hidden links" - I know it sounds odd. Let me see if I can find the thread discussing this. There's a keyboard shortcut for removing them but I can't remember it. It's in the thread. Hang on...
Celeste Stewart
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Re: Formatting Rejection...Problem Solved!

Post by Celeste Stewart »

Okay, found two related threads discussing the link thing:

http://www.constant-content.com/forum/v ... hyperlinks

http://www.constant-content.com/forum/v ... ink#p40333

Good luck! Hopefully those threads will help.
m1ck1e
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Jan 11, 2011 10:31 am

Revision Problem

Post by m1ck1e »

Thanks! I've tried to remove any of the links that were 'invisible' to me...nothing was copy/pasted into the text so I'm not sure how they would have gotten there but I've done what I could to remove them. Will resubmit and see what happens.
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