Setting up a Book

B

Barry

How can I use Word to set up a book with Table of Contents, Chapters, Page
Numbers, Headers, Footers, Images, Glossary, and Index? Is there a way to do
this quickly? Thanks, Barry
 
D

Daiya Mitchell

Quickly? If you invest some time into setting your document, you can get
all the TOC, Index, etc to create and update very quickly.

This page has an overview of the general process, and links to related
articles.

So You Want to Write a Book with MS Word
http://daiya.mvps.org/bookword.htm
 
D

Daiya Mitchell

Well, it's just a collection of other people's brilliant links, but thanks.
For a while last year or the year before there were a number of frequent
requests for such information, so I started by just compiling the links, and
then it grew and grew and grew. I need to update and edit it, but...

Daiya
 
A

aalaan

Just one proviso. I find, working as an editor, that commercial publishers
do not want books structured per se, but only the raw text (possibly with
coded headings and subheadings), which they then flow into their own
systems. But for self-publishing this looks ideal.
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

That's the difference between a manuscript and a book. The inquiries we get
here are very rarely from writers who have found a commercial publisher for
their books; if they had, they would have guidelines from the publisher they
were looking to meet.

I'm currently dealing with a client for whom I copyedited and formatted a
manuscript, and that's emphatically all it was. The last time I gave it back
to him, I stressed that I had done all I could, and I was through with it
(it's a terrible book, and I really wanted to walk away). Unfortunately,
he's a fellow Rotarian, a stroke survivor (that's what the book is about),
and I don't want to hurt his feelings.

Now he's back at me wanting to know (if I understand his poorly phrased
question) how to remove the header from the document for publication. I told
him to just send the ms to the publisher and let the publisher worry about
it. He said he's self-publishing. In that case, I told him, you need a book,
not a ms. The problem, I suspect, is that he's publishing through one of
these online POD publishers, who undoubtedly have specific submission
guidelines, which I could presumably meet if I knew what they were, but I
have no intention of handing out answers to vague questions at a Rotary
meeting when I'm otherwise *very* busy. I told him, "Now is not the time,"
but I guess I should really get back to him and see if I can meet his needs
(despite my early disclaimers). It's just that every time I get his file
back, he's crapped it up with a lot of direct formatting because he doesn't
know how to deal with the styles I carefully used. <sigh>

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
D

Daiya Mitchell

Well, even before self-publishing, Word's features offer some value. The
ability to use outline view is really helpful in organizing thoughts. I
don't do numbering, but if one is sending around the manuscript or chapters
for feedback, numbering, cross-references, etc are important. And one
usually sends a printed manuscript to try to get a publisher to accept it (I
think?) and then those things are useful even if the press wipes them out
later. But it's really sort of aimed at dissertation writers, because that's
what I was when I put the links together.

Daiya
 
A

aalaan

Yes, been there, done that. IMHO self-published authors really want two
stages of work (if we leave out the dangerous one of assessment!). 1) They
want the text copy edited and probably structurally edited, and 2) they then
want what in effect is a book designer.

I have recently done one for private client aged 90 (who happened to be very
good). He is submitting it to what I call (unfairly, probably) 'real'
publishers so it is in effect a pre-submission edit. But on the whole
private clients can be really difficult. They tend to be the ones who hang
on to a misplaced comma or wrong expression with gritted teeth and will not
let go. I prefer publishers.
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

Yes, been there, done that. IMHO self-published authors really want two
stages of work (if we leave out the dangerous one of assessment!). 1) They
want the text copy edited and probably structurally edited, and 2) they then
want what in effect is a book designer.
Click to expand...

These are the two kinds of jobs I do, though more often lately I do both. I
have no problem designing and preparing "camera-ready copy" (though nowadays
it's usually a PDF file sent directly to the commercial printer) for a book
(see http://home.earthlink.net/~wordsintotype/Books.htm), but I haven't yet
gotten up to speed on what's required to send a "book" to one of these
online POD houses, and I'm leery of it. I've seen some very nice and some
incredibly awful products of such "publishers," and I don't know whether
it's a GIGO issue or a difference between publishers.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
N

news

Suzanne S. Barnhill said:
It's just that every time I get his file
back, he's crapped it up with a lot of direct formatting because he doesn't
know how to deal with the styles I carefully used. <sigh>
Click to expand...

Oh Suzanne, how I sympathize! They should teach stylesheets in schools,
along with touch typing.

And the standard of English speling and grammer these days. It's
appalling! One document I edited a few years ago was so bad that in a
whimsical moment I added the warning:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This document is a draft and may contain errers, ommisions and dylsexic
typsos.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The client thanked me for adding the warning, but said it contained a
mistake: there should be a comma after "document" . I tittered politely
at the joke, until it slowly dawned on me that she meant it......

<sigh>
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

Now that is worth saving! Good lord!

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
A

aalaan

Even grammer gets wrongly spelled!

news said:
Oh Suzanne, how I sympathize! They should teach stylesheets in schools,
along with touch typing.

And the standard of English speling and grammer these days. It's
appalling! One document I edited a few years ago was so bad that in a
whimsical moment I added the warning:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This document is a draft and may contain errers, ommisions and dylsexic
typsos.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The client thanked me for adding the warning, but said it contained a
mistake: there should be a comma after "document" . I tittered politely at
the joke, until it slowly dawned on me that she meant it......

<sigh>
Click to expand...
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

In this case, though, it was intentional. I started to comment, then noticed
it was accompanied by "speling." <g>

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
G

Guest

We did!

Terry

news said:
My apologies. Of course, I should have said:

"And the standard of English speling and grammer is a sic joke these days
...."

(All together now: groan).
Click to expand...
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

Definately better! <g>

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Similar Threads

Two separate indexes? 7
tempate for A5 book needed 2
Word, Sections, and Headers/Footers 1
Inserting a landscape page within document 4
automating Chapter numbers 3
Organizing a book 3
Question about creating an index 8
40 Page book in Word 2003 3

Top