OGMS User Guidance for Composing Narrative Responses
It is recommended that responses to the grant questions be created in a Word document
using 12 point font, Times New Roman, 1” top & bottom margins and 1.25” left & right
margins. This is suggested because there is a character limit for each narrative response. If
applicants create their answers within these guidelines, it creates a reference between character
limits and pages. A character limit of 8,000 characters is approximately 2 pages with the
suggested font and margins, and a character limit of 4,000 is approximately 1 page. Please note
that Capital letters count for more than 1 space in OGMS.
Also by creating responses in Word, it enables applicants to edit their responses before
copying and pasting them into the OGMS application. This is easier than logging into OGMS
several times to edit an application.
Applicants should keep the following in mind when completing grant applications in OGMS:
1) Applicants will be prompted to save every 15 minutes. If the computer is inactive for 20
minutes, the session will time out and applicants will lose any information that has not
been saved.
2) If applicants switch to another web page or section without clicking the "Save" button,
applicants will lose any information that has not been saved.
3) When an applicant clicks the "Save" button, all the information will be saved to the
OGMS database, and the applicant will remain on the same page.
When applicants paste their responses into the grant application from a Word document, some
formatting will not paste correctly.
The formatting that will be lost when pasted into the grant application:
1) Fonts, font style (bold, italic, underline, etc.), font size
2) Paragraph indentation and spacing
3) Paragraph spacing will be lost if MS Word’s “space after paragraph” feature is used
4) Bullet symbols are changed to unrecognizable characters
5) A tab becomes a single space
The formatting that will remain when pasted into the grant application:
1) Paragraphs (using the enter/return key)
2) White spaces
3) Numbered list (but not the indentation)
Some additional recommendations are:
1) Do not use bulleting in MS Word. Instead, type a number or asterisk by hand, like:
My Recipe:
My Shopping List:
1. Add ingredients;
* Bananas
2. Bake for 30 mins.
* Apples
4/3/09