First Article submitted Go rejected

[sategroup]

Hi

I recently joined CC and submitted an article titled "Introduction to Java and its features". Unfortunately, the article got rejected and here is the reason.

==== Rejection Information for Your Article: ====

Submission does not follow our guidelines.

==== End Rejection Information for Your Article ====

Please help me on how to successfully submit the article and what wrong i have done.

Thanks in advance

[Ed]

Please read and follow our guidelines carefully. Guidelines are sent with each rejection notification and can be found at:

http://www.constant-content.com/area/wr ... elines.htm

Thanks,
Ed

[sategroup]

Thanks for the info Sir but i read those guidelines immediately after signing up but I am not sure of what part of the guideline I didn't follow up. If you can please guide me then I will be really grateful to you.

[sategroup]

If you can guide me where I am wrong with regard to my article then it will help in submitting future articles too otherwise I will keep finding the errors and I will never be able to know what went wrong with my submission.

Looking for positive response.
Thanks in advance

[Lysis]

Sategroup,

Here's the basic setup when you open your Word document:

Set the font to 12pt arial
Set the paragraph spacing to 1.0
Make sure to double space between paragraphs and headings.

Make sure to do "Save as" and save the file as a .doc if you are using Word 2007.

I use Word 2007, so I need to remember to do this each and every time. You can also setup a template to use in Word.

This is pretty much the basics when starting a new article.

[Celeste Stewart]

Re-read the guidelines:
http://www.constant-content.com/about/w ... elines.htm
There's so much more involved beyond formatting the document. Go through each guideline and ask yourself if the article meets it.
Make a checklist such as:
Punctuation, grammar, spelling
Introduction
Conclusion
Well organized and clear
Useful information
No first person/fiction/poetry
No derogatory remarks
Short summary
Long summary
Title capitalized properly
Paragraph spacing
Font
File type

Then go through each checklist item (I may have missed a few, so base your checklist off the guidelines) and check your article to be sure it conforms.

[Lysis]

oh yeah, duh. I skimmed through the rejection reason and read it as "file format does not meet guidelines."

Forget my post. Read Celeste's.

[libby]

Hi Lysis,
Did you mean that you have to change the file format to .doc on your Word documents every time you save a document? Try going to Word Options>Save. You can change it permanently (or until you want to change it again).

[Lysis]

Hey libby,

Yeah, I need to basically setup my file format every time. I don't want to change it permanently since docx > doc.

LOL

Thank you though. I used to get rejections on elance because potential clients couldn't open docx, so I understand the need to keep it as a doc.

[Celeste Stewart]

I haven't yet found .docx or .xlsx to be better than .doc or .xls (though I believe that Microsoft claims they're better and more stable). My .xlsx spreadsheets tend to crash more than my .xls ones. I like the .docx format for when I'm using charts and diagrams as they remain editable to other users rather than becoming static images, but other than that, I don't see the benefit of this format over the .doc format. I set Word 2007 to save all documents as .doc long ago because 99% of my work in Word is for CC and other clients who do not have .docx compatibility. Even now, nearly three years later, compatibility remains an issue.

What benefits have you seen in using .docx over .doc? Just curious. Maybe I've become too set in my non-docx ways

[cashwriter]

I read in the guidelines that articles can be submitted in .txt, html or .pdf formats. Does this mean I should re-save my MS Word .doc files in .txt format and re-submit them? Thanks for your prompt reply as two of my articles are submissions for public requests.

[Ed]

We accept doc files.

[cashwriter]

Sweet, thanks for your quick reply!