Once again, lost against AO3

[wiseheart]

I don't know how other people manage to post their stuff to the dratted archive. I simply can't. There was a time when I could copy & past my one-shots from FF.Net, but FF.Net has blocked that possibility, and when I try doing the same from a word document, the site strips all the formatting from the document, including the line breaks.

Now, I really, really don't have the time to reformat every single piece to be able to post it to AO3. Meaning that I'll have to give up on the idea of posting to the archive. Which is annoying, because most people go there to read, and being restricted to FF.Net - the only multifandom archive I can actually use - my chances to gain new readers are like null.

I HATE, HATE, HATE TECHNOLOGY!!! Why must they always change anything? Why is nothing really compatible with anything else in these days?

Comments

[red-day-dawning.livejournal.com]

Have you tried using the rRich Text option instead of the HTML option in the section where you copy and paste your story? That may allow you to retain the formatting of the Word doc. Perhaps?

[red-day-dawning.livejournal.com]

Sorry, had a typo. Meant Rich Text, not rRich Text.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yes, I used the Rich Text Editor. Still ended up with no formatting at all. Either it doesn't like my Word docs, or it doesn't like my Firefox.

[red-day-dawning.livejournal.com]

Alas, tech problems are never as simple as they ought to be (in an ideal world...)

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Sadly, that is true. Add my aging computers with their various kinks, and my cyberlife is laid out before your shocked eyes in all its questionable glory. [/sarcasm]

[elmey.livejournal.com]

Are the stories posted anywhere besides ff net? You might be able to use ao3's import option in that case.

And yes, I cut & paste word docs into the rich text format over there.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

That's what I've tried - and ended up with one garbled heap of words. :(

[elmey.livejournal.com]

The word doc problem is odd. You could open a support ticket, but the answers aren't always as clear as they could be ;)

Importing from LJ is easy, if any of the stories are on your LJ sites too.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Thanks! A lot of my stuff is on various LJ comms, so that might work out - if the instructions aren't too complicated. I'm not very good with those, unless someone sits down with me, leads me through the steps and looks over my shoulder the first few times. After that, I can go on infinitely. *g*

[elmey.livejournal.com]

When you click Post New Work, the page that opens has the import button right at the top.

Click it and look it over. If you have questions, I'm around for a while & can try to answer. If it's something you want to save for another time & have question then, just send me a PM or something :)

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I'll give it a try when I feel more courageous. :)

[vocatus-fortis.livejournal.com]

Could you use the fanfiction downloader program? http://www.fanfictiondownloader.net/

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... I never used that one. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll give it a try, even though I'm horribly technically challenged. Comes with advanced ages, I guess.

Welcome back, by the way! I haven't heard of you for years. Are you okay?

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I am sorry to hear you are having trouble with Ao3, because as a reader I find it a much better archive than FF.net. Part of that is the formatting of the site, but mostly I find that the quality of the stuff at Ao3 is generally much better. That is not to say that there isn't good stuff on FF.net, just that it is often lost in a sea of rather poorly written drivel, at least in the fandoms I tend to read fan fic in, so these days I tend to stay away from FF.net.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I for my part find AO3 confusing as hell, even as a reader. If there weren't the storyfinder comms where people give you the URL, I would never find any story there. Plus, they accept real person fic, which I find questionable, to say the least.

You are right about the mass of crap on FF.Net, of course. But even after the "updates" that only made things worse, it is the easiest archive to handle for techno-wheenies like me. Nothing can beat uploading ready-made documents directly from your PC.

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

Post the stories on SOA without publishing. Then click preview and copy/paste the text into AO3.

Here's one of my stories that I copy/pasted from SOA so you can see it works.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/1925748

As you are not publishing it on SOA it doesn't matter what fandom or rating it is. I usually just add extra "chapters" to an existing story I have on SOA then just delete them when I've finished posting elsewhere.

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

Either preview or edit will work as long as SOA site has processed the chapter and added the HMTL code.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

I don't have any other suggestions to add, but I hope than one of the things suggested works for you.