Wow. Smashwords FAIL

[Viper187]

Ok. What gives? I upload a very simple .DOC book to smashwords and it can't even maintain the line breaks when I viewed the HTML version on there, and it bitched about the epub version failing validation. Any ideas? I wrote the whole thing in Gedit and then saved it as doc. Probably the problem, but I've no idea how to fix it. the Word doc looks fine when I open it in OO.

Edit: Fixed

[Keryl Raist]

Have you tried the nuclear option?

Or more basically, have you followed the directions of the style guide step-by-step?

[Viper187]

Originally Posted by Keryl Raist

Have you tried the nuclear option?

Or more basically, have you followed the directions of the style guide step-by-step?

I followed the guide. I barely used any formatting in the document, so there should be no issues.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by Viper187

I followed the guide. I barely used any formatting in the document, so there should be no issues.

You've got extra returns between paragraphs, and some lines of text don't have a style applied to them.

[Keryl Raist]

These days I tend to think it's almost easier to take your base doc, make a copy, nuke it, and then go back in and put the formatting in the way they like it, than it is to do bits and pieces of fixes.

Compared to whipping it through the grinder three or four times, it's faster to just start from scratch.

[teh603]

Or write in .txt using an app like Notepad, where there is no formatting. Once you're finished, you import your .txt files- I like to have one for each chapter- and apply formatting as needed.

Best part is, going nuclear simply means reverting back to your original .txt files.

[Viper187]

Originally Posted by teh603

Or write in .txt using an app like Notepad, where there is no formatting. Once you're finished, you import your .txt files- I like to have one for each chapter- and apply formatting as needed.

Best part is, going nuclear simply means reverting back to your original .txt files.

That's what I did in the first place. Apparently, the difference in line breaks from a linux text editor is too complicated for Smashwords to compensate for and OpenOffice doesn't appear to have the option of saving it correctly as a Word doc. That's why I had to boot a Windows machine and copy the damn thing line by line into MS Word.

[teh603]

Originally Posted by Viper187

That's what I did in the first place. Apparently, the difference in line breaks from a linux text editor is too complicated for Smashwords to compensate for and OpenOffice doesn't appear to have the option of saving it correctly as a Word doc. That's why I had to boot a Windows machine and copy the damn thing line by line into MS Word.

I've never had the issue you've described. Did you have your text editor set up to automatically insert a linefeed or carriage return instead of automatically wrapping down to the next line? That could easily do it, but I'm not quite sure what kind of word processor would do that anymore. That isn't supposed to have been an issue since the days of the Apple II.

[Viper187]

Originally Posted by teh603

I've never had the issue you've described. Did you have your text editor set up to automatically insert a linefeed or carriage return instead of automatically wrapping down to the next line? That could easily do it, but I'm not quite sure what kind of word processor would do that anymore. That isn't supposed to have been an issue since the days of the Apple II.

No. Linux and Windows use different line break characters. A line break/return in a Windows file is 2 characters, while linux/unix systems only use one of those characters. From what I recall, anyway. Apparently, Smashwords' bullshit converter only expects people to write in Windows.

[teh603]

Well, given that most of the world has had it forced upon them, that's pretty much par for the course. I'm a little surprised that OO doesn't automatically do the conversions, though. Maybe try LibreOffice since they're supposed to have a better Word converter?

Edit: Found your problem: in your text editor, there should be a config option to switch it to windows mode. There is in Kate at least if you use a KDE-based distro. For a temporary switch its in the Tools menu, while a more permanent one is in the preferences.

[Keryl Raist]

Originally Posted by Viper187

No. Linux and Windows use different line break characters. A line break/return in a Windows file is 2 characters, while linux/unix systems only use one of those characters. From what I recall, anyway. Apparently, Smashwords' bullshit converter only expects people to write in Windows.

Well, it does say, more or less on the first page of the Smashwords Style Guide that the meatgrinder only works properly with Word.

I've used several programs, especially the free/shareware ones, and Word is still my favorite in terms of functionality.

But, you might want to see about getting a hold of scrivener, either for PC or Mac, and see how that does on conversions. I know a lot of writers absolutely love it.

[old goat]

Originally Posted by Viper187

Ok. What gives? ....
Edit: Fixed

I'm glad you fixed it. I'm surprised you couldn't save the file as word 97-2003 using OO's Save As function.

How did you fix it?

[morriss003]

I had trouble every time I submitted a book, because I would forget and have to reread the style guide. Finally, I got it right and then went back, deleted the text, and save the doc under a new style that I named 'ebook.' I was using Word 7. I seems like you would start out with a disadvantage if your operating system was linux.

[teh603]

Its only a disadvantage if you aren't aware of where the conversion issues are so you can plan ahead. Cause it'd probably kill hardware and software designers to adhere to established standards.