| Author |
Message |
    
Michael Ball
Awareness Member
Post Number:
7
Registered: 05-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, June 08, 2005 - 01:38 pm: |   |
I have a problen with my final manuscript which is written in MS Word. To divide a change of scene in a chapter, I added three spaces and then put a few ******** in the next line so I would not miss the scene change during my rewrites.
Once I put in 5 of these or more, the MS program placed a solid line across the page at that spot.
I kept doing this until I finished the book and figured I would go back and delete them on rewrite. After five rewrites, I still cannot delete these lines. They are not a table that I can see, or a page break. I can't highlight them. I can move the solid line up or down a page by adding or deleting blank lines of text, but nothing I do will erase the solid lines (at least permenantly because I have gotten some to disappear only to reappear when I reopen my Word document.
I am stumpted. Any one have the fix for this?
Thanks,
Mike |
Laurel Johnson
Unity Member
Post Number:
3929
Registered: 01-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, June 08, 2005 - 02:08 pm: | |
I have the same problem and can't answer your question after the fact, but can tell you what I did to prevent those damnable solid lines.
If you use stars or any other marker that turns into a solid line in Word, click on EDIT and UNDO immediately and it will go back to the original marker. I have no idea how to undo those solid lines after a manuscript is completed. Nothing I tried ever worked.
Laurel Johnson
Author: The Grass Dance
The Alley of Wishes
Color of Laughter, Color of Tears
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LaurieAnne
Unity Member
Post Number:
1954
Registered: 12-2001
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, June 08, 2005 - 03:03 pm: | |
Michael, (and Laurel)
When MS Word changes the marks to that wonderful automatic line, just hit the back space key once. You have to do that at the time it changes. If you keep going, it considers that you have accepted that change and will recode the file so that it recognizes the line rather than the asterisks. (It does this same thing with a few other characters, but I never remember what they are until I use them and start swearing at the computer.)
As for POV changes, though, where you would see in the book two extra lines between paragraphs, put three lines. On the center, insert three asterisks. In general, 3 will not trigger the automatic line. You know what they are there for, and if you want them to stand out more, highlight them and make the font size huge. It is generally when you use more than three (oh yeah, another is the wonderful underscore mark) that triggers the line to pop on. I am always able to fix it with a single backspace.
I'll double-check the options folder to see if there is a way to turn off that feature. I design forms in a different program and don't need it, personally.
LaurieAnne
OPEN SUBMISSIONS: Random Acts of Kindness
Available now:
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LaurieAnne
Unity Member
Post Number:
1955
Registered: 12-2001
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, June 08, 2005 - 03:08 pm: | |
Go to TOOLS
AUTOCCORRECT OPTIONS
AUTO FORMAT AS YOU TYPE
BORDER LINES
Uncheck the Border Lines Box. This will stop the asterisks from changing to lines.
LA
P.S.
Do the above change, then go in and delete the existing lines, then insert the asterisks you want. Tedious, but once you have border lines turned off, you won't have to worry about it again.
OPEN SUBMISSIONS: Random Acts of Kindness
Available now:
THE BUTTERFLY GAME, Gloria Davidson Marlow ISBN 0-9722385-4-9 |
Michael Ball
Awareness Member
Post Number:
8
Registered: 05-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, June 08, 2005 - 05:12 pm: | |
LA,
That did not remove the old lines. As a matter a fact it auto formatted my whole book. I quickly hit undo, so no damage done, but this line thing is nuts. After MS Word reformatted my total document, I was scared to try to delete the exiting lines like you said because the undo button will only work on the last operation.
Thanks for the idea. I know you are correct that it will not turn the astricks into lines that way, but after the fact seems to cause a disaster on my manuscript far more than a five or six extra lines.
I wonder if the readers will wonder why that line is on the bottom of five or six pages. (I actually wrote text above and below the line to keep it at the bottom of a page and just used three spaces to change scenes. Maybe the publisher can just use 'white out' on it.
These lines must be able to be deleted. Is this a Bill Gates trick? At least I have learned not to divide anything with *** or ###. Those things will kill you.
Any other ideas out there?
Thanks for trying Laurie and LA. I'll keep working on it.
Mike |
Todd Hunter
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
2504
Registered: 02-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 09, 2005 - 04:59 am: | |
In addition to (er, instead of) hitting the backspace key, you can also hit the undo button (if you're really into using the mouse) or if you're a keyboard person, you can hit CTRL-z, after the autocorrection happens. The CTRL-z is a bit handier for me, since my fingers are right over that area anyway (shorter stretch than the backspace key... ;-D ).
Not sure why the process LA gave for changing the settings would have autoformatted the entire book, because there's nothing in my version (Word 2000) that I see would do that.
What version of Word do you have? That would help narrow down what kind of help to give (for example, Word XP may have (though I wouldn't know why) a different technique than Word 2000).
I would think there would be a way to do an "edit/replace" with the border...but I didn't see anything with a cursory glance through the available options...
Another trick (which I use) is to put a tab between each asterisk. Apparently, this seems to fool the autocorrect program...
Mindsight Moderator
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Harry Simenon
Wisdom Member
Post Number:
677
Registered: 10-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 09, 2005 - 01:16 pm: | |
You could try to select the area around the line and delete it.
That’s how I once got rid of it on word (96?)
If not you could try to make the codes visible and delete the code that causes the problem.
I don't can't remember how you can do that with word. Word for XP doesn’t have the problem anymore.
Neither does Appleworks 6. |
Fred Dungan
Unity Member
Post Number:
1075
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 09, 2005 - 01:16 pm: | |
I know for a fact that different editions of Word vary so greatly that some are not compatible with others. I cannot, for example, open illuminated files created with Word '97 on my new XP Word processor without having some illustrations not ahow and others distorted beyond recognition.
Word '97 represented an attempt to add graphics to Word text. Judging by later editions of Word, the public's reaction was less than favorable.
http://www.fdungan.com/vigilantes.htm |
Michael Ball
Awareness Member
Post Number:
9
Registered: 05-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 09, 2005 - 03:09 pm: | |
Thanks Todd, Harry , and Fred
I have XP Word and it is totally different my old Word '97. I used to highlight the line and then delete it. When I followed LA good advice, but got frightened when the steps changed my fonts, page breaks, font size, and I don't know what else. I hit undo instead of trying to delete the line because if I deleted the line, I could not hit the undo botton and get my original document back. After months of working on it and being within 15 pages of my final edit, I turned chicken and left it alone.
MS software has fooled me before but I have used them for years so I am not a rookie, but this border or line creation is a new one to me.
Thanks for all your help. If I come up with a solution I will post it.
Go Pistons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mike |
LaurieAnne
Unity Member
Post Number:
1956
Registered: 12-2001
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 09, 2005 - 04:18 pm: | |
Hey, Michael,
Try this before you do anything else.
Do a Save As and rename the file so that you have a secondary copy. Then, you can play around with testing the secondary file all you want until you figure out what works. I do that all the time so that if I go too far and someone hits the save and close while I'm off to the little girl's room, I don't have to worry about losing the original document.
Then you can try to delete the lines or whatever else you want.
LA
OPEN SUBMISSIONS: Random Acts of Kindness
Available now:
THE BUTTERFLY GAME, Gloria Davidson Marlow ISBN 0-9722385-4-9 |
Jan Fields
Wisdom Member
Post Number:
843
Registered: 09-2001
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 09, 2005 - 05:45 pm: | |
Michael,
Go to FORMAT
Then BORDERS AND SHADING
Be sure you're on the "borders" tab
Then click "none" which is on the left side of your box.
Then click okay.
It will remove ALL lines from your document...you don't have to highlight them or anything but you'll need to put in new dividers.
I know it works because I have Windows XP and I just put one of those horrible lines in a document and piddled 'til I found how to get rid of it.
Jan |
Todd Hunter
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
2505
Registered: 02-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 09, 2005 - 07:14 pm: | |
Would you have to select the whole document first (CTRL-a)?
Mindsight Moderator
Check out Who Needs a Hero?
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Jan Fields
Wisdom Member
Post Number:
844
Registered: 09-2001
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 09, 2005 - 08:08 pm: | |
Todd,
No, I didn't. I had not selected any part of the document. It simply removed all of those full page lines (which, in the case of the document I had open was only one line) because they are a kind of border line (that's why you can't select them and delete them as seems logical. Technically, they are a type of page setting not a manuscript element so when you set to have no borders, they simply *poof* vanish.
Which is nice because I hate those lines and I've accidentally gotten them before. I've just never messed with it long enough to figure out how to get rid of them before.
Jan |
Todd Hunter
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
2506
Registered: 02-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 09, 2005 - 08:34 pm: | |
Like I said, I usually just hit a tab in between each of the three asterisks...
When you don't get them in the first place, you don't have to get rid of them.
;-)
For those following along at home, apparently not selecting anything before changing borders is an XP thing...because in Word 2000, selection (or at least strategic cursor placement) is required before removing borders...I guess they must have considered it paragraph formatting before, and now it's page formatting? Always fun...
Mindsight Moderator
Check out Who Needs a Hero?
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Harry Simenon
Wisdom Member
Post Number:
682
Registered: 10-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 10, 2005 - 03:59 pm: | |
At work I tried to copy an article from internet into Word.
Word disapeared into a digital black hole, and took the file I was working on with it.
I couldn't open the file anymore.
The whole computer seemed to lock up, even the task manager.
Finally I managed to get it back again (restart worked with a recovered file)
I once noticed an alarming message in red, but I'm so used to clicking away alarming messages that I have no idea what it said.
I see the "Please sent an error report to Microsoft" quite a lot, but the red ones are rare.
Pitty I can't remember what action had caused it.
The guy I share the office with usually says things like "@#$%$@^%&*!!" while working.
Next week I wil start pressing all the keys. Perhaps I get a green message?
I'm really pleased with my Mac at home, after a day Wintel at work. It must be me. |
Matt Dinniman
Hsympothai Member
Post Number:
335
Registered: 04-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, June 12, 2005 - 11:46 am: | |
Jan is right. That line is a border. The added line that gets in there after you hit *** or ### or ___ or +++ can be a pain to delete if you don't know what it is because the old standby of going into "outline" mode doesn't work. These lines almost always seem to be bottom borders. So if you just want to delete one of them without altering the entire document, put your cursor on the line immediately above the annoying line, (and like Jan says) go to format --> Borders and Shading. Click on "none" on the top left. Presto!
Word is a great program, but that autoformat can kill you. I have everything in there turned off. |
Harry Simenon
Wisdom Member
Post Number:
686
Registered: 10-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, June 12, 2005 - 01:46 pm: | |
The Return of The Son of Lotus Notes:
If you reschedule a meeting in Lotus Notes, often it doesn't work properly. |
Jan Fields
Wisdom Member
Post Number:
845
Registered: 09-2001
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, June 12, 2005 - 02:40 pm: | |
Matt,
Thanks, I probably did have the cursor just above the line. I couldn't figure out why I didn't have to select anything but Todd did. Though I was also futzing with a very short manuscript and I had only made one line (which is actually tricky to do when you have all your autoformating turned off...I hate that autoformating stuff.)
Jan |
Fred Dungan
Unity Member
Post Number:
1081
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, June 12, 2005 - 08:00 pm: | |
The autoformatting is there to assist you in placing chapter breaks where they belong. Before autoformatting, the chapters had to be printed individually for the manuscript to come out looking professional. When printing a 150 page manuscript with 20 or more chapters (as I often do), autoformatting can be a welcome timesaver.
http://www.fdungan.com/vigilantes.htm
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Todd Hunter
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
2508
Registered: 02-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 13, 2005 - 05:20 am: | |
I trust the autoformatting function of Word about as much as I trust the spellchecker...
Mindsight Moderator
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LaurieAnne
Unity Member
Post Number:
1958
Registered: 12-2001
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 13, 2005 - 10:33 am: | |
Gee, Todd, is that the plane truth? Isn't that spellchecker a pane in the but? Canned ewe just sea what help it kin bee to someone who can knot spiel?
Okay, that's just too much work. LOL
I agree on both of your sentiments.
And you should not trust the password feature, either. I haven't tested it since I switched to XP, but when my old system crashed, and I found that my files were not compatible with the new system so I couldn't even get to the password screen, I went in to WordPad. Inadvertently, I clicked the wrong file to open and bypassed the password altogether. Once I realized what I had done, I went into each file and was able to save it in a different format without any password, then opened them in Word without any issues.
Except for being ticked off that I could so easily bypass the password. What's the point of trying to protect your document if someone can get into it with a different program?
But we all just love Bill Gates, don't we?
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
LA
OPEN SUBMISSIONS: Random Acts of Kindness
Available now:
THE BUTTERFLY GAME, Gloria Davidson Marlow ISBN 0-9722385-4-9 |
Richard Taylor
Awareness Member
Post Number:
35
Registered: 10-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, June 14, 2005 - 07:32 am: | |
Th easy way to remove those lines, once they're in there, is to do one of two things:
1. Add a blank line above and below the line, then highlight the new blanks lines (with the annoying one in the middle) and hit the Delete key.
2. Put your cursor (insertion point) at the beginning of the line immediately below the annoying line, then press the Backspace key.
Both these methods work in my version of Word 2002 SP3.
HTH,
Richard
Richard Taylor
"Virtual Control" -- available from Behler Publications
http://www.behlerpublications.com/titles-taylor.asp
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