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McAnally's (The Community Pub) => Author Craft => Topic started by: LizW65 on January 16, 2009, 08:28:10 PM
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Okay, anyone know how to get the accent marks into French phrases in Word? When I try to do it by clicking "insert special character" and then the accent mark, it appears between the letters instead of over them. This is driving me nuts! Help!
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Okay, anyone know how to get the accent marks into French phrases in Word? When I try to do it by clicking "insert special character" and then the accent mark, it appears between the letters instead of over them. This is driving me nuts! Help!
Um, are you trying to insert the accent mark itself, or the vowel with the accent mark over it ? Doing the latter from the appropriate "insert special character" table (the install of Word I have at work has several and a pull-down menu for selecting between them) seems to be working for me.
(Insert standard rant about how Word is the last piece of software anyone should write a novel in if they have any choice here.)
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I use the keyboard shortcuts with Word: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HP051865621033.aspx
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I switched to Euro-english on my Windows language at home. It can be extremely obnoxious at times but it definitely puts accents over things if you need them.
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Wiz posted this yesterday; I got the accent over my "A" at last. ;D
http://www.tedmontgomery.com/tutorial/altchrc.html (http://www.tedmontgomery.com/tutorial/altchrc.html)
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Thanks for all the suggestions -- I will implement them forthwith.
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No CTRL (see microsoft link) needed to type l'accent grave (è), l'accent aigu (é), or l'accent circonflexe (â) at least in my version of Word. Just type the accent followed by the letter.
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I never even realized there were multiple "insert special character tables 'til now, but as soon as I located the one for Courier, I did just fine. Duhh!
(Insert standard rant about how Word is the last piece of software anyone should write a novel in if they have any choice here.)
Can you suggest some alternatives? (If they involve buying a new laptop or expensive software, I'm afraid I'll have to stick with Word for the next few years, but if there's some kind of free download, I'm open to it.)
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Open Office, http://www.suite-download.com/ , is free, and is supposed to be compatible with files in MSWord format.
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Open Office, http://www.suite-download.com/ , is free, and is supposed to be compatible with files in MSWord format.
OpenOffice can open Word files, but Word can't open OpenOffice. Though I think it has an 'export as .pdf' option.
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OpenOffice can open Word files, but Word can't open OpenOffice. Though I think it has an 'export as .pdf' option.
The thing about writing novels in Word is that they update the formats every couple of years and they only preserve back-compatibility for a limited number of releases, basically in order to keep you bying the sodding upgrades. I think I would have had to pay for three or four upgrade cycles by now if I had been working in Word and wanted the fiction I had been working on fouteen years ago to still be comprehensible.
Write your fiction in a text editor. Keep your working copies in text files. Sticking it in a fancy formatter like Word is fine if you want to print it out there and then, like to send it to someone, but a really poor idea for keeping primary versions.
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Write your fiction in a text editor. Keep your working copies in text files. Sticking it in a fancy formatter like Word is fine if you want to print it out there and then, like to send it to someone, but a really poor idea for keeping primary versions.
From a tech viewpoint, the less formatting the file has the longer shelf life it has. A plain text file written in Notepad in Windows 3.1 is still able to be opened, viewed, edited and saved in a format that Windows 3.1 can actually use (as well as Windows 7 Beta and even works on a Mac or Linux system, too).
OpenOffice.org can open Word files and even save them in a format that Word can also open (other than PDF), except all the formatting isn't always going to 'stick', and the more there is the worse it can be.
When I write, I save what I'm working on in a couple of different formats, one of which is usually a .txt file, one is the native file type of the word processor and then either an html or PDF file (sometimes both). My working copy is the txt file and the 'finished' ones are the other formats. It doesn't really take any more time to do it that way, just a couple of extra saves.
The other thing to do, no matter what you are using to write in, is to make multiple copies of your work. Save one set on your hard drive, burn another to a CD and save it on a USB stick or other external device--that's at last three copies. It isn't a question of if you will suffer drive failure and data loss, but rather a question of when.
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It's not WYSIWOG and has other complications but LaTeX makes nice documents.
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LaTEX is nice for finished works...but most editors are too much of a PITA to use for a WIP.
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The other thing to do, no matter what you are using to write in, is to make multiple copies of your work. Save one set on your hard drive, burn another to a CD and save it on a USB stick or other external device--that's at last three copies. It isn't a question of if you will suffer drive failure and data loss, but rather a question of when.
I would actually say, at least three copies in at least two locations. If your house burns down, perish the thought, having to redo fourteen years' work from scratch would make it even worse.
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Definitely...drop a CD of your most important files in a safety deposit box, in the folder/lockbox of important documents or with a friend/relative, and update it periodically.
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Definitely...drop a CD of your most important files in a safety deposit box, in the folder/lockbox of important documents or with a friend/relative, and update it periodically.
Or mail it to relatives, back it up in spare space at work, and store it in a dedicated gmail account.
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All of the above?
;D
Just something to provide at least one off-site copy.