Using email to write?

BlueDimity · Apr 17, 2010

I have a short story saved in my email. I wanted to submit it to an online publisher but before I could, my computer got messed up and I now cannot write on it. So I was wondering, should I just edit my story using my gmail, and then email it to a online publisher or should I wait (possibly a few months) until I can get a netbook where I can download OpenOffice onto it. But wouldn't it be fine if I just went to my email, and using the best format I can, edit it and then send it off? Thanks.

Cella · Apr 17, 2010

I'd check to see if the editor/agent wants an attachment or not.

Good luck!

Captcha · Apr 17, 2010

If you've already got gmail, just use google docs. I don't think the format will be quite as tight as you could get with OpenOffice (I don't think it does headers, for example, although maybe I just haven't figured them out yet), but it'll be a lot better than e-mail.

BlueDimity · Apr 17, 2010

Cella said:
I'd check to see if the editor/agent wants an attachment or not.

Good luck!

Thank you. I didn't think of that. Silly me. But if they wanted it, I'm sure I could figure something out. =]

BlueDimity · Apr 17, 2010

Kate_Sherwood said:
If you've already got gmail, just use google docs. I don't think the format will be quite as tight as you could get with OpenOffice (I don't think it does headers, for example, although maybe I just haven't figured them out yet), but it'll be a lot better than e-mail.

May I ask what Google Docs is?

Kateness · Apr 17, 2010

well, if you have gmail open, look at the top left of the screen

you'll see "gmail", "calendar", and then "documents". Click on the documents, and you'll see. you can create, edit and limitedly format documents there.

Also a handy as hell place to upload docs from your own computer for online storage

BlueDimity · Apr 17, 2010

Kateness said:
well, if you have gmail open, look at the top left of the screen

you'll see "gmail", "calendar", and then "documents". Click on the documents, and you'll see. you can create, edit and limitedly format documents there.

Also a handy as hell place to upload docs from your own computer for online storage

Sweet, thanks. Will anyone else be able to read my documents or is it just a private, email thing?

Kateness · Apr 17, 2010

Either. You can set them to private (which I do), or to share.

BlueDimity · Apr 17, 2010

Thank you. This was quite helpful.

Kateness · Apr 17, 2010

And I just looked, and this might be helpful to you regarding saving things in the right formats (ie if editors want things as attachments). When you open up a document, you can go to "File" and "download as" a html, pdf, rtf, doc, or openoffice file.

Edited to add, this might also be helpful: http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=58225

BlueDimity · Apr 17, 2010

Thank you so much. One last question, when I when I look at my google doc (I just created it) it says that my document is not shared, so I'm thinking that mean no stanger can look at it. Am I right?

Kateness · Apr 17, 2010

Yep.

That means only someone who is logged into your email address can see it.

BlueDimity · Apr 17, 2010

Great! *hugs* thanks.

Tracy · Apr 18, 2010

Kateness said:
Also a handy as hell place to upload docs from your own computer for online storage

GASP! I never thought of that. That's genius! I used to email my WIPs to my sister, but this is even better. Class!

shaldna · Apr 18, 2010

Do you mean that your comp is screwed? Or the email?

Deleted member 42 · Apr 18, 2010

You can use gmail, and write in the body of the email.

There's also Google Docs, which are potentially useful to you.

Kateness · Apr 18, 2010

Tracy said:
GASP! I never thought of that. That's genius! I used to email my WIPs to my sister, but this is even better. Class!

it is...because it saves the uploaded documents as plaintext rather than as a .doc/.docx/whatever. So if your original file or your other saved files get corrupted, you can get it just fine from your google docs. You may have to redo some formatting, but I'd rather that than lose a novel-length WIP.

BlueDimity · Apr 18, 2010

shaldna said:
Do you mean that your comp is screwed? Or the email?

My comp. Every file I had on my profile got deleted. Now I'm just trying to work with what I have, which is this profile that has 0 documents of mine and the internet

Matera the Mad · Apr 18, 2010

I don't know why more of you scatterbrained writers don't use Google docs :tongue

Kateness · Apr 18, 2010

Hey, I use it!

(and not because I'm paranoid. I totally don't upload a file to google docs every time before I put my computer to sleep, nosir)

Jamesaritchie · Apr 18, 2010

Does Google Docs still have a file size limitation?

Kateness · Apr 18, 2010

I believe so. I seem to recall difficulty saving files of more than 40,000 or so.

So I split the files up when I'm uploading them. My WIP has four parts; I've just decided to give them their own separate docs for ease of uploading.

EDIT: from the page "You can upload files up to 1024 MB. Files converted to Google Docs have smaller limits." This is because there's a checkbox that converts your files to google-doc format. I prefer this because it puts it in plaintext, even if it strips some formatting, thus easing my worry for viruses corrupting my word documents.

Using email to write?

BlueDimity

Cella

Cella

Captcha

BlueDimity

BlueDimity

Kateness

BlueDimity

Kateness

BlueDimity

Kateness

BlueDimity

Kateness

BlueDimity

Tracy

shaldna

The cake is a lie. But still cake.

Deleted member 42

Kateness

BlueDimity

Matera the Mad

Bartender, gimme a Linux Mint

Kateness

Jamesaritchie

Kateness