Forum: Editors/Reviewers Hangout

We can submit doc and docx files and retain the format.

I think docx only (not doc) based on Lazeez's recent announcement. And that only happened a couple of days ago, so before he changes the guidelines he wants some feedback first (that's my assumption).

There wasn't any announcement about changing SOL's view of the ellipsis. To my knowledge, the Wizard changes it to 3 dots with a space on either side. Why would submitting in docx format change that?

Late to the discussion, once again, but … yes, SOL does display ellipses (I've never seen a vertical ellipsis, though I know they do exist somewhere), however, it's got to be properly prepared. Using a U-codes is NOT sufficient, as they are often machine or font specific, and are not universally displayed across a wide variety of uses.

First, you need to ensure that whichever writing tool you're using (Word, OpenOffice, text editor) is set up to automatically convert three consecutive dots into an ellipsis (the proper name for the punctuation mark). If it's instead converting it to U-codes, that's likely the source of your error.

If it is, then yes, SOL will accept and display it properly, however you submit it. But, if you're in doubt, then simply use the … html command.

I've been using them for many years, and this approach has always worked reliably.

Hint: If you got a single file which displayed improperly, a more likely scenario is that you mistakenly encoded it wrong. SOL defaults (or converts to) charset=UTF-8. I frequently code in universal Windows character set (designed to display Windows websites on ANY browser), which also converts effortlessly, but others are less forgiving, often deleting the characters. If I'm not mistaken, the UTF-8 character set will not save alternate characters unless they are properly coded (i.e. they'll eliminate any … but will keep any & hellip; commands.

Exactly what is a "windows website"?

One that won't display on a Linux machine ;)

AJ

Exactly what is a "windows website"? The de facto standard for web pages is UTF-8 which displays correct on all operating systems and browsers.

A 'windows' character set emulates the Windows specific browsers of old. The problem with UTF-8, is that it requires manually changing ALL the 'special characters', often by hand. Instead, I find using the "windows-1252" charset useful (at least when posting to SOL), as it allows me to post my story directly from the source documents, without my having to manipulate it, like I typically do when posting to ePub, which requires UTF.

Either way, UTF doesn't really fully support the machine specific codes, as they are dependent on either the correct browser or the correct font, and thus often fail when the readers switches the font to make it easier to read.

No. The correct way is to start of with UTF-8 from the very beginning. Using the ISO-8859 standard is only fine if your work is only used on Windows machines, which in case of the web is very likely not so.

Sorry, but that's simply not true. The ISO-8859 standard was so that any website would display correctly on ANY Windows device, thus the coding works on other devices too.

The trick, as I mentioned, is you having to code the UTF-8 'special characters' (smart quotes, punctuation marks, accent marks of foreign characters) by hand. I typically handle that by using the older Adobe Dreamweaver software, which allows you to copy the 'source text' (in one window) to the display text in the other window). Not only does it automatically convert (mostly) all the characters for you, it also neatly divides them into bit sized chunks for easier viewing and editing.

As for font-support, publishing characters are (supposedly) supported by ALL (complete) fonts, however when converted to html (in whichever charset), they're typically converted using the # format rather than html commands, which means they'll ONLY be displayed properly on certain more popular devices. :(

Trust me, I do the conversions by hand for each chapter (generally in the 20s) in each novel (17+, not counting all the formats I produce them in). It's always work getting them to display properly while also cutting out all the CRAP that WORD dumps into your html files that makes the html code as slow as crap.

But, over the years, I've gotten VERY good at producing consistently clean code (hint: the Mac's 'save as webpage, filtered" command is very good at eliminating everything but the in-line html formatting codes).

yes, SOL does display ellipses

Unless something has changed, SOL converts it to 3 dots. And there was something with SOL adding a space before it. I think I didn't want it but SOL put it in (or visa versa — it's been a while).