I'm not in the group feedback forums very often, but I was browsing today and noticed that lots of the punctuation had been replaced with shaded question marks. The line breaks and paragraphing were out too.

Is this my computer - or something to do with the site? I'm using ff with latest updates and am happy to use a different browser if it would help.

It seems a shame that people's work is being mangled like this, and it does put me off reading it, which defeats the purpose of the critiquing section.

Sorry if this has been addressed elsewhere, I couldn't find it.

Okay - have found previous threads now dealing with these gremlin characters.

Is it not possible for members to upload word documents? Or for us to link to a shared drop box?

We've been having a conversation in private members about critiquing work - and there are a couple of us who would do it a bit more if that bit of the site was more user friendly and the results more readable.

Thanks.

I've had a hunt around the Groups but can't see any uploads with this problem - but I'm using Internet Explorer so maybe that makes a difference?
Flag up any you find and I'll check them out.


- NaomiM

Here it is.

http://www.writewords.org.uk/archive/27618.asp

seems like it is an ongoing problem though, by the dates of the earlier threads about this topic in this folder.

Is it possible to change the groups so that members can view each other's work as word documents?



<Added>

and this one http://www.writewords.org.uk/archive/26402.asp

and this one http://www.writewords.org.uk/groups/show_article.asp?group_id=102&article_id=27371

and this one http://www.writewords.org.uk/groups/show_article.asp?group_id=68&article_id=27635

to be honest, I'm finding it nearly impossible to find a piece of work that hasn't been mangled like this.

I'll log out and log in again with a different browser and see if that makes a difference.

<Added>

Ahah!!

Am now logged in using IE8 and everything looks perfect.

I wonder what the problem is with firefox?

I don't have the punctuation problem, but I find that the formatting goes to hell when uploading a piece - all the indentation disappears, so that you have to go through the piece putting in spaces to separate paras, otherwise the whole thing looks like a great big stream of consciousness splurge. I have to say, when I am critting other people's work, I find it very off-putting if people have posted it without spaces. Maybe admin could have a look at the technology behind this, so that pieces look more reader-friendly?

They all look fine to me on Internet Explorer.
Checked on my version of Motzilla FireFox and they're fine on there too.
I hate to say it, but it looks like it's your machine that's screwing them up. Maybe it's the latest version of FF that's doing it. Worth WWmailing David to see if he can see a problem.

I get the question marks too, Lady B. And the bold or italics don't work when posting a piece of work. I use Firefox.

I think firefox is responsible for some of the gremlin characters, but not the line spacing problems as some of the pieces look a little wonky and oddly paragraphed even when viewed with IE8. And Saturday's post here seems to back that up.

Just seems a shame if it's making giving and getting critique tricky for some members, that's all.

What about the suggestion of changing that part of the site to use word documents? A couple of people in the other thread have mentioned they'd prefer to work like that. Is that a possibility?

What version of firefox are you using, Leila? Mine is 5.0 - if yours screws up the uploads too, it can't be my machine. Perhaps Naomi is using an older version and it's the update that's the problem.

It would be good if we could figure out which one, as at least a message could be posted on the upload page to suggest using IE8 for best results...?

It's a pain, as I have to go through an item after uploading it and insert hard returns to create spaces between paras, which is easier than it sounds (as a full stop at the end of a line doesn't always denote a para end) so you have to check against the original Word file, etc.

I occasionally see corrupted files with strange figures in the text.

I get corrupted characters quite a lot but it doesn't seem to be to do with the version of firefox or whatever because sometimes I will see uploads looking all mangled one day, then the following day everything will look fine - exactly the same uploads and as far as I know, my browser hasn't undergone any updates.

It's a total mystery to me.

Gutted. I thought I'd discovered the magic problem!!

Seeing as it is an ongoing problem, is there any response from admin about the possibility of using word documents in the critique areas of the site?

I like the idea of Word docs - if I am at work. However, our home PC doesn't have Word. I know I could read the docs in Word, but not sure I can revise in anything but WordPad and upload.

Not a problem if I'm the only person without Word at home (as I can deal with it), or if two solutions can be made available, so people can choose the best one.

That's a good point - though Open Office is compatible with Word and is an easy free download. FloraPost's point about plagiarism is also worth thinking about.

Still no reply from admin though...

It's a pain, as I have to go through an item after uploading it and insert hard returns to create spaces between paras, which is easier than it sounds (as a full stop at the end of a line doesn't always denote a para end) so you have to check against the original Word file, etc.

In Word;
1. Ctrl+H > shows replace dialog
2. Use "Replace All" to replace ^p with ^p^p > replace single line break with double line break
3. Copy + Paste into the web form

That will put blank lines between each paragraph. It's easy to reverse it by replacing ^p^p with ^p.

G