Recently I prepared a proposal using Research.gov instead of Fastlane. I liked the more modern look of it and the option to upload PDF files without apparent compression.
The feature I found a bit annoying is the automatic margin check. I prepared a document using Microsoft Word with one inch margins on all sides and printed it using the PDF printer that came with Windows 10. However, this output file could not pass the margin check. Initially I thought there might be a problem with the imbedded figures, but after an hour of fine tuning the figure positions and sizes, the problem persisted. Just as I was going to give up and switch back to Fastlane, I noticed that there were a few puctuation marks that seemed to stick out to the right ever so slightly, and these turned out to be exactly the culprits! Reducing their sizes from 11pt to 9pt saved the day.
I hope this tip can save you some time if you stumble upon this post. Another tip: Do not include page numbers! It also triggers the wrong margin flag. Remove them and the system will automatically add them at the very end.
