Writers Circle Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Some questions get asked a lot.  

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The information in this section is collected and maintained by {yakfat}.

Q:  I write using a word processor program and when I cut-and-paste into Motet things like quotation marks and dashes become asterisks and such.  How can I avoid this?

Word processers such as Word and WordPerfect have "smart quotes" embedded in their text creation program to make quotes look curly and elegant on the page. Notepad (Windows) and TextEdit (Mac OSX, SimpleText for OS 9) don't.

If you don't have a Notepad icon on the Windows desktop it can be accessed from the "Run" option, from the Start button.

Software that's full of code for web publishing or conferencing, such as Motet or DreamWeaver, sees those smart quotes and replaces them with stuff you don't want.

Try this: Copy and paste your word processor's file into Notepad. Then do a search and replace, pasting the actual word processor quotemarks into Notepad and replacing them with Notepad's quotesmarks. You can do a "replace all" and it's done in no time flat.

~~Nan

Q:  When I post my poem it wraps into one or more paragraphs rather than breaking where I want it to.  What should I do?

If you can get used to posting in HTML for your poetry, you won't have to change your global settings and can still have your posts wrap everywhere else. The easiest way to do this is to put <pre> before the poem, </pre> after and click the HTML button at the top of the posting box. The 'Pre' code retains all the original line breaks and paragraph spaces.

A second way is to change your global settings. To do this, go up to the top of any page where there is a line-up of buttons. Click on "Settings" (third from right). Then, scroll on down until you see the general heading "Behavior" and under it, "Posting". Click on "Posting." Again, scroll down until you see "Automatically select" and under that there should be a box with a check in it in front of the words "Word-wrap your message just before posting (plain text)" Click on that box to get rid of the check. Scroll back to the top of the page and click on "Conferences" to get out of the "Settings" area. You're done. If you do this, then you can write a poem and it will post with the breaks you want.

However be advised that if you write prose you need to remember to look at the choices underneath the white posting box (the box that you type your words into). There is a choice there called "Wrap" and you will need to check that if you want to write anything in prose form. If you don't, then you will get a reminder message before your post can be made--telling you that you need to click the "Wrap" button.

If you mostly write prose and just do an occasional poem, then
you can simply leave the "Settings" button alone and click on the
check in front of the button that says "Wrap" (underneath the white posting box where you type) for each poem that you write. This will make that poem come out with your line breaks but will not change things generally for you.

~~effie

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