I believe that the real problem is that users sometimes copy & paste text into Adobe or PureEdge forms from some other source (e.g., MS Word), rather than typing. Word, and other word processing programs, use a variety of text formats (not necessarily related to font) that use special characters. Those curly apostrophes are what Word calls smart quotes, in which the quotes at the beginning & end of a passage lean in opposite directions. In plain text, all apostrophes are straight up & down. It is these special characters (there are lots of others - foreign accents, Greek symbols & letters, special dashes) that are coughed up when the text fields in the form are processed. As of now, the safest route is to type entries directly into the forms. If you insist on copying & pasting, make sure you know what you are doing, that you do not use special characters, and that you have special features in your word processor turned off. BTW, this is not a problem unique to G.g. Downstream agency applications (e.g., NIH Commons) have rejected special characters for years. This has long been a bone of contention among scientists who insist that these characters are essential, for example, in the titles of their projects. Retrofitting all systems to accept these characters will be a long time in coming. -------------- Original message ---------------------- From: Bob Beattie <xxxxxx@UMICH.EDU> > This is a problem of too many characters in the project description, > a form field, not an attachment. The system was counting certain > punctuation as multiple characters. This problem is known to G.g and > they have said they are working on it. In the meantime, consider > using fewer characters than the max allowed for text fields. Or, if > you want to go to the limit, do as Donna suggests, use only periods > and commas in the project description. > > Maybe this will be fixed in the next system build. > Bob > ------------------------------ > Robert Beattie > UMich e-Business Point of Contact > UMich Grants.gov Liaison > Managing Senior Project Representative for Electronic Research > Administration > Division of Research Development and Administration > University of Michigan > xxxxxx@umich.edu (734) 936-1283 > Learn more about Grants.gov @ UMICH > http://www.research.umich.edu/era/grants_gov/ > > > > On May 29, 2008, at 4:08 PM, Nicole Nicholas wrote: > > This actually sounds like it might be a font issue, rather than a > random error. Let�s say for instance Adobe doesn�t recognize the font > that is being used in the original doc. and when the file is > converted to pdf the unrecognizable font characters turn into > question marks. I could be wrong, but it�s a theory. > ~Nikki > > Nicole J. Nicholas > Research Grant & Contract Specialist > ORSP - Rutgers University > 732.932.0150 x2127 > http://orsp.rutgers.edu > > Note: Please remember the mandatory NIH Public Access Policy > > > > From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@hrinet.org] On > Behalf Of Kellie Dyslin > Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2008 3:49 PM > To: xxxxxx@hrinet.org > Subject: Re: [RESADM-L] another g.g fluke > > Diana, > Were these PDF attachments? If so, the characters shouldn't have > changed. We PDF all attachments to g.g. aps as a rule, and have not > had this problem. > > >>> "Vincelli, Diana" <xxxxxx@RICHMOND.EDU> 5/15/2008 12:06 PM >>> > Greetings Grants.Gov Warriors, > Twice in recent weeks we have submitted applications to NEH via > grants.gov. Both were rejected with very obscure error messages. > After a number of conversations and email exchanges with grants.gov, > I was told with the first, �Oh you have a curly apostrophe in the > project description (summary on SF424) which turns into 3 question > marks and puts you over the 1000 character limit.� > In the second one, it was regular straight quotation marks that > turned into 4 question marks! (thus putting the project description > over the limit). > In both cases I asked the grants.gov rep why he/she knew that, but > the end users are not informed of such quirks. Neither knew why. > So the bottom line is: no punctuation except periods and commas in > the Project Description. > Diana > > Diana Thompson Vincelli > Director of Grant Support > Office of Foundation, Corporate & Government Relations > G-14 Maryland Hall > University of Richmond, VA 23173 > 804.289.8005; fax 804.289-8943 > xxxxxx@richmond.edu > http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/grants > > P Please consider the environment before printing this email > > > ====================================================================== I > nstructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including > subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available > via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists") > ====================================================================== > > ====================================================================== I > nstructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including > subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available > via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists") > ====================================================================== > > ====================================================================== I > nstructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including > subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available > via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists") > ====================================================================== > > > ====================================================================== > Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including > subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available > via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists") > ====================================================================== ====================================================================== Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists") ======================================================================
