Birthday Thanks, a Question and a Poll

[faithwood]

First, I had a job interview today (this job is not gonna happen, but I didn't actually expect to find a new job a mere week after I lost the old one, so all's well). But I was very busy freaking out. (Damn it, are all job interviews this stressful!?) So in the future, if I disappear for two or three days — I'm at home, freaking out.

Thanks

A huge thank you to everyone how wished me a happy birthday (and to everyone who said lovely words to me about my job loss). And thank you to all that posted birthday greetings or sent me a message. They all meant a lot.

Thank you to heathen_ursidae for drawing me an awesome Harry/Draco pic. And leochi for drawing me a gorgeous Harry. And thank you lotus_lizzy for writing me a sexy fic: Knicker Thief.

And thank you to everyone that promised to write me something. Take your time. *takes a moment to reflect on all the fics she owes* In fact, do be late; it'll make me feel better. (LOL!)

And thank you bryoneybrynn for LJ Paid Time. And thank you romaine24, zebrui, kisa829, kcstories, cleo_jay, lotus_lizzy, byaghro, tmkline, nightlo and kaykayen for sending me VGifts. They're so pretty!

And WANTED! Um, guys, who sent me two more months of LJ paid time and an LJ gift certificate? Please to be telling me. I need to squish you!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

To me, it looked like I was gone for months, so I thought that maybe you've forgotten me. *blush* Nice to see that's not true.

Question and a Poll

Please read, dear flisters. I need your advice.



Right. So given that my metessay is called A Beginner's Guide to Fanfiction, I thought I should include a word about posting, HTML coding, lj-cuts, using document templates and stuff like that. So I did.

Then I remembered another thing. But now I'm not sure: Is this my problem or has anyone else had trouble with this?

See, I hate the Rich Text editor, and I use the HTML one. I hate RT because it messes up my code, inserts pointless tags and then fails to recognize them, and is completely whimsical. I also don't like applications that process your HTML code, because they, too, are quirky and add a bunch of code I don't need. And godforbid I made a mistake. If I try to fix the code manually, it takes me an age to find the mistake, because the code is usually ... messy.

So I like to type my own code. Y'know, using <i></i> and <b></b> and the like. But that's annoying. And if the story/post is long, and contains lots of italics and bolds, time-consuming.

I've only solved this problem recently. I've set up my MSWord to insert more common tags such as: <a href="">, <lj user=""> and <img src="">. And, more awesomely, everything I've written like this, Word turns into text looking <i>like this</i>. And everything I've written like this, Word turns into text looking <b>like this</b>. I just type my story as I normally would if using Rich Text editor, meaning, using italics and bold, and then after one click, everything that was italicized or bolded gets appropriate tags (no matter how long the text is, it takes a couple of seconds).

For my purposes, this is very useful, but maybe I'm just odd? Maybe you are all using the Rich Text editor, or some awesome application I don't know about, or you don't have problems with messy codes?

Would you consider knowing how to do this useful, or pointless? Should I include this in the metessay?

Poll

[Poll #1338578]
Thank you!


Oh and PIMP!

Love this idea: A poll for all HP fanfic writers: New HP writers' community. Do check it out.

Comments

[aki-hoshi.livejournal.com]

*squish* I really hope you find a new job soon! I know things are looking rough out there... I hope you had a good birthday!

Also, in regards to the HTML god thing, I use (when I'm at home), semagic, which is a program you download and it signs into LJ for you, and you can sync it with LJ so that you're new tags and userpics are available, and you can switch between users easily (like for me, I need to post as aki_hoshi and ass_fest_mod), and it's all HTML view. I mean, I think you can switch it, but if you type CTRL+i, it'll automatically insert an italics tag for you to type in. :D It also allows you to do things like change the displayed username. Like, when aldehyde talks about her boyfriend, Abbey, she always has a tag that says "the_bf", but that's not his username (I don't remember what it is). But you can change what name is displayed while still having it linked to that user.

And I'd avoid using things like Word for HTML stuff like the plague...because Word likes to add in it's own meta data, and it's all useless. When I'm not at home, I just use Notepad, and yes, I've got to type in the tags, but it means I have COMPLETE control over my code, because it's a basic text editor that doesn't even have the capabilities to make things bold or italic looking. :)

Anyhow, I'd TOTALLY check out semagic. Aldehyde and I swear by it. :D It's a pretty sophisticated tool, even if it's not all that pretty.

Okay, going now! *SQUISH* I love you! I'm sending well wishes to you always!

[aldehyde.livejournal.com]

HAHAH SAMEBRAIN i just mentioned semagic in my comment lol!

yea, semagic completely saved aki_hoshi and my life when were posting for the last the_ass_fest. i remember how i used ms word for one of the submission posts and it fucked everything up so bad, grrr!

anyway, /end butting in

[faithwood.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

And thank you for telling me about Semagic. I was looking at downloadable clients, but didn't know which one is good. I'll definitely mention it in the essay. I've looked it over and it looks awesome.

I'm still attached to my Word, though. *hugs thesaurus*

[aki-hoshi.livejournal.com]

Oh, I LOVE Word, but not for anything related to HTML. lol. I write in it, and add formatting tags after I'm done, then put it in Notepad or a basic HTML page to strip it of all the extra metadata. Then I post. :)

[faithwood.livejournal.com]

Yes! That's exactly what I did. But then I got annoyed. Copy and paste and insert ... GRRRRRR! So now I have a little toolbar that inserts coding. It's kinda awesome! If I dare say so! :D

[aki-hoshi.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah, but if you were to copy and paste a word doc into a text editor, like notepad, it would have a ton of extra metadata code you don't need. I mean, I usually copy and paste the doc into Dreamweaver and then find and replace all the code I don't want with nothing, stripping it down and making all clean again. The only other option is to write directly in an HTML page or text editor, where you'll have nothing but what you type in there. I like Dreamweaver because I can totally use keyboard shortcuts to do the same thing I do in Word. :P

[faithwood.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah, but if you were to copy and paste a word doc into a text editor, like notepad, it would have a ton of extra metadata code you don't need.

Well, not if you just use Word as you would use Notepad. And after it's coded (manually) paste it into LJ's HTML editor. There's no extra data then. Which is what I do.

[aki-hoshi.livejournal.com]

Can you describe to me how you're using Word as Notepad? I mean, Word kinda ads in that stuff even if you don't code a thing. You just type away, then copy and paste into an HTML editor.

[faithwood.livejournal.com]

You just type away, then copy and paste into an HTML editor.

Yes. It doesn't add code then. *checks* No, no code. (If pasted into Dreamweaver, they yes, it adds code, but in LJ's HTML posting box (or Notepad) no. Yes, if I OPEN it with Notepad, if I merely copy&paste: No code.

[aki-hoshi.livejournal.com]

Any time I've ever copy and pasted anything I've typed up in Word into LJ's HTML posting box, it puts in a TON of extra code relating to the fonts and formatting.

Even opening a word doc in Notepad gives me funny characters. Maybe it's something with how you have Word set up to handle HTML markup. *shrug* Microsoft is notorious for trying to make everything "web friendly" but screwing up royally, like when they released Outlook 2007, which uses Word to display web content, and since Word is a word processor, not a browser, it tends to not like certain strings of code very much. lol.

[faithwood.livejournal.com]

Any time I've ever copy and pasted anything I've typed up in Word into LJ's HTML posting box, it puts in a TON of extra code relating to the fonts and formatting.

O.O That's awful! I WOULD DIE! *hugs her Word* Mine is not THAT evil.

[aki-hoshi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, mine must be the Word from hell....btw...what version are you using? That might have something to do with it. 'Cause I know I need to upgrade (which I will do as soon as I re-format my computer...)

[faithwood.livejournal.com]

Professional Edition 2003! :D So not really the newest thing.

[aldehyde.livejournal.com]

how is that possible! we even tell our clients to copy-paste their word docs into a notepad file, and then copy-paste the notepad text into the rich-text editor for the marketing websites we create..

*completely baffled and curious*

[faithwood.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, you should tell them that. But just as you copy-paste into Notepad, you copy paste into LJ's HTML editor.

I can't help thinking we're misunderstanding each other here.

I don't see why it would add code if you copy&paste Word text into LJ's HTML editor(not Rich Text, not another HTML editor). Pasting there is like pasting into Notepad.

Did I claim something else? *frets* Maybe my explaining abilities really suck. *has a crisis*

[aldehyde.livejournal.com]

OHHHHHHHHHHH pasting into lj's HTML editor. okay, that makes sense. i just tested it and it stripped my ms word-coded gibberish into plain text with no tags at all.

whereas if i paste the same thing into the rich text editor, i get the following before my content even shows up:

< meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type" />< meta content="Word.Document" name="ProgId" />< meta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Generator" />< meta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Originator" />< link href="file:///C:\DOCUME~1\moonal\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List" />< !--[if gte mso 9]>< xml>
< w:WordDocument>
< w:View>Normal
< w:Zoom>0
< w:PunctuationKerning />
< w:ValidateAgainstSchemas />
< w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false
< w:IgnoreMixedContent>false
< w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false
< w:Compatibility>
< w:BreakWrappedTables />
< w:SnapToGridInCell />
< w:WrapTextWithPunct />
< w:UseAsianBreakRules />
< w:DontGrowAutofit />
< /w:Compatibility>
< w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
< /w:WordDocument>
< /xml>

< /style>
< style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ansi-language:#0400;
mso-fareast-language:#0400;
mso-bidi-language:#0400;}
< /style>

[faithwood.livejournal.com]

*is happy*

I thought I was crazy and imagining things. :D

Ew at the code above. WTH, MSWord? Y U need this?

[aldehyde.livejournal.com]

i dunno, but it makes me see red. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!