Copying formatted text to email

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Permalink Reply by Kay Elizabeth on September 23, 2012 at 9:14pm

Why don't you just attach the document to the email and send it that way? Would be easier. Failing that you'd be quicker retyping the problematic part directly into the email than attempting to reformat it, then copy/pasting the rest.

I've never had that issue myself but sounds like the tab spacing or alignment options you used in Word aren't playing nice with the email format. See if this can help you resolve that: Copy and Paste in Outlook Without Messing Up Your Formatting

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Permalink Reply by Kaelin C. Murphy on September 25, 2012 at 4:09pm

Hello, Kay,

As you must know, most agents and publishers will not open attachments unless they've asked you to send them.  I think you are right, though, typing it into the body of the email instead of copy and pasting would be the best solution.  Hopefully, I can just do that for the headings that I want and not have to type the first 50 pages or 3 chapters.

Thanks for the link for Outlook.  I will check it out.

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Permalink Reply by Kay Elizabeth on September 25, 2012 at 6:30pm

Hold on a moment. Why would you think they would be any more interested if you sent it in the body of the email vs. an attachment anyway if they didn't ask for it in the first place? Send a query letter, not 50 pages. One single page for your entire query letter. For help on that if you need it, read this: How to Write A Query Letter

 

And on another note, "As you must know" ? Try not to come across as being so condescending next time someone attempts to help you. There was absolutely no need for that. You didn't say specifically that's what it was for. Thank you.

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Permalink Reply by Kaelin C. Murphy on September 26, 2012 at 8:28pm

I'm sorry, Kay, I surely didn't mean to offend you or anyone.  I must not have been clear in my first post.  I didn't mean the phrase "as you must know" to sound condescending.  If anything, I meant it to be a compliment of your knowledge. Please let me try again.

An agent's submission guidelines instructed me to send my query ( which is one page) and the first 50 pages of my manuscript in the body of the email and not to send it as an attachment because they would not open attachments unless they formally requested someone to do so.

The problem I was having was not how to submit, but how to retain the format.  I was in hopes that someone here knew a few tricks on keeping a Microsoft Word format intact when copying and pasting into an email.  I thank you for your suggestions and I will definitely follow up on them.

 

 

Kay Elizabeth said:

 

 

 

Hold on a moment. Why would you think they would be any more interested if you sent it in the body of the email vs. an attachment anyway if they didn't ask for it in the first place? Send a query letter, not 50 pages. One single page for your entire query letter. For help on that if you need it, read this: How to Write A Query Letter

 

And on another note, "As you must know" ? Try not to come across as being so condescending next time someone attempts to help you. There was absolutely no need for that. You didn't say specifically that's what it was for. Thank you.

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer FitzGerald on September 26, 2012 at 8:31pm

Not sure, although I suggest saving your word doc as an html file then copy and paste. 

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Permalink Reply by Kaelin C. Murphy on September 27, 2012 at 1:32pm

Thank you, Jennifer.  I think I may have already tried that, but will save it as html to be sure. I've tried so many things, I may have overlooked that one. Thanks.

Jennifer FitzGerald said:

Not sure, although I suggest saving your word doc as an html file then copy and paste. 

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