I uploaded a file. Why is my notice not formatted correctly?
If you're attempting to upload a file into Column (like PDF, Word or Pages files), you might find that the notice content in Column looks different from the original file. This is because Column cannot import all formatting styles when adjusting the notice to meet the newspaper's requirements. Our system is designed to import at many formatting styles as possible, but if you're importing files from older versions of systems like Microsoft Word, you might experience greater discrepancies between the original file and results in Column.
If you find that notice content (words, punctuation, etc.) gets lost in the upload process, we recommend creating your notice in a plain text editing software program like Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit (Mac), or use Notepad or TextEdit to format rich text to plain text. Then copy-and-paste from the plain text program into the Column Notice Editor, where you can apply the desired formatting.
Notepad and TextEdit are default software programs that come preinstalled with their respective operating systems.
Watch this video for further instructions on how to use a plain text editor to format your notice in Column.
How to create your notice using a plain text document
Create a plain text document on your computer and copy-and-paste in your notice content from the original file. See notes below about how to create a plain text document based on your computer type.*
Once your notice content is in plain text, copy-and-paste your notice from the plain text editor into the Create Notice step of the placement process in Column.
Once this plain text is copied and pasted into Column, you can use our text editing tools to format the content as desired. You can bold, italicize, and underline words, insert tabs and tables, or adjust the column width.
Please note that some publications charge more for certain formatting elements, such as bolding and italics.
*How to create plain text documents:
On Windows
Press + S (on your keyboard).
Type Notepad.
Press Enter.
Paste any text into the white area.
On macOS
Press Command + Spacebar (on your keyboard).
Type TextEdit and press Enter.
Click Format > Make plain text (from the top menu).
Paste any text into the white area.
On Chromebooks
Create a new Google Doc.
Paste your formatted text.
Press Ctrl or Command + A (on your keyboard) to highlight the text.
Click Format (from the top menu).
Choose Clear formatting.