Creating a .rtf

I'm not familiar with Microsoft Works, but when if you select Save As from the File menu and it prompts you for the file name to save under and all that, there should be a drop down/pull down thing below that allowing you to change the file type.

If there isn't, you might want to consider downloading Libre Office. It's free and reads a ton of file types and allows you to save as .rtf.

(Be warned, saved documents in .rtf DO sometimes have glitches with the text formatting - italics that suddenly run on for paragraphs, loss of centered text, etc. (This is caused by "fancy" formatting code in the original file not translating to the .rtf, I think.) You can usually change all that once it's in .rtf and get it to stick, but make sure you look through something once you save it to a different file format. My understanding is that these glitches are usually not a rejectable offense, but it's always best to have your MS as clean as you can possibly make it.)

Aggy's right, LibreOffice is a safe bet. Best to move away from using old whackjob programs that don't even talk to each other.

...Oh, and if not clear, don't copy/paste, save as into an RTF file, then open this in the other application, e.g. in MS Works, File > Save as > RTF and then in LibreOffice, if you install it, File > Open > select the RTF file you saved (or right-click on the RTF in its folder, and select LibreOffice from the program options).

-Derek

Your 'save as' options might call it rich text instead of rtf. Open office is a free program that has rtf as a format option.

I know yWriter exports as a .rtf file. It also formats scene breaks, chapter breaks and chapter headings. The only thing I have had problems with is the indent spacing and that can be formatted in word afterwards.

It allows you to work on the ms in small chunks, as small as chapters or even scenes. You can choose to export selected scenes, selected chapters or the entire ms.

And it is free.

What version of Works do you have? As others above have said, you should be able to save as .rtf using File > Save As, clicking the file type dropdown, and choosing rtf/rich text format.

I'll add my endorsement for LibreOffice.

Little Ming said:

I'll add my endorsement for LibreOffice.

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And mine. I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would use WordPad or MS-Works to try to produce a submission-quality manuscript.

caw

blacbird said:

I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would use WordPad or MS-Works to try to produce a submission-quality manuscript.

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Because not everyone clairvoyantly knows what else is available out there. They just use whatever happened to be installed on their computer when they switched it on. That's why we're mentioning the alternatives! You get that, right?

-Derek

Because they are free and easily available and Libreoffice and other GNU platforms are not as well known as many think they are. Plus, in older versions of windows Wordpad came already installed as the default word processor...

.rtf is a format that seems to confuse a lot of people mainly because it is often hidden in the midst of a lot of other options for file formats in the save as menu. The main reason it is asked for by publishers is because it is one of the few formats that will successfully open most of the time in any word processor without losing too much of the formatting (and in my experience, if the formatting you use is lost when you convert to rtf, it wasn't necessary formatting and publishers will thank you for not using it). As the publisher doesn't know what word processor you have (it could be Word Perfect or Word or any number of others...) they have to ask for a format that they know will work on their system (especially now that Microsoft have created the really annoying .docx format which only works on the more recent versions of Word thereby forcing a lot of people to have to patch or upgrade).

I know a few people who prefer MSWorks and WordPad to Word or WordPerfect due to the lack of features. It's just easier to use for some. However, (and it's a BIG however) the truth is that if you hope to one day sell a manuscript, you're likely going to have to upgrade. Many more publishers and magazines are going to Track Changes (an editing feature in MSWord) to request corrections. I'm not sure even Libre or OpenOffice can see those notes, can they? I fear without the program that can see those comments or notes, you'll struggle with the process and possibly annoy the editor, who's on a deadline. I'm personally not a fan of Word. I prefer WordPerfect for writing. But I own Word so I can see edits & make sure my writing has successfully translated from WordPerfect before I send it back (call me stubborn...but willing to accept reality. )

I think a friend of mine who beta reads for me has Libre or Open office (never asked him but I don't think he paid for Office like I did because I had a student discount and money to spare...) and he tends to send me comments and edits using track changes. So far we have had no issues with this.

Any recent version of Works is really just a stripped down version of Word, and does have the capability of saving as .rtf. It's under "save as", and is listed as Rich Text Format.

For that matter, Works has always been able to save as .rtf. I wrote a lot of things using Works 4.0 and 4.1, and that was a long, long time ago. Even then, Works had .rtf and Word Doc options.

It's just that the default on Works is .wps, and you can't change the default, which means going to "save as" each time you save a new file.

Works is not a bad choice, and does everything any writer needs to make a submission ready file.

And if you like MS Words spell and grammar check, it beats LibreOffice because Works now comes with the same spell and grammar checks as the regular version of Word.