1. agasfer

    agasfer Member

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    Punctuation Word processing quirks

    Discussion in 'Word Mechanics' started by agasfer, Dec 9, 2016.

    I am writing in a Word (2010) document on a PC, and I saved my docx document (among other places) into "Drive". I then accessed "Drive" on my Tablet. (There is no Apple involved here, so this is not a question of Mac/Microsoft. The Tablet is a recent Samsung.) I opened the docx document from Drive for proof-reading. However, although the page numbers agree, occasionally the Tablet version inserts spaces between lines that were not in the original document. (I double-checked: there is no page break involved.) As well, it sometimes separated punctuation onto the next line, even though in the original there was no space between word and punctuation so that it should have been read as a single word. I saved the original docx into a pdf document, and these anomalies did not appear. Any idea what is going on here?
     
  2. EnginEsq

    EnginEsq Member

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    It's probably just a difference in rendering by the Android software on your tablet.
     
  3. jannert

    jannert Retired Mod Supporter Contributor

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    Well, I am a Mac user, and I've occasionally experienced this problem on my Mac, when I import or export text between programmes. Suddenly, out of nowhere, an unintended line break occurs, as if I've changed the line-space setting for that particular line, or paragraph. No rhyme or reason to it. I go back, show 'invisibles', check the line-space designation, and nope. No enlightening discoveries or mistakes I've made. It just happens.

    The only way I've found to solve the problem is to remove that portion of the offending document and retype the line/paragraph. Copying and pasting doesn't change a thing. It's got to be re-entered.

    I suspect glitchery is at fault. People who say computers don't make mistakes has never owned one! I've heard that banks don't make mistakes either.
     
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  4. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    I've found copying and pasting through a .rtf file strips out most of the offending hidden coding.
     
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  5. Sack-a-Doo!

    Sack-a-Doo! Contributor Contributor

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    The Mac OS, being originally based on BSD UNIX, has more in common with Linux, et al than with Windows. Windows seriously is the odd man out in the realm of operating systems.

    And to further complicate compatibility between word processors, the free ones have issues with DOCX because of Microsoft's closed-format policy. As soon as most other word processors were able to reliably load/save DOC format, that's when DOCX came along.

    I, too, switched to RTF as my default file format (I use MS Word 2003 because I found it for $35 on eBay) and no one's complained so far. And from what I've read, most agents/publishers are asking for DOC rather than DOCX which should make it easier for those using an alternative OS/word processor.
     
  6. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    I use OpenOffice at home, some version of Word on my Android, but I hate the stupid ...X series programs by Microsoft. My students (and perhaps the computer lab at school) tend to have the version of Powerpoint that defaults to .pptx, but the laptops we have for use in the classroom (public speaking/presentation classes) are older and won't display .pptx presentations correctly, so I have to always remind the kids to save as .ppt. It would be one thing if we were working across platforms, but this is just nuts.
     
  7. Sack-a-Doo!

    Sack-a-Doo! Contributor Contributor

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    The default file format can be changed in Options. Perhaps a word to the IT guys could solve the problem.
     
  8. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    HAHAHAHA!

    Giggle...

    snort....

    No, wait, I promised not to comment on my workplace, especially negatively.

    I'll suggest that, thanks!
     
    Sack-a-Doo! likes this.

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