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Formatting questions

Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2016 2:59 pm
by hexxus
Hey, everyone. I am waiting for my first three articles to get reviewed. However, I went to edit an article, and I noticed the formatting was not the way I left it. I went through and carefully added a single space between each paragraph before submitting the article, but when I went to edit it, there were four spaces between each paragraph. I tried to fix the spacing, but it only saves with four spaces each time. From what I understand, this issue will get my articles rejected.

I have also heard that authors can have their accounts banned for rejected articles, and I would not want to lose out on a possible writing platform over a formatting issue. So, does anyone know why I am having this problem or how I can fix it? I did some research, and I read how other authors have had a similar problem when using Word to write their articles. I tried to reformat it in Word, but I can't seem to fix the spacing issue.

Re: Formatting questions

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2016 12:18 pm
by DCOrange
Hi, Hexxus -- I'm pretty new myself and haven't encountered precisely your problem, although I've had the program weirdly change my word count, even after I fixed and re-saved it. Unfortunately, it appears that you can't write notes to editors in original submissions. You can, however, write to them in resubmissions after rejections (don't let that word throw you; just fix what the editor finds fault with and re-send it). If the program refuses to cooperate, explain it in your note to the editor.

If I were you, though, I might simply abandon copy-and-paste from Word and transcribe the article word-for-word into the submission field. I'd at least try it for a paragraph or two to see if the spacing issue is solved. It's tedious, but might save you an initial rejection. Best of luck. I'll be interested to know if it works. Cheers.

Re: Formatting questions

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2016 12:53 pm
by DeeJay
This happens to me too, Hexxus. But I've never had an article rejected because of it.

Re: Formatting questions

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2016 1:47 pm
by ScottBrodie
I've dealt with the same problems you're having. Here's how I solved them:

1. Save copy as a plain text file, then copy that and paste it into CC's editor. You'll still have to make adjustments, but it should work. (Watch bullets!)

Or

2. In CC's editor, go to the beginning of each paragraph and delete until you delete the last character of the previous paragraph (or line). Then, retype that last character and press enter the appropriate number of times for spacing. For example:

Step 1
This is the first paragraph.


This is the second paragraph.

Step 2
This is the first paragraphThis is the second paragraph.

Step 3
This is the first paragraph.

This is the second paragraph.

Hope that helps!

Re: Formatting questions

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2016 1:48 pm
by Lysis
You won't get kicked for formatting.

What I do is set my Word to single space and no added spaces after paragraphs, so basically I have to hard return twice between paragraphs. Then, you can copy/paste without issues to the CC form.

Re: Formatting questions

Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2016 10:56 am
by Isabelnewth
I learned that trick from Lysis, and I can vouch for its efficacy! :)

Re: Formatting questions

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2016 4:41 am
by hexxus
Thanks for the help, everyone. I guess I was overthinking the formatting issue, but I solved it with the advice you folks were kind enough to give. I also noticed holding shift when creating a new line prevents the issue I was having. I'm glad I was able to resolve this; I was spending as much time trying to format as it took me to write my articles :lol:.