After reading the guide, if there are any further questions or comments, feel free to PM me or any of the mods, or post in this topic only. All uploading and posting issues are only to be discussed here. Also, if you find the guide confusing or whatever, just let me know!

Contents of this post

I. Posting a new story

II. How to add additional chapters

III. How to edit stories

IV. Solution to uploading problem

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I. Posting a new story

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1. Break up the chapters into individual files on your computer. This is the single easiest way to create different chapters. I recommend you simply start a new document whenever you start a new chapter.

2. Upload these files (via your document manager) to the website.

i. Log in

ii. On the left, click "documents"

iii. Down the bottom you will see three fields to fill out. They're pretty self explanatory: Doc label (this is so you can identify your chapter after you've uploaded it, don't bother with file extensions as they sometimes confuse the system); file type (I don't write poetry, so if anyone can tell me what the difference actually is, that would be great); and File on computer (click "browse" to select the file you wish to upload)

iv. Click "submit document"

v. You should now see the file in the "document manager"

3. Click on "stories" on the left

4. Click on "new story" at the top right.

5. i. In the text-box there will most likely be a message stating that you have not agreed to the guidelines, even if you have previously, if it was longer than 7 days ago you need to do it again.

ii. Click the underlined "guidelines"

iii. Read them *wink wink, nudge nudge* and scroll to the bottom of the page to click on "I accept"

6. Click "new story" again. What follows is some very basic step by step instructions. When you're filling out the fields, the only one that might be might be misleading is "Document". This seems to be where many people make their mistake. You can only select a file you have already uploaded to your "document manager" (That was step 2, so if you've been following this guide you should be covered!), it does not allow you to take them straight from your computer.

7. Click "Submit story". You now have a story on FF.net.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

II. How to add additional chapters

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1. Upload the next chapter if it's not in your document manager (steps 1-2 of part I).

2. Go to "stories"

3. Click on "List Stories" (you should already be there).

4. Click on the "edit" button sitting on the right of the details of the story you want to edit

5. Click on "Content/Chapters", it's near the top.

6. i. Simply fill out the appropriate fields and click "add"

ii. If you wish to replace an existing chapter (Which I will look at in more depth under "editing"), simply fill out the fields under that heading.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

III. How to edit stories

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Unfortunately editing is a bit of a pain of ff.net, so here's a brief guide as to the quickest way to do it.

1. Click "Stories"

2. Click the "edit" button of the story you wish to edit.

3. Here you can make any superficial changes to the story (title, summary, rating, etc.) Remember to click "Save changes" at the bottom when you are done.

4. To make changes to the actual content of the story, click "content/chapters" near the top of the page.

5. Next to each chapter you will see four buttons. I will explain each of these in turn:

Edit: NOT how you change the content of the chapter, simply used to change the chapter title and it's position. Simply click it, make the changes then click "save"

Delete (del): Pretty obvious. Delete the chapter.

Export (exp): Very useful, moves a copy of the chapter to your document manager. A copy of the chapter you export also remains where it is, you can replace it later.

Backup (dl): Bring up a page with only the text of your story on, convenient for copying and pasting back into word (or equivalent).

6. What you do next depends on how much editing you have to do. If you only have to change a few typos, then it's probably easiest to do it in the editor provided in the document manager:

i. Click "export"

ii. Click "documents"

iii. Click "edit/preview" for the chapter required

iv. Make the changes

v. Click "save changes"

vi. Follow the steps for "adding a chapter" above, simply selecting to "replace" the chapter you have edited.

If you have some heavy editing to do (entire passages for example), you will most likely prefer to do this in word (or equivalent) on you computer. If you have a copy saved to your hard drive that is exactly the same as is up on the site, then simply edit on your computer and resubmit it. Follow the instructions "adding a chapter", using step 6 ii).

i. Click "backup"

ii. In the new window simply highlight the text (or press Ctrl + A)

iii. Right click anywhere on it

iv. Click "copy"

v. Open up a new word document

vi. Right click in the blank space (or click "edit")

vii. Click "paste"

viii. Make your changes, remembering to save them at the end

ix. Follow the instructions for "adding a chapter", using step 6 ii)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

IV. Solution to uploading problem

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The first thing to always do it try and send it as a plain text file...I don't know why, but that does seem so solve a surprising amount of troubles.

Did you click upload and come up with a blank screen? This bug happens pretty frequently, but we've found a way around it. Although, it can only be used if you have at least one chapter previously submitted. If you're submitting your first chapter (i.e. creating your first story), then there's not a lot I can really suggest, other than: wait for the bug to sort itself out.

1. Log in and go to your page.

2. Click "stories".

3. Click on the title of any story you have there, it doesn't matter which one.

4. Click "contents/chapters".

5. On the right, next to each chapter, you'll see the four buttons I've previously mentioned. Click on "exp" next to any chapter. Again, it doesn't matter which one. Now you'll have a document in the document manager. I'll note again that by clicking export a copy of the chapter goes to your document manager. The actual document remains where it is.

6. Click "Documents" on the top left.

7. There should be a copy of the document you exported sitting there. Click the "edit/preview" button.

8. Now you simply highlight all the text and delete it.

9. Open up the new chapter you wish to add in whatever word processor you use, and cut and paste it into the document you have open.

10. Click "Save Changes"! Believe me, you'll kick yourself if you forget.

11. Simply place this document that you've made into whatever story you wish, simply treat it as a normal document in your manager and, if necessary, follow the instructions in previous parts of this guide.

In the document manager a list is given of which tags (when html coding your document) FFnet allows. Those are for linebreak (starts the next word on a new line), bold, italics, underline, horizontal line (to indicate a transition of scene), and paragraph. (code (between the pointy brackets): br, b, i, u, hr, and p). [html code is easy enough to learn. Upload a document, and go to edit. Look at what Ffnet does to your document under the html tab].

To avoid ffnet bunching all your text together you should put a blank line between paragraphs (hit enter twice) or use a "hard" enter (press shift+enter).

I remember that a while back ffnet had a little trouble with word docs. It may have caused the layout problems you had. That problem should be fixed now.

For Mac you can use any program that can save documents in the formats that FFnet allows for uploading:

# + OpenOffice (.sxw, .odt)

# + NeoOffice (.sxw)

# + Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx)

# + WinWord, WordPad (.rtf)

# + StarOffice (.sdw)

# + WordPerfect (.wp, .wpd)

# * HTML (.htm, .html)

# * Plain Text, NotePad (.txt)

There is a link to NeoOffice for Mac on the frontpage of FFnet. There is Microsoft Word for Mac, but you have to pay for that. Besides, NeoOffice can save documents in Word format if you want. So can the AppleWorks program you probably already have on your Mac.

When selecting a category FFnet wants to open a new window. Make sure you allow pop ups (or rather this particular pop up 'cause FFnet ocassionally tries something new and annoying advertisment wise). Once you've selected a category and the particular fandom in which you want to post your story, FFnet closes the pop up and you get a form in which you can fill out all the particulars of the story, such as title, summary and rating.

I've just tested the story posting part and that seemed to work fine.

Good luck.

Title

by author

but what i end up with is

Title

by author

how do i fix that?

My other question is, why won't it let me use the character @ in the story? If it matters, i use microsoft word

Title by author

FFnet bunches everything together if you don't double space. So if you want a single space you should hold the shift key while hitting the enter key. This will leave you with a line break that FFnet recognizes.

No, you can't do @ in a story. FFnet strips e-mail addresses from stories (to avoid spam and stuff). Contacting the author can be done through the profile. There is no other reason to have an @ in the story. If you are using it because one character tells another character an e-mail address you can write out the @ the way you would say it yourself (I doubt there is a sound for @). So: thisperson at thatdomain dot com

edit: Never mind to the previous question, hahaha, helps if I read all of the posts in this thread! Sorry for the double posting, I just wanted to let you know that I didn't need help anymore. Thanks anyways guys and gals!

-Leslie

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Is there any way to stop or prevent that?

So, uhm, patience little grasshopper.

i have a story (chapter one only so far)

that I was hoping to get reviews for and i was thinking "hmm, FF.net might be a good place to look." but FF.net is for fanfictions so i was wondering if theres a section for original stories/prose. (excuse me if this is the wrong place i havent been here for to long)

EDIT: Nevermind.

Hope that helps. If it didn't, could you be more specific about what kind of problem you run into. For instance: do you get an error message?

Argh. But fast-forward has ALWAYS been hyphenated, and I refuse to use a space instead of a hyphen!

And yes, it may take a while for a story to show up.

I use & ndash; all the time in my fics, but I've never tried putting one in the summary.

And this HTML 4.0 Character Entity Reference shows how the named and decimal character references look in one's browser

http://www.alanwood.net/demos/ent4_frame.html

What is document manager and how do i get to it and use it?

Sorry for being slow! ^^;

I have a story, that its chapters are not being ended that way. Instead it's "Back to top" which doesn't work when I click on the link.

How do I fix this?

What Hollefine said was: if you want to view your story in the same layout as other people's stories you have to access them in the same way. So go to the category where your story is listed, or to your profile page, and click the link to your story. That should show the chapter map and review button at the bottom.

Don't worry, if they like the summary, they'll read it. If they like it enough to review it, they will if they think about it. And if they really like it, they'll add it to their favorites. Patience, grasshopper! :)

Either tell them your profile url or your story's url. That's the best way I can think of.

Hope that helps.

1. Forums are not to be used to post stories.
2. All discussions, language and content, must be suitable for teens.
3. The owner/moderator(s) of this forum is solely responsible for content posted within this area.
4. All forum abuse must be reported to the moderator(s).

1. Forum admin/moderator
2. Fanatic (on site for more than 2 years)
3. Fan (on site for more than a year)
4. Regular (on site for more than 6 months)
5. Camper (on site for more than a month)
6. Apprentice (on site for more than a week)
7. Newbie (on site for less than a week)