Where can you get free downloads for templates for manuscripts?

[NanaMimi]

I'm trying to get in the field of writing, but I'm having a great deal of
trouble putting in proper manuscript form. So I need a template for a
manuscript that is to be published as a book. Does anyone know or have an
answer for me? Thanks, NanaMimi

 

[Jay Freedman]

I'm trying to get in the field of writing, but I'm having a great deal of
trouble putting in proper manuscript form. So I need a template for a
manuscript that is to be published as a book. Does anyone know or have an
answer for me? Thanks, NanaMimi

Read http://daiya.mvps.org/bookword.htm. It doesn't offer any templates for
download, but it does discuss almost everything you should know about using Word
to write a book, with links to many other articles.

You may find some templates at
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/default.aspx, but expect to have to
tweak them to suit your own needs. I think it's more important to understand
what templates are for, and how they work, than to have someone hand you a
one-size-doesn't-really-fit-all template that will make you frustrated.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I don't make any representation that it's great (because it tries to be all
things to too many people), but you can get something to start with at
http://home.earthlink.net/~wordsintotype/Template.htm.

 

[NanaMimi]

I agree with you, but as I am at a lost on where to start, something is
better than nothing. Who knows, it just might give me a jumpstart and that
in itself is better than where I am now. Thanks for replying so fast.

 

[NanaMimi]

Thank you, it was just what I was looking for. You don't realize how much
this means to me. I might find something with more detail later on, but this
is for right now exactly what the doctor ordered Trust me I really did
need to see a doctor but I was afraid he'd think I'd already cracked
Seriously, thank you very much.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I'm glad you found it helpful. It's quite limited in that it's *only* for a
straightforward manuscript and would require considerable tweaking if you
want to add other elements (the first person I gave it to said he had
started right out with a dedication, and I had to point out that this was
something one usually added at the very end, after finding a publisher <g>).

 

[TinnMann]

I am with you Nana.... This is absolutely the worst problem in Microsoft Word
2002 in my opinion.

I unfortunately started writing my book and had over a hundred thousand
words written before I tried to implement a style sheet and template.

Nothing seems to work, different styles and formatting suddenly appears out
of nowhere, changes either don't take effect or add a new different or even
repeated style to the style list. It even seems almost impossible to delete a
style. It is frankly a mess.

I am thinking I am going to have to hand format the entire 300,000 word
manuscript on a chapter by chapter basis. I have spent over a year attempting
to figure out what in the heck is going on with this program to no avail.

I do have MS Word 2002 and I suppose that it is possible that they have
changed the program since that time.

Outside of this area of long multiple file documents I am not displeased
with MS Word as a word processing program. I have had little difficulty with
standard documents but this seems to be a rarely used function that has
attracted little attention even from professionals.

 

[Robert M. Franz [RMF]]

Hello TinnMann

TinnMann wrote:
[..]

I unfortunately started writing my book and had over a hundred thousand
words written before I tried to implement a style sheet and template.

Nothing seems to work, different styles and formatting suddenly appears out
of nowhere, changes either don't take effect or add a new different or even
repeated style to the style list. It even seems almost impossible to delete a
style. It is frankly a mess.

at this point, I'd first make sure that you have a working template.
Then insert the old text into a new document as raw text and style it
through once.

0.2¢
Robert