I use Atlantis exclusively for manuscript word processing--it produces a more compact .doc document for printing. But when I have to send a manuscript electronically, to be read in Word, I'm forced to open it in bloated Word and readjust chapter headings before sending. I suspect I could do it by adjusting line spacing by a precise amount, but it would be nice to be able to click a button in Atlantis and have my document open in Word looking just like a Word document.
Or are there other differences that would mess me up? I'm not concerned about highlighting not transferring accurately. The manuscripts are all text, with no pictures.
Thanks.
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Coyld you please be more specific: which highlighting is not transferring accurately? (is not displayed correctly in MS Word?)I'm not concerned about highlighting not transferring accurately.
"Could you please be more specific: which highlighting is not transferring accurately? (is not displayed correctly in MS Word?)"
I correspond with a writer who uses Word, while I'm creating DOC files with Atlantis. I notice her highlighting sometimes comes through as gray, and I know she didn't use gray. Also unlikely she selected some odd color. I assumed the problem occurred in reverse, as well.
I'll have to check to see what highlighting colors and what version of Word she's using. A test of the four most likely to be used highlighting colors between my Word 2000 and Atlantis 1.6.1.7 doesn't show a problem. Word 2000 has just chosen to go insane, so I can't check the reverse right away. I will try to check it out for you.
But that's not what my post is about. I want to have DOC files that are created in Atlantis be properly formatted when opened in Word, and by that I mean that each page in a document (say, page 67) be identical in when viewed in each program.
Currently, when I write a novel of 500 manuscript pages in Atlantis (DOC file), and open that file in Word, it becomes a file of perhaps 525 pages. The chapter headings that were on double-space line 6 are further down, and this is cumulative as one reads further into the manuscript, making it a formatting mess.
In short, a DOC document created in Atlantis will be shorter when opened in Atlantis than it will be when opened in Word. This is wonderful when I submit a printed document, as it's shorter. Not so when I submit electronically, which is increasingly popular.
This forces me to use Word and adjust chapter headings before sending the file. I don't like Word.
Jim T.
I correspond with a writer who uses Word, while I'm creating DOC files with Atlantis. I notice her highlighting sometimes comes through as gray, and I know she didn't use gray. Also unlikely she selected some odd color. I assumed the problem occurred in reverse, as well.
I'll have to check to see what highlighting colors and what version of Word she's using. A test of the four most likely to be used highlighting colors between my Word 2000 and Atlantis 1.6.1.7 doesn't show a problem. Word 2000 has just chosen to go insane, so I can't check the reverse right away. I will try to check it out for you.
But that's not what my post is about. I want to have DOC files that are created in Atlantis be properly formatted when opened in Word, and by that I mean that each page in a document (say, page 67) be identical in when viewed in each program.
Currently, when I write a novel of 500 manuscript pages in Atlantis (DOC file), and open that file in Word, it becomes a file of perhaps 525 pages. The chapter headings that were on double-space line 6 are further down, and this is cumulative as one reads further into the manuscript, making it a formatting mess.
In short, a DOC document created in Atlantis will be shorter when opened in Atlantis than it will be when opened in Word. This is wonderful when I submit a printed document, as it's shorter. Not so when I submit electronically, which is increasingly popular.
This forces me to use Word and adjust chapter headings before sending the file. I don't like Word.
Jim T.
Although Atlantis documents are supposed to be displayed in MS Word maximally closely to the original (Atlantis) display, RTF and DOC are not device-independent formats. The display might be different depending on a word processor and PC you use.
But there are techniques allowing to make your documents less "hardware-dependent". For instance, using hard-coded page numbers is highly undesired. Fields, headers/footers, and the "page layout" paragraph attributes (page break, keep with next paragraph, keep intact) can be used to make document formatting more flexible. Just an example. If your chapter heading appears in a middle of a page in some word processor, the problem is not with a word processor. Simply the formatting of your heading is incorrect. There are ways to instruct any word processor to display a given paragraph at the page top.
But there are techniques allowing to make your documents less "hardware-dependent". For instance, using hard-coded page numbers is highly undesired. Fields, headers/footers, and the "page layout" paragraph attributes (page break, keep with next paragraph, keep intact) can be used to make document formatting more flexible. Just an example. If your chapter heading appears in a middle of a page in some word processor, the problem is not with a word processor. Simply the formatting of your heading is incorrect. There are ways to instruct any word processor to display a given paragraph at the page top.
"Although Atlantis documents are supposed to be displayed in MS Word maximally closely to the original (Atlantis) display, RTF and DOC are not device-independent formats. The display might be different depending on a word processor and PC you use."
Quite possibly what I want to do is not possible. However, I have five PCs (yes, I am quite insane) and my manuscript is the same length in Atlantis on all of them. Word is longer, but consistently so.
I do note that I can take an eighteen page Atlantis DOC document, in Courier New 12, where the last line is 50, then change line spacing to Multiple=0.95, which changes the document to seventeen pages, last line 52. When I open this document in Word 2000, it comes out at eighteen pages, last line 50. In other words, identical to the Atlantis original at that page count. It might be that at 500 pages there would be some drift. .94 or .96 might be more accurate. Of course I can't choose those spacings. The fly in the ointment is that it shows paragraph spacing of .95 in Word, making me look like a cheat, which I am.
What I really want to do is to make Atlantis come out longer to the same degree that Word would be at normal spacing, and not have Word pick up the increased spacing. Write Atlantis at 1.05 or something, and have Word open it at single space. That way I could simply send a DOC file fresh out of Atlantis and have the formatting hold. Well, for Courier New, as I see the problem is different in degree with different fonts. Still, the ability to cheat the line spacing in that way would be handy for the devious.
Or perhaps I'll campaign for manuscripts in PDF, which is always the same.
Quite possibly what I want to do is not possible. However, I have five PCs (yes, I am quite insane) and my manuscript is the same length in Atlantis on all of them. Word is longer, but consistently so.
I do note that I can take an eighteen page Atlantis DOC document, in Courier New 12, where the last line is 50, then change line spacing to Multiple=0.95, which changes the document to seventeen pages, last line 52. When I open this document in Word 2000, it comes out at eighteen pages, last line 50. In other words, identical to the Atlantis original at that page count. It might be that at 500 pages there would be some drift. .94 or .96 might be more accurate. Of course I can't choose those spacings. The fly in the ointment is that it shows paragraph spacing of .95 in Word, making me look like a cheat, which I am.
What I really want to do is to make Atlantis come out longer to the same degree that Word would be at normal spacing, and not have Word pick up the increased spacing. Write Atlantis at 1.05 or something, and have Word open it at single space. That way I could simply send a DOC file fresh out of Atlantis and have the formatting hold. Well, for Courier New, as I see the problem is different in degree with different fonts. Still, the ability to cheat the line spacing in that way would be handy for the devious.
Or perhaps I'll campaign for manuscripts in PDF, which is always the same.