Challenge Tips and Tricks

[Deb Porter]

We do have a FAQ's section which covers a lot of Challenge related things; however, it probably wouldn't hurt to have a thread right here where people can post their favorite tips and tricks for the Challenge.

For example, Marita Thelander shared a brilliant tip today on how to avoid accidentally hitting submit too soon (instead of hitting the preview button). Get ready for this really simple bit of wisdom:

When preparing your entry in the submission area, don't add your title or select your level until you are ready to hit that submit button.

This is a brilliant tip because the system will remind you to fill in that information if you accidentally hit submit. In other words, it's an automatic stop. And you don't have to worry about forgetting to fill it in when you are ready to submit because the system will remind you again.

Foolproof!

Thanks Mari. Great tip.

So Challengeers, jump in and share your favorite tips and tricks when it comes to the Challenge. Even if something is in our FAQ's section, you can share it again here if it's made entering easier for you.

Love, Deb

[yomamarita]

Awe thanks Deb. I learned this tip from Laury a long time ago when I accidentally submitted before I was ready.

[FreedomWriter]

I learned the hard way that if my entry is saved in my Microsoft works and then migrated to Faithwriters, I have to go over every apostrophe, quote and triple dot (...) in the entry window or it can do some crazy things after it's submitted.

[itsjoanne]

Yes - ALWAYS save your post as a .txt file before uploading it to the challenge.

[Kimberly-Russell]

.txt file works better than copy/paste as I had issues with that in regards to formatting.

[Colswann1]

I understand that two or three went over count in the Challenge recently. I use Open Office which is a free download and use their wordcount and then double check the count by copying and pasting the article to Microsoft Works Word Processor and check the count there as well - they usually agree and I've never gone over count.

It's just a double check system.

[MamaGwen]

I am guessing that saving as a .txt file will eliminate the interesting little icons that replace some of the Microsoft Word punctuation marks. I do wish that the preview would have shown this. Lesson learned - thanks for sharing this tip!

[grannyannie]

Being a "newbie" to the competitions, I have a question. I do post my entries as a text file, but, that always wipes out my paragraph indents. Then, I have to painstakingly go through the article and re-indent before I submit. I've noticed a couple of other articles that were posted by writers having the same problem----ending up with a submission that is one huge run-on paragraph .

LOL, my nerves are torn up bad enough when I'm making an entry; the extra tension of 're-indent' is ruining my manicure. Any advice? Thanks?

Write on-----
annie

[RedBaron]

There is no way to indent without a bunch of HTML. Just double space between paragraphs.

Being a "newbie" to the competitions, I have a question. I do post my entries as a text file, but, that always wipes out my paragraph indents. Then, I have to painstakingly go through the article and re-indent before I submit. I've noticed a couple of other articles that were posted by writers having the same problem----ending up with a submission that is one huge run-on paragraph .

LOL, my nerves are torn up bad enough when I'm making an entry; the extra tension of 're-indent' is ruining my manicure. Any advice? Thanks?

Write on-----
annie

[lish1936]

I type my entry in Microsoft and double space between paragraphs, then I save it as a txt. file.

When it's time to submit the article, I copy and paste the text file from Microsoft ( I never use the download option). Once it's pasted, I insert all the extras like italics, etc. Then, after I preview it, if I still need additional spacing between paragraphs, I simply place the cursor in front of the paragraph and hit enter. You have approximately 20 minutes to do this, as per Deb, or you have to start over again.

I'm not sure you can preview the article if you download to submit.

Lilllian

[Allison]

If you turn off "smart quotes" in Word, you shouldn't have to save it as a text file... You should be able to just copy and paste it from Word. They've changed so many things in Word since my version, I'm not even going to try to tell everyone how to do it! But if you search the help files for "smart quotes" I'm sure it will come up.

[Shann]

Being a "newbie" to the competitions, I have a question. I do post my entries as a text file, but, that always wipes out my paragraph indents. Then, I have to painstakingly go through the article and re-indent before I submit. I've noticed a couple of other articles that were posted by writers having the same problem----ending up with a submission that is one huge run-on paragraph .

LOL, my nerves are torn up bad enough when I'm making an entry; the extra tension of 're-indent' is ruining my manicure. Any advice? Thanks?

Write on-----
annie

That happened to me too so what I started doing is copy my story then go to my email and compose new message then I paste it there. It's great cuz then I can send it to challenge buddies and when done I copy it from email to the entry form. I have no idea why it works but the paragraphs stay double-spaced and I don't have to go back through it all. It also saves my story in my email if my computer were to die (I have gmail)

[Wren]

Oh nooooooo! Of course I just found this AFTER I submitted my first entry to the Challenge. I just copied and pasted and did not save as .txt or whatever it is called. I thought if it looked good in the "Preview" that it was all good. Oh noooooo. What if it is all messed up? Now I could really throw up!

[Wren]

I knew I should have waited on you, Shann, but I was just busting open to submit. Now it is probably a mess!

[RedBaron]

I knew I should have waited on you, Shann, but I was just busting open to submit. Now it is probably a mess!

I'm sure it's fine Breath!