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Writing a book can be, at once; absorbing, time consuming and frustrating. It makes all the difference in the world, however, to see it come to life as it will appear in ‘book form’; at least it did for me. Following these instructions, your manuscript will appear as you picture your book to look like when ready for publication- two pages, mirror margins, page numbers, header at the top of each page, correct spacing, correct indents etc. This makes it far easier to envision your completed goal; a book ready for printing should you choose ‘print on demand’ (POD) or digitally produced, say, on Kindle. Of course, if you opt to send your manuscript to a literary agent, he or she will require you to format it according to standard specifications; (usually 8 1/2 X 11 paper, Times New Roman font, double spaced, no header etc.). While this suits their needs, you lose the feel of how your book is progressing while you write it, and what it will look like in the end. Besides, you can convert back to their format easily enough once you familiarize yourself with Word's layout tools. It’s a matter of preference and how you intend to publish, but I suggest you get formatting out of the way first and learn the process if you don't know it already. You won’t regret it.

This article provides easy instructions for formatting a manuscript using Microsoft Word 2010. It also assumes you have limited knowledge of the software. I had that same limited knowledge when I wrote my first book using an earlier version of Word. I spent considerable ‘trial and error’ time getting to know my way around a really excellent piece of software. Eventually, I got the hang of it. if you are not already familiar with Word ,this article is meant to save you some of that time and frustration and get on with the important work at hand; completing your book.

Your book size may be set to any publishing size but some are pretty much standard. For purposes of these instructions, I have chosen a common paperback size; 5.25” wide by 8.0” high. When you have completed your formatting, the image on your computer screen, as mentioned above, will look like the real thing. In addition, it will contain a preliminary “gutter” size (printer’s allowance for book thickness) that you will no doubt change once you know how many pages you end up with. Your Word document file will be well along the way for POD submission when you complete writing it. You’ll find that doing this in the beginning provides a tremendous incentive to complete your project, plus your manuscript will be more fun to write.

Let’s format your words into what your book will look like physically when it’s ready for print.

·       Turn your computer on and open Word 2010

  There is a single blank page in front of you; a canvas waiting to hold your masterpiece.

Word 2010 has the following tabs at the top; File, Home, Insert, Page Layout, References, Mailings, Review, View. We’ll be working primarily with ‘Page Layout’ and ‘Insert’ options (with brief visits to ‘Home’).

First, let’s set the theme for your manuscript; primarily font style and size. Times New Roman is a safe choice for most publishers, editors and agents as is a font size of 12 points, so let’s go with those.

·       Click on ‘Page Layout’

·       On the menu below the tab, the first choices to the left are: Themes, followed by Colors, Fonts and Effects to the right

·       Click on the small down arrow beside ‘Fonts’

·       The drop down menu of font styles is in alphabetical order. Arrow down to ‘Times New Roman’.

·       If that choice isn’t on the drop down, go to the very bottom and click on ‘Create New Theme Fonts’

·       On the new screen, in the box that says; ‘Body font’, arrow down to ‘Times New Roman’ and click on it.  Do the same in the box that says ‘Heading Font’. You can name the new theme if you want, e.g ‘TNR- 12 point’

·       Click “Save’

·       Click on ‘Home’- (main task bar)- the font name ‘Times New Roman’ is displayed in the section labeled ‘Font’

· To the right of the font name is a small box with a number inside. Click on the down arrow and select the number 12.

You have set the font style and size for your manuscript.

Now go back to the Page Layout tab on the main task bar. Look for the next series of icon choices (Margins, Orientation, Size, Columns etc.- Right next to the ‘Font’ icon you just used.)

·       Click on the down arrow under the “Size” icon

The drop down screen shows various paper sizes (Letter, Legal, Executive etc.)

At the very bottom of the drop down is the last choice, “More Paper Sizes”.

·       Click “More Paper Sizes.”

A new screen overlay appears with three tabs at the top (Margins, Paper and Layout.)

·       The ‘Paper’ tab content is shown by default

·       In the “Paper Size” block, the default choice is ‘Letter’. To the right of ‘Letter’ is a down arrow. Click the arrow to produce a drop down screen. At the very bottom of the drop down selections, choose “Custom Size”.

·       In the spaces immediately below, type the width of your choice, in this case, 5.25” then type the height, 8.0”. You can always change it later, but be aware that page size will affect things like ‘gutter size’, the appearance of your headers and footers etc.- should you decide to change at a later time.

·       Leave “Paper Source’ at the default settings indicated (First page and Other page)

·       Click ‘OK’ That will take you back to the main task bar

You have completed the ‘Paper’ settings.

·       Now repeat the above, except click on the “Margins” tab this time instead of ‘Paper’ (at the top of the new screen- actually the same screen you used for the ‘Paper’ settings.)

Type the Top margin at 1.0 and the Bottom margin at 0.8”, Left (or Inside) change to 0.2” and Right ( or outside) margin at 0.5”

For the Gutter, .78” is good to begin with. This should be an adequate allowance for a 350 page book, 5.25” X 8.0” and a 12 pt. font size. You may have to adjust this up or down later depending on the printing requirements. For now, it’s important that you just be aware of it.

On the same screen are two choices, one for Portrait, one for Landscape.

·       Click on Portrait.

Below that is a section for “Multiple Pages.”

·       It is set to ‘Normal’ by default. From the small drop down menu, choose ‘Mirror Margins.’ You will see a scaled preview of your page setup directly below.

At the bottom of the “Margins” screen is “Apply to” From the drop down menu.

·       Leave at “Whole Document.”

·       Click ‘OK’ and return to main task bar

You have now completed both the ‘Paper’ and ‘Margin’ settings. You have one more ‘Size’ setting, ‘Layout’

·       Once again, repeat the above,(Page Layout, Size, More paper sizes etc.) except click on the “Layout” tab when the new screen appears. (By now, you’ve determined it’s the same old screen, just a different tab.)

·       Under “Section” choose “New Page”

·       ‘Headers and Footers’ gives you an option. If you want, for instance, the title of your book to be at the top of each right hand page, and your name as author, on each left hand page, check the box ‘different odd and even pages’. Leave the box blank if you don’t want that option.

·       For Header height, choose 0.4”, for Footer height, choose 0.4 also”

·       For “Vertical Alignment” choose “Top”

·       ‘Apply To’ should be left at ‘Whole Document’

·       click OK

Now go to the “View” tab at the top of the main task bar (File, Home, Insert, Page Layout, References, Mailings, Review, View)

·       Click on “View”

You will see a small magnifying glass icon labeled ‘Zoom’.

·       Click on ‘Zoom’

·       New screen- Choose 75% option

·       Click ‘OK’ at the bottom

Your screen should show a single blank page, somewhat modified in size from when you began.

“So, what’s the big deal?” You say. “Not much has changed!”

 But presumably you have typed nothing at this point. Begin typing. As soon as you fill the first page, a second appears beside the first, as it would with an open book. (Depending on size parameters you may also achieve a two page view by choosing “Two Pages’ in the ‘View” tab, then adjusting the ‘Zoom’ settings. For purposes of these instructions, it is assumed that you are beginning with a blank, newly formatted document.)

Indents

Now you will format your paragraphs to include indents. This is accomplished as follows:

·       Click on the “Home’ tab- main task bar

·       You will find a section named ‘Paragraph’ (look at the very bottom of the task bar). To the right of the word ‘Paragraph’ there is a very tiny diagonal/down arrow.

·       Click on the down arrow.

·       A new screen appears. Set ‘Alignment’ as ‘Left’, or ‘Justified, or ‘Right’ as you prefer. (you can change it later)

·        ‘Outline Level’ set as ‘Body Text’

·       Set Left Indent to 0.0”

·       Set Right Indent to 0.0”

·       In the ‘Special’ Box , choose ‘First Line’ from the drop down menu

·       Set First Line indent at .4

·       ‘Before’ and ‘After’ boxes leave at ‘Auto’

·       “Line Spacing’ is ‘Multiple’;set at 1.15

·       Click ‘Set as Default’ at the bottom of the screen if you want the indent setting for all future documents, or click ‘OK’ for ‘this document only’.

If you use “bullets” in your manuscript, when you set indentation at First Line indent at .4, Word automatically adds .25 to the bullet indent as a “Hanging Indent’.

You should now have properly indented  paragraphs.

 But what about page numbers and a header containing the book’s title? Surely, you would want those in your book. (Note: headers and page numbers are omitted when uploading to Kindle digital text publishing.)

Page Numbering

Inserting page numbers is easy.

Place your cursor near the bottom of the first page

·       Click on the ‘Insert’ tab on the main task bar

·       Click on the tiny down arrow where you see the ‘Page Number’ icon

·       In this case, choose “Bottom of Page’

·       Then choose ‘Plain Number 2’ which will place the page numbers at the bottom of the page and in the middle. You will notice other options available, should you want, for instance, page numbers at the top of the page.

·       Caution: If you chose ‘different odd and even pages’ within page layout (see above), it will be necessary to set page numbering on both first and second pages. Otherwise, you will have numbers on odd pages only.

Headers

Now you want your book title to appear at the top of every page, or perhaps, every other page with your name on the page preceding, so let’s insert a header.

This time, place your cursor toward the top of the first page.

·       Once again, click on the Insert tab

·       Click on the down arrow under ‘Header’ icon

·       A new screen appears, click ‘Type text’

·       Type the name of your book

·       If you want the title italicized, select the words you just typed (left click & drag)

·       Click the ‘Home’ tab on the main task bar

·       In the ‘Font’ section, Click on the ‘I’ icon to get italics

·       In the ‘paragraph’ section to the right of ‘I’, click on the icon the indicates centering

·       Exit Header option (double click in text area)

Your header will appear now on every page as you produce it. Again, if you chose ‘different odd and even pages’, your title will appear on every other page. You must set up a header (same as above) on the opposite page. This could be your name as the author.

Formatting your manuscript using the above instructions allows both header and footer to fit nicely in between the body of text as you compose the words.

For now, this is basic but useful information, and it will familiarize you with the process. As you near completion of your manuscript for print, you will create beginning pages (title, index, acknowledgements page, dedication page etc.) for which you do not want page numbers or a different kind of numbering, say Roman numerals. Neither do you want to show a header on those pages. This will require you to set up different sections of your book to accomplish that task. Those instructions are beyond the scope of this particular article.

If you take the steps outlined above, you will find the results rewarding and, I’ll bet, spur you toward completion of your book. They are based on Microsoft Word 2010 but also may be done in previous versions with a bit of interpolation.

Good Luck with your book!

David Faxon

 Find me on: www.rainforestnovel.com