I'm intending on being brave/adventurous/stupid* and I was wondering (checking) whether the following symbols/characters(and similar) used within a story submission would transfer from a word document to a web page to the story submission wizard without causing chaos/errors/headaches* in the final version that the readership sees on the site.
Abid nopk ú, mnopads na cerin
Dúéftry frèss anggut comraÿ
Estel ni nser cãss.
Ĺőŕŧ
*(Delete as applicable)
Yes, you're fine.
I've used a lot of special characters over the four novels, courtesy of throwing spelling in from Spanish, German, Arabic, Hindi, and Russian. If it's got a code, it'll translate into HTML okay.
I understand the purpose of inserting sentences using other languages.
However, I personally don't like the practice. It interrupts my concentration and the flow of the story. I especially do not like it when the author expects me to recall what the phrase means and doesn't provide me with the translation on future usage of the phrase.
I started a story by an author who did that and gave his reader a long list of the phrases and words he would use. There is no way that I would remember the meanings and there is no way I was going to go back to his phrase/word list multiple time in a chapter. I dropped the story part way through the first chapter and gave it a very low rating.
However, I personally don't like the practice. It interrupts my concentration and the flow of the story.
I fully agree and concur! However, in this case, it's deliberate as I want the reader to experience a little of the confusion, helplessness and frustration the MC experiences.
I have absolutely no intention of forcing the reader to remember phrases, for the simple reason that I, also, would have to remember them and that aint bloody happening... It takes me all my time just to remember how to spell English words without adding a fictional language to the mix...
Basically every UTF-8 character I've thrown at the system has been fine — Cyrillic, Kanji, Mandarin, Swedish, Spanish, Polish, Czech, Turkish, Arabic, &c. Even emoji (in pseudo AIM messages).
It's not necessarily fine for readers. I'm not impressed when I see a row of 'squares' instead of something I can read.
AJ
It's not necessarily fine for readers. I'm not impressed when I see a row of 'squares' instead of something I can read.
Especially when it's in reference to 'you' ;)
Especially when it's in reference to 'you' ;)
I've never liked stories written in the second person ;-)
AJ
I've never liked stories written in the second person ;-)
LOL... I can easily kill the second person off...
I'm not impressed when I see a row of 'squares' instead of something I can read.
Hmm, that usually happens when you did something stupid, like selecting a font for display that isn't fully Unicode (meaning the font designer omitted characters).
The UTF-8 character code is present, but the system don't know what to display because the font creator didn't provide the necessary data.
BTW, Microsoft's default font for VB6 was MS Sans Serif which can't display some characters like the en-dash.
HM.
Hmm, that usually happens when you did something stupid, like selecting a font for display that isn't fully Unicode (meaning the font designer omitted characters).
I accept the compliment, but really I'm too stupid to select 'a font for display'. I just accept whatever gets thrown in my direction.
AJ
In addition to what Michael Loucks stated: HTML has a way to specify a different language from the default (in-line): use a span with the property lang="xx" where xx is of course the language.
A list of the language codes: https://www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_language_codes.asp.
I discovered that in some older browsers it's necessary to use this to get a correct display of some characters but I have no idea if SOL supports this. In a perfect world you could mark the language in your word processor and the SOL conversion would automatically implement this. Lazeez can tell you if this is possible.
That said, I agree with REP and Pixy in that I don't like foreign language for which I have to switch to a reference multiple times. Maybe one day SOL implements tooltips so you can just hover or tap to see the translation. It works in epubs so no reason why on line reading shouldn't support it :D
In a perfect world you could mark the language in your word processor and the SOL conversion would automatically implement this. Lazeez can tell you if this is possible.
Not needed.
Since UTF-8 handles all languages, any browser that can properly handle UTF-8 (anything created since 2010) there is no need for special handling of different languages if the text is properly encoded in UTF-8.
Maybe one day SOL implements tooltips so you can just hover or tap to see the translation.
Could be easily supported if it were ever required, but considering that very few authors would even know how to handle this, it would be superfluous support for something that is extremely rare.
Not needed.
Since UTF-8 handles all languages, any browser that can properly handle UTF-8 (anything created since 2010) there is no need for special handling of different languages if the text is properly encoded in UTF-8.
I have an old VM with Debian Wheezy and Firefox ESR 52.8 (2016?) which does require the lang properties otherwise is doesn't correctly display a page I have with some kanji characters. That's why I said "some older browsers". In the current versions that is of course not necessary. Logically, even that old version should have displayed the characters correctly but without the lang properties it doesn't.
Could be easily supported if it were ever required, but considering that very few authors would even know how to handle this, it would be superfluous support for something that is extremely rare.
It was a fun remark. I don't see much use for it by authors either, although I do use them in my custom library for clarification of unknown terms or language.
I do think you underestimate a big part of the author population on SOL, I think most would know or learn how to use such a feature very well. The "extremely rare" could become "extremely common" very fast if you think about it: look at the discussions here on the forum about acronyms, military ranks, etc. and you have perfect examples where tooltips can be very helpful.
Could be easily supported if it were ever required, but considering that very few authors would even know how to handle this, it would be superfluous support for something that is extremely rare.
You can be sure I'd use it for Good Medicine!
I could actually see a use for this. Though it would be mainly for comedic purposes, like the early works of Terry Pratchett, where he would use a little asterix linking you to an amusing footnote at the bottom of the page.
foreign language for which I have to switch to a reference
That's why, when I tend to have one character say something in a foreign language that isn't immediately obvious (like merde), I have another character repeat it in English. Thus, my Russian said 'Yob Tovayu Mat' and the American replied, 'Fuck your mother, indeed.'
I submit my stories in HTML and a lot of them have words containing letters with accents etc, and they carry across the submission system exactly as they are in the original document with no trouble and without being converted to special codes and the like.
IMO it wasn't jarringly intrusive.
But you might want to ask management to sort out the chapter numbers. You added chapter 3 but the SOL home page details claim chapter 4 was added.
(Better still, write chapter 4 pronto!)
AJ
But you might want to ask management to sort out the chapter numbers. You added chapter 3 but the SOL home page details claim chapter 4 was added.
This was, technically a fault of mine. Originally there was two chapters, which I re-wrote, re-submitted as one chapter and deleted the redundant second chapter, and all was good. When I wrote and posted the third chapter, it appeared as the second chapter, but was, technically correctly the third. I asked the Elf's in management to correct the numbering, which they did and all was good.
Right up until I posted the latest chapter, which -technically- is the fourth, but is actually now the third and everything reverted back to what it was. So I've shrugged my shoulders.
Besides, I get lots of messages from people pointing out the discrepancy. Which is nice, as otherwise I probably wouldn't get any feedback.... LOL