I wrote to FIRST about the submission formatting issues, and here's the response I received:
"How are you entering your Chairman’s Award Submission? Are you copying and pasting it into the box? If so, the system will omit the formatting that you did in your original document. However, you should be able to reinstate it by going through the one long paragraph and putting in the spaces, tabs, breaks, etc. yourself. You can also create paragraphs by typing your essay directly into the box for submission."
In addition, I'd leave the essays at 600 words. I know there is some confusion between the submission information and TIMS, but I'd go with the submission information (
read it here). They make it very clear that the limit is 600 words and do not mention characters. That is the standard I have been using to edit papers.
Hope that helps!