Problem with first letters of new paragraphs

[foxie299]

Hi all

I'm using LibreOffice 3.6.2.2. I know that SW makes it very clear you should only use MS Word, but the big problem with that is that I don't have the money to buy a copy and I'm running my computer on Ubuntu, so I couldn't use it even if I could afford it.

Anyway, the problem is that the first letter of every new paragraph is in a different font and style. Even when the font and style is changed to match the rest of the paragraph, the code for the page still isolates the first letter. This causes problems when the file is put through the meatgrinder.

I was hoping I wasn't the only person to have this problem, and one of you wonderful people would have a solution.

Thanks in advance.

[aristotle]

First, you definitely don't need to buy Word. My suggestion would be to make a copy of your story. Open it in LibreOffice and save it as a text file (text .csv). That should get rid of all your formatting. Close LO and open your text file in LO Writer. Save it as a Word 97/2003/XP doc. Then open it in LO. Select all text and choose "Text Body" as the format. Then change your headings (if necessary) and any other special formatting.

How does it look?

[foxie299]

Thank you for the reply!

I opened the story up, then saved it as a .txt file. I closed the file, and then opened the text again in LO. I selected all the text and changed the format to Text Body Indent (as it's fiction, I want the first lines of each new paragraph indented).

It fixed the problem in the online version. However, the problem remained in the other versions and in the .rtf version the first word of each paragraph had been removed entirely and I'd been left with just the first letter (and no space between that and the next word).

So, I went back and set the format to Text Body and resaved it as a .doc. I uploaded it again, and it went through the meatgrinder.

When I went to check the formatting, there was no new version uploaded, just the previous version (the latest version available showed that I'd downloaded it already). I've re-uploading it a few times, and each time the latest version available is the one I saved as Text Body Indent...

[Ted]

Jan 16, 2013 23:47:42 GMT -8 foxie299 said:

... I uploaded it again, and it went through the meatgrinder.

When I went to check the formatting, there was no new version uploaded, just the previous version (the latest version available showed that I'd downloaded it already). I've re-uploading it a few times, and each time the latest version available is the one I saved as Text Body Indent...

That is strange. I've uploaded 30+ works and probably half that number of revisions to Smashwords, and after every successful conversion the current version has automatically been added and made available on Smashwords. (Which is why I sometimes unpublish a new work and review it in ePub and mobi before public publication.)

Try naming your corrected file yourtitle2.doc, making sure you add the number 2 or whatever after the title. Doing this will ensure you can easily see the number of updates/revisions you have made, and also make it easier for you to keep track of changes to your work on your computer.

[aristotle]

Something weird going on for sure. I am guessing it has something to do with your paragraph style. However, rather than muck around with that, I suggest you cut and paste your story into a Smashwords template.

I have one but I cannot add it as an attachment to this post. Maybe the new board will permit attachments. If you send me a PM with your email I will email it to you.

[foxie299]

The uploading problem seems to have fixed itself. I did as you suggested, and put a '2' after the file name, and now new versions are uploading quite happily. *touches wood*

The first letters thing also seems to be fixed. I've had another crack and it seems to have fixed the problem of the initial letters.

What I did:
Highlighted the whole text;
Set the style to 'Text Body';
Went into the settings for Text Body to modify them;
Under the 'Indents and Spacing' tab, set the first line indent to 0.76cm and ticked the 'automatic' box
Saved as a .doc and uploaded.

The only problem I'm having is with the epub format. The indents aren't showing and all lines are separated by one carriage return, regardless of how many I put in there or are showing in other versions. However, I'm reading the file using a program on my laptop as I have a Kindle, and so can't use it to read epubs. Could the program I'm using be the problem?

[aristotle]

There is an extension to Firefox called epubreader. If you install that on your laptop you can read any epub. Another option is to install Calibre ebook manager & converter.

[foxie299]

I installed this extension for Firefox: addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/epubreader/.  When I open my story using it, all the formatting is just how it should be.

Thank you again for all your help.  It is very much appreciated.

(For those suffering the same problem as me, it's probably worth mentioning that the initial version of the story got rejected from the Premium Catalogue because of the space between paragraphs which is part of the default settings for Text Body.  It was easily fixed by highlighting the text, right-clicking on the Text Body, and selecting 'Modify'.  Under the Indents and Spacing tab, I set 'Below Paragraph' to 0.00cm, and clicked on 'Apply', then 'OK'.)