Scary! First finished draft. [fixing MS Word doc]

[Lenny Jennison]

Thank you for taking the time to check this thread out!

I just received my first official "near completed" version of 1/2 of my ms.

The original wip, will be split in two and reworked.

The first one came back and honestly, the format was a mess. I have spent the last hour reworking the "book" with just format changes. The woman who broke it down into chapters did an amazing job.

For some reason, the conversion to word destroyed most of her work, but not all.

Any tips anyone cares to share on how to "mass fix" a document? I am pretty knowledgeable about word itself, but there seems to be some formatting things that refuse to be reworked.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks :)

[Rufus Coppertop]

There is a forum for software questions like this called Tech Help

Maybe one of the moderators could move this over there where it belongs.

[Lenny Jennison]

There is a forum for software questions like this called Tech Help

Maybe one of the moderators could move this over there where it belongs.

ok, i was thinking more of the formatting but i will check that forum out. thanks.

[dangerousbill]

Word can be a good friend, but once in a while it will turn on you and the results are invariably bad. One way to really piss it off is to ask it to do something it doesn't know how to do.

But it also has hidden secrets, known only to the anointed. Hence the advice to let the techies have a run at this one.

[bonitakale]

If it's really screwed up, one possible solution is to copy the whole thing into something that takes out all the formatting, like Notepad.

Make sure you've set your options on Word so smart quotes are turned off, avoiding a possible cause of error.

Then copy the unformatted text into a new document.

Then you highlight the whole thing and do a paragraph format. Tell it you want lines double-spaced, no lines between paragraphs, and a half-inch indent for the first line of each paragraph.

That takes care of most of it. You want every chapter to start on a new page, but you can do a search for the word "chapter," and fix those individually.

Or am I misunderstanding the problem?

[Lenny Jennison]

Then you highlight the whole thing and do a paragraph format.

I tried highlighting the text and tried to reformat the paragraphs in the same document. That did not work. I guess i will have to try and copy the text, place it in a different program all together and then bring it to a press word documents.

Then I can see if this will help me clean up the MS.

Thanks for your insight.

[Old Hack]

You need to learn to work with styles within Word. I'm pretty sure that you'll be able to sort this one out but it'll take a lot of fiddling about.

[Lenny Jennison]

You need to learn to work with styles within Word.

What do you mean? I have a thorough knowledge about this piece of software. I have never seen these types of problems though.

One problem i can describe is that it is locked in double space. As i try to fix this the sentences will remain separated.

[Old Hack]

What do you mean? I have a thorough knowledge about this piece of software.

Well, if you have a "thorough knowledge about" Word, you won't need me to explain to you what styles are, or how they work. Ha!

[Medievalist]

1. Are you using tabs for paragraph indents?
Don't. Don't use tabs for anything but tables.

2. Turn on invisible characters and look for non-breaking spaces, soft-returns, etc.

3. If you don't know about Styles in word, you are not even a little bit knowledgeable, and you're doin' it wrong.

[Ken]

... something you might try too is 'Paste Special.' Highlight all the text by pressing Control-A. Then Control-X to cut it. Then Click Paste Special >> Unformatted. There are other options too. The text is probably still going to be messed up. That's almost a guarantee, but it may be in a form that's easier to fix.

Another thing: Did you try to open the document without letting word convert it? Is that possible? If you can open it w/o doing so you may get the document intact. (If you don't still have the original doc ask the person to resend.) G'luck.

[Lenny Jennison]

update: ok, so i figured out the problem. The editor is an elderly woman and had extensive use on typewriters. This is evidenced with the "hard return" she used in compiling her version.

[bonitakale]

Wow, hard returns. At the end of every line? Do you know how to fix them? I just had to check. You do control-f, then go to Advanced Find (click on the little down arrow), click on More at the bottom, and then on Special at the bottom of that.

Then you can take out the hard returns (which Word calls paragraph marks). But then you won't have any paragraphs.

Did your typist by any chance do an extra hard return between paragraphs? If so, you can replace all instances of "hard return hard return" with XXXX, and after you're done, you can replace XXXX with one hard return.

Or you could go through replacing all the hard returns at the end of paragraphs, individually, with XXXX, and then proceed as above. It would be slow, but not as slow as removing individually every one except the ones that need to be there.

[Lenny Jennison]

Wow, hard returns. At the end of every line? Do you know how to fix them? I just had to check. You do control-f, then go to Advanced Find (click on the little down arrow), click on More at the bottom, and then on Special at the bottom of that.

Then you can take out the hard returns (which Word calls paragraph marks). But then you won't have any paragraphs.

Did your typist by any chance do an extra hard return between paragraphs? If so, you can replace all instances of "hard return hard return" with XXXX, and after you're done, you can replace XXXX with one hard return.

Or you could go through replacing all the hard returns at the end of paragraphs, individually, with XXXX, and then proceed as above. It would be slow, but not as slow as removing individually every one except the ones that need to be there.

Wow, great break down! I fixed the errors by manually deleting the extra lines. Then i went through and cleaned up some of the sentences, they were a little wordy and some were redundant.

In the end, i will go through and change the font to courier and then a 10 pitch size.

Once i finish this, i will be submitting a query letter to GLH. (this has not been a friend of mine on this site. I will study GueryShark on non fiction pieces first)

Thank you!

[Old Hack]

update: ok, so i figured out the problem. The editor is an elderly woman and had extensive use on typewriters. This is evidenced with the "hard return" she used in compiling her version.

My bold.

The age and gender of the editor you chose to use has no relevance here. And it sounds like she didn't edit your work, she just typed it out for you.

Why did you select her to edit your work, and what are her qualifications and experience in editing? Did she charge you for this work?

Wow, great break down! I fixed the errors by manually deleting the extra lines. Then i went through and cleaned up some of the sentences, they were a little wordy and some were redundant.

In the end, i will go through and change the font to courier and then a 10 pitch size.

This is a standard tweak in Word: I'd have thought that someone with "a thorough knowledge about this piece of software" would have known how to do this.

Once i finish this, i will be submitting a query letter to GLH. (this has not been a friend of mine on this site. I will study GueryShark on non fiction pieces first)

QLH. QUERYshark.

I'm sorry that QLH "has not been a friend" of yours: if it's because people haven't responded to your query letters at all, then you will probably find that if you spend time helping others with their queries they'll reciprocate when you post one of your own.

However, if you've found the comments there too abrasive for your liking then I strongly urge you to reconsider them: it's difficult to hear that your writing needs improving, but the advice you'll have received will be well-meant and useful, too.

[bonitakale]

10-point? Why, when 12-point is standard?

[Lenny Jennison]

10-point? Why, when 12-point is standard?

From what i read the 10-12 was the standard. I didn't want to over inflate the word count with the 12, if 10 would work.

I will go ahead and put it in 12 when i m finished with it.

[Lenny Jennison]

My bold.

The age and gender of the editor you chose to use has no relevance here. And it sounds like she didn't edit your work, she just typed it out for you.

Why did you select her to edit your work, and what are her qualifications and experience in editing? Did she charge you for this work?



This is a standard tweak in Word: I'd have thought that someone with "a thorough knowledge about this piece of software" would have known how to do this.



QLH. QUERYshark.

I'm sorry that QLH "has not been a friend" of yours: if it's because people haven't responded to your query letters at all, then you will probably find that if you spend time helping others with their queries they'll reciprocate when you post one of your own.

However, if you've found the comments there too abrasive for your liking then I strongly urge you to reconsider them: it's difficult to hear that your writing needs improving, but the advice you'll have received will be well-meant and useful, too.

Wow, pretty abrasive comments for a mod, don't you think.

Ok, maybe my knowledge wasn't as extensive as styles. Drop it.

QLH: It wasn't my friend because they pointed out valid points in my work that needed work. I am not angry about it. I simply meant that I submitted something less than acceptable, and they called me on it. That is fine.

[Old Hack]

From what i read the 10-12 was the standard. I didn't want to over inflate the word count with the 12, if 10 would work.

Lenny, the font size you use has no impact on your word-count. Use 12-point. It's much easier to read.

Wow, pretty abrasive comments for a mod, don't you think.

No, I don't think so, and I didn't intend them to be: but if you have a problem with my post, feel free to report it. I'm sure that the mods who look after this part of AW will consider your complaints carefully.

As for my comments: I still don't think it was pertinent that the person who edited your work is an "elderly woman". You might want to consider why I think this, and why it's important.

Ok, maybe my knowledge wasn't as extensive as styles. Drop it.

You don't get to tell anyone around here what they can and can't talk about. Tread carefully.

QLH: It wasn't my friend because they pointed out valid points in my work that needed work. I am not angry about it. I simply meant that I submitted something less than acceptable, and they called me on it. That is fine.

I've caught up with your posts in QLH now and see that you were given a lot of very good advice there, and all for free. I'm grateful for such help: I certainly wouldn't say that QLH had "not been a friend of mine" if I'd been helped to improve my work there.

[Lenny Jennison]

You don't get to tell anyone around here what they can and can't talk about. Tread carefully.


Drop it, was more of a suggestion, seeing as you choose to keep bringing up the subject. I had ignored your prior posts, yet found you were still commenting on mine. I do not need to report you. I can officially ignore you.


I've caught up with your posts in QLH now and see that you were given a lot of very good advice there, and all for free. I'm grateful for such help: I certainly wouldn't say that QLH had "not been a friend of mine" if I'd been helped to improve my work there.

again, you may have read what i wrote but misinterpreted what i meant. Not too surprising. What i meant by "not a friend of mine" meant that it was really honest and people weren't as excited as the result as i had been. In turn, i took the "free advice" and continued to work on the queries. This seems like you really have hostility in your life. I am sorry for you. I have long ago given up on arguing about trivial things. You can continue to rant about the things i say and the errors i make. That is your choice. I choose to move on to more helpful means of communicating with the people on this site.

I hope this letter finds you well, and you understand the true meaning. I am not here to argue, but to learn.

[dpaterso]

The thread was moved to Tech Help forum to attract expert opinions on how to "fix" your bust document. Answers have been given, time to close this and move on.

-Derek