You may have already seen my Google Docs/AO3 post, explaining how to get around the odd formatting that occurs when you copy and paste from Docs to AO3. Here’s a guide for Word!
This will help avoid the paragraph spacing becoming messed up when you copy from Microsoft Word (2007 and later) to AO3′s Rich Text editor box. Basically, you want to only hit return ONCE when typing, regardless of your line spacing (single, multiple, etc).
I’m using 2007, but these steps and commands will work in newer versions too.
First, check if you need to change your paragraph spacing.
– Press CTRL+SHIFT+8 or click this button (found in the Home ribbon):
This will show/hide the ‘formatting symbols’, which are little symbols that tell you which buttons have been pressed (space, tab, enter, etc). You can keep it turned on if you like – none of these symbols will print, or be copied when you copy and paste.
You want one ¶ symbol at the end of each paragraph.
– If you have one ¶ at the end of the paragraph, you’re fine!
– If you have two (or more) ¶ between paragraphs, see below.
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Now, let’s sort your paragraph spacing
– Highlight everything. CTRL + A will do this nicely for you.
– Locate the ‘Paragraph’ dialogue box.
– In the box that comes up, go to the ‘Spacing’ section.
Your best bet, aesthetically, is to change the ‘After’ value, but it’s up to you! Line spacing doesn’t matter.
– Change the ‘After’ spacing to 12pt* using the up arrow. *if your font is 18pt or larger, use 18pt spacing.
– Save the spacing as default if you like.
This will save you doing this step every time!
– Delete the extra lines. This is the sucky part. Hopefully you don’t have too much to correct! Remember: you want just one ¶ at the end of each paragraph.
– Write your thing! Now, when you copy into AO3′s Rich Text editor, the paragraph spacing will play nice.
I hope this was helpful!
If you have any questions about this, or about Word or Google Docs in general, please feel free to ask! I’m always happy to help.
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