Why do my Word Documents change?

Joyous · May 30, 2012

Good morning all!

I guess I've learned to send only PDF files to agents, as I sent a word file that looked fine when I read it and then looked like a mess when my cc. copy to myself came back to me. :flag:

I reworked it and sent it as a PDF file and it looked perfect. Can you tell me why the Word Doc (that looked fine in Pages, and which I then exported as a Word Doc, (I'm on a Macbook) later come out like this example below, :evil

with only a few words on each line? If it's a margin problem, please help! I don't know how to set those!!!!!! Why/how does it change so drastically as an attachment sent by email, when it looks all right earlier? Here is what came over. :Shrug:

"What a lovely
morning
it is, Sylvia
can
this be love?"

(Just an example, not from my real ms!)

Any help much appreciated!
Joyous :snoopy:

Deleted member 42 · May 30, 2012

Are you attaching the MS Word file or copying and pasting from it?

Fins Left · May 30, 2012

Did the agent get the same crappy looking file?

IF Yes, then your margins might be messed up or your export filter might be corrupted (or you're using the wrong export format, but don't realize it).

IF ONLY YOU had the crappy file, then your import filter may be corrupted or you used the wrong import format.

Try using RFT instead. RFT is compatible with Word and a much better (standardized) cross-platform export/import format.

If you export it to RFT, email it to yourself, then get the same wonkiness... that rules out the export/import filters and I would look at the margins, etc. [I've never heard of Page and don't work on Mac so can't help you there.] The sample text that you posted in your message would also make me wonder if columns had been set in the document, because they result in a very narrow space. But the "can" would have been on the same line as the next words below it.

There are problems that can come from moving files between Mac/Unix and Windows/Dos based systems, but I'm assuming that your file was saved on your Mac and the file from your email was also saved back to the same Mac.

Joyous · May 30, 2012

I'm attaching it as a Word Document, not sending it within the body of the email. It looks fine when I first look it us as a Word Doc, but when I send it over, it's a mess!

Joyous · May 30, 2012

Fins Left said:
Did the agent get the same crappy looking file?
Gosh I hope not, but I'm not sure!

IF Yes, then your margins might be messed up or your export filter might be corrupted (or you're using the wrong export format, but don't realize it).
Thank you, I will check that out. If I can figure out how to do that. I may check with the Apple Genuis Bar. They are seriously good folks too.

IF ONLY YOU had the crappy file, then your import filter may be corrupted or you used the wrong import format.

Try using RFT instead. RFT is compatible with Word and a much better (standardized) cross-platform export/import format.
Although I'm not familiar with RFT, I will research that, thank you.

If you export it to RFT, email it to yourself, then get the same wonkiness... that rules out the export/import filters and I would look at the margins, etc. [I've never heard of Page and don't work on Mac so can't help you there.] The sample text that you posted in your message would also make me wonder if columns had been set in the document, because they result in a very narrow space. But the "can" would have been on the same line as the next words below it.

There are problems that can come from moving files between Mac/Unix and Windows/Dos based systems, but I'm assuming that your file was saved on your Mac and the file from your email was also saved back to the same Mac.

Yes, all on the same Mac, etc. I've heard that Word Documents can really look strange, as one person might have a different version of Word, so their attachment comes over looking odd. Thanks for the kind help, and also, you can see I don't know how to properly multi quote, so I'm just putting my answer in blue.

Can you help me with multiquoting? I've never understood that on internet forums!

In the meantime, I felt I had to send to the agents who are reading the ms. one additional file by PDF, and it looked fine before and after I sent it, at least on my Macbook. I had some revisions anyway. I hope that wasn't an inconvenience to them, as I do value their time. I just really worried about how it looked to them as it came over that first time.

I am wondering: Is it possible that the FIRST time I sent the Word Doc as an attachment, that it was all right, but that when I went to the email attachment later, that that is not a true reading of how it looked to the agent and to me, several days after I sent it? This is really a mystery.

I swear I recall checking it many times before sending that Word Doc. attachment over, and sometimes I just like to see what I sent agents orginally, and I will go back in and look at the original attachment as it is in the email and click on it. That's what happened today: I went in to look at the original Word Doc. attachment link in the original email, clicked on it and everything was askew, and I really don't think it was like that the first time.
Any help appreciated!

Very gratefully
Joyous

Little Ming · May 30, 2012

Actually, it's .rtf

Why do my Word Documents change?

Joyous

Deleted member 42

Fins Left

Joyous

Joyous

Little Ming