TexasRunner Posted February 1, 2011 Report Share Posted February 1, 2011 Good afternoon all. I am considering entering a contest which requires that the manuscript be submitted in RTF format (with manuscript title and page number in the header). I have attempted to export in RTF format, but it doesn't bring the headers over. I may have misunderstood how Storyist exporting works, but I'm not getting the same format either (i.e., Chapter Heading does not start in the middle of the page). I'm not sure how to handle the exporting, but it looks like I'm going to have to (This is where the whining starts.) block, copy, and paste to a Pages document and then create Styles (because for some reason Pages doesn't have a manuscript style) and export it to RTF again. My understanding was that Storyist was supposed to export in a Submission Ready format. What am I missing. Many thanks. -TR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted February 1, 2011 Report Share Posted February 1, 2011 Hi TR, I'm guessing that you're using Apple's Pages to view the RTF. Pages has notoriously poor RTF import and export support. Specifically, 1) It doesn't import headers, footers, or style sheets from RTF files. 2) It doesn't support the "page break before" RTF attribute either, which means that chapters won't start on a new page. Your RTF should look fine in Word or Open Office. -Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marguerite Posted February 2, 2011 Report Share Posted February 2, 2011 I can confirm through grim experience that viewing RTF files in Pages is the pits. Best bet is to check the file in Word or Open Office, as Steve suggests, and if you must view it in Pages, save the RTF through Word/OO as a .doc file and open that in Pages. Pages will still send goofy error messages about boxes not being supported and may trash your headers, but usually it doesn't do any harm and it does read the Word styles (it ignores RTF styles entirely). But it's not Storyist's fault. Storyist puts all the info in there. Pages just strips it out. More accurately, it keeps certain kinds of formatting but converts everything to "Freeform Text," so all your styles go bye-bye. Best, M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasRunner Posted February 20, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 20, 2011 Good morning! I'm back on the RTF issue. I was able to submit my first contest entry in hard copy so it wasn't an issue. However, my next contest requires 5,000 words and 650 word synopsis submitted in RTF format. I am creating a new Storyist "project" for this purpose, and pasting in the info from the full manuscript. The contest requires courier or Times Roman 12, one inch margins all around, double-spaced and header with name of manuscript and category on the left side of the header and page number on the right. I found that Storyist will export in RTF quite nicely (when viewed in Open Office) but the basic format for exporting does not comply with the "Rules." It requires my changing the margins, the spacing and the header format. I've tried everything I can think of and can't figure out how to get the header format to comply. Could any of you more experienced folks tell me how to do that? As an aside, I am curious about Storyist's "industry standard" of 1.25 inch margins. Is this "industry standard" for submitting for publication? I'm not there yet. But for contests, everyone has been asking for one-inch margins. As always, many thanks for your assistance. -TR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted February 20, 2011 Report Share Posted February 20, 2011 Hi TR, Congrats on the submissions. I've tried everything I can think of and can't figure out how to get the header format to comply. Could any of you more experienced folks tell me how to do that? Formatting a header is no different than formatting other text: select the text you want to change and apply the font/spacing attributes you want it to have. You can set up a style for this, or use the "Header" style from the template. For the other things (margins, fonts), you might find this screencast helpful: Custom Project Templates. As an aside, I am curious about Storyist's "industry standard" of 1.25 inch margins. Is this "industry standard" for submitting for publication? I'm not there yet. But for contests, everyone has been asking for one-inch margins. An inch and a quarter probably became popular because it provides more room for margin notes, so your pre-computer-era editor could give you good feedback--that and the fact that it gives you a nice round 250 words per page on average. This is still in widespread use today (for instance, an inch and a quarter is the default Word margin setting), but one inch margins save more trees, which is probably why contests request them. -Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasRunner Posted February 21, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2011 Steve, thanks for the background on the "industry standard" and the helpful link to the online tutorial on changing formats. I had forgotten that I could save the changes as a "Template." I had no trouble making the font and margin changes I wanted, but the problem I ran into was changing the formatting on the header. The manuscript name and category must be aligned at the left margin and the page number must to be aligned at the right margin. In the old days when I used Word (or even WordPerfect), I would set the up the header for a left alignment and set a right tab for the page number. For some reason I have been unable to do that. I set a right tab at 7.5 (which would be at the right margin), but it won't seem to save it. It seems to ignore virtually everything but a left or center tab. Should this be accomplished some other way than by setting a right-aligned tab? Sorry if this appears to be basic word processing stuff. I'll admit I'm a little rusty. Thanks, -TR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasRunner Posted February 22, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 I guess I'll reply to my own Post (regarding setting up the header with Manuscript name/Category on the left and page number at the right margin - and my associated frustrations). I think I just figured out where I've been going wrong. Instead of measuring from the left edge of the paper, Pages (and Storyist?) measures from the left margin. Hence, the right tab should be at 6.5 rather than 7.5. I set a right tab at 6.5 and it seems to work. Thanks again, -TR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted February 22, 2011 Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 Hi TR, I guess I'll reply to my own Post (regarding setting up the header with Manuscript name/Category on the left and page number at the right margin - and my associated frustrations). I think I just figured out where I've been going wrong. Instead of measuring from the left edge of the paper, Pages (and Storyist?) measures from the left margin. Hence, the right tab should be at 6.5 rather than 7.5. I set a right tab at 6.5 and it seems to work. Yes, the tab stop positions in Storyist (and Pages and Word too) are measured from the left margin. The easiest way to set a right-aligned tab stop is 1) Make the rulers visible. 2) Click in the ruler where you want the new tab stop to appear. 3) Open the Text Attributes inspector and select the Tabs item. 4) Select the tab that you just created. 5) Click Right to change it from a left-aligned stop to a right-aligned stop. Then, in your heading, enter Left Text [Tab] Right Text The attached screenshot illustrates this. -Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasRunner Posted February 22, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 Hi, Steve - Thank you! That's exactly what I needed to know. I hadn't noticed the "Make Rulers Visible" option and that simplifies things considerably. Now I'm off and running . . . to the Dreaded Synopsis. Many thanks, -TR Hi TR, Yes, the tab stop positions in Storyist (and Pages and Word too) are measured from the left margin. The easiest way to set a right-aligned tab stop is 1) Make the rulers visible. 2) Click in the ruler where you want the new tab stop to appear. 3) Open the Text Attributes inspector and select the Tabs item. 4) Select the tab that you just created. 5) Click Right to change it from a left-aligned stop to a right-aligned stop. Then, in your heading, enter Left Text [Tab] Right Text The attached screenshot illustrates this. -Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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