Manuscript tech help

Doc · Mar 16, 2012

I have been so fortunate in finding help among our most kind and obliging members, I hope my good luck doesn't run out. I have two problems. (1) My novel length is in separate chapters each of which must be opened separately. Dumb, I know, but I did it. (2) And this to me is a real mystery. How do I upload and send an entire 90,000 word novel? O.K by attachment but still, will the attachment carry 90,000 words?

Mensch! Do I need advice. Someone please help.

Doc

alleycat · Mar 16, 2012

Are you using Word? If so, what version?

There is an Insert function in Word. Open the first file, be sure the cursor is at the bottom of the page, go to Insert > File and choose the second file, etc., etc.

Jamesaritchie · Mar 17, 2012

It should send just fine, and should be under one MB, unless you did something really strange.

If you have Word, and if all these documents are in the same folder, you can merge them all at once by using the merge tool. Just hold down ctrl to highlight all documents in the folder, click MERGE, and it does all the work for you.

robjvargas · Mar 17, 2012

Jamesaritchie said:
It should send just fine, and should be under one MB, unless you did something really strange.

If you have Word, and if all these documents are in the same folder, you can merge them all at once by using the merge tool. Just hold down ctrl to highlight all documents in the folder, click MERGE, and it does all the work for you.

IF the documents are named appropriately, I believe. A "file9.doc" might wind up merged *after* "file10.doc," "file11.doc" because, alphabetically, 9 comes *after* 10.

bonitakale · Mar 17, 2012

I had trouble getting a bunch of chapters into one, and wound up doing it the slow way--adding each one on to the end.

But I've been getting and sending back documents of 100,000 words in one attachment fairly regularly, with no problems.

Doc · Mar 19, 2012

Thank you all for your suggestions. I'll give each a try but suspect I'll end up following bonitatake's adding each chapter to the previous one. Story of my life. Don't get informed; do it nthe hard way.Sorry to be so long getting back to you all with a thank you but we've been hit by a monster storm here in CA; lots of problems. Doc

MKrys · Mar 19, 2012

This may be dumb, and I'm no techie, but couldn't you always copy and paste the chapters onto one document??

alleycat · Mar 19, 2012

MKrys said:
This may be dumb, and I'm no techie, but couldn't you always copy and paste the chapters onto one document??

Yep, that would work too.

blacbird · Mar 19, 2012

MKrys said:
This may be dumb, and I'm no techie, but couldn't you always copy and paste the chapters onto one document??

Beat me to it. This, exactly. You're making things way too difficult on yourself.

caw

alleycat · Mar 19, 2012

I think the OP would find using Insert easier than using copy-and-paste, but either way would work.

blacbird · Mar 19, 2012

alleycat said:
I think the OP would find using Insert easier than using copy-and-paste, but either way would work.

Bah. It's the easiest thing imaginable. I do it all the time. I do a lot of academic writing, and find it a simple and quick matter to assemble bits and pieces via copy-paste. I can't imagine anything could be quicker, until somebody produces an intuitive interface that works with thought waves.

caw

alleycat · Mar 19, 2012

blacbird said:
Bah. It's the easiest thing imaginable. I do it all the time. I do a lot of academic writing, and find it a simple and quick matter to assemble bits and pieces via copy-paste. I can't imagine anything could be quicker, until somebody produces an intuitive interface that works with thought waves.

caw

Well, yes, it's easy to do, no question about that, but if I had, say, forty separate, complete files to merge together, I would certainly rather insert them into a file than copy-and-paste each one. I think it would be easier, and there would be less chance of a mistake. But, each to their own. There is more than one way to, uh, skin a cat.

If I were taking "bits and pieces" from various files, then I would probably use copy-and-paste.

alleycat · Mar 20, 2012

Doc said:
Thank you all for your suggestions. I'll give each a try but suspect I'll end up following bonitatake's adding each chapter to the previous one. Story of my life. Don't get informed; do it nthe hard way.

One thing we haven't pointed out: whichever way you merge the files, you will probably want to put a section break between each chapter.

Are you familiar with section breaks?

bernster · Mar 30, 2012

I wouldn't put in section breaks until you get a good idea of what the layout of the final version is going to be and how the publisher will convert it.

But as far as the original issue. Yes, you can cut & paste contatenate a Word doc from several files in less than half an hour (CTRL-right click with mouse pointer off page boundary to highlight entire doc, CTRL-C to copy, go to end of destination doc and CTRL-V). But getting your styles under control is most important. I'll post on that elsewhere.

Manuscript tech help

Doc

Benefactor Member

alleycat

Still around

Jamesaritchie

robjvargas

bonitakale

Doc

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MKrys

Quietly obsessing

alleycat

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blacbird

alleycat

Still around

blacbird

alleycat

Still around

alleycat

Still around

bernster