posted
The computer I'm using had Works word processing, with which I am not happy. I have downloaded openoffice. I am trying to find how to make the docs created with this program Word compatible. One article stated that the best way to share print files is in a pdf file. Is this true for electronically submitting also?
I also found this tidbit:
"If you write articles for magazines, you should be aware of some new restrictions. Two of the nation's most prestigious magazines have advised authors that they cannot accept articles written in Microsoft Word 2007, and I expect that more magazines will follow soon. There are two different problems involved."
posted
I guess the long and short of it is that Word 2007 isn't Word 2003 and earlier. When you go to Save As, it should give you the option for Word 2007 vs. Word 97-2003.
You should always have the option for saving either as a text file (.txt) or as a rich text file (.rtf). Most places should accept either of these formats if you can't figure out Word formatting.
posted
And when it comes to openoffice, which I used for quite a while, there are no publishers I know of who accept its native format. While it is a solid word processing program, it doesn't have some of the niceties such as change tracking. Because change tracking is so useful, I rather reluctantly changed back to MS Word.
There was an article in Writer's Digest, I think the July issue, about some various programs, word processing as well as submission tracking and other types, that they rated. I tried out demos of some of them and frankly didn't find any of the word processing ones that I felt were good enough to bother with. I keep looking because I don't think that Word is ideal for authors, but nothing works as well either, at least not for me.
[This message has been edited by JeanneT (edited September 13, 2007).]
posted
Just save it to rich text (rtf). There aren't many word processors out there that won't read it. It doesn't hold all the fancy formatting, but someone will be hard pressed to say they have nothing that will open it. (Windows comes with wordpad which reads a rich text file. No excuses for anyone running windows).
Of course, pdf can be viewed by anyone. The reader is free and is available for pretty much every major os out. If the person you are submitting to doesn't specify, go with pdf. If they want a word doc, go with rtf (if you don't have ms word).
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