Does Word have all the capabilities to produce a 400-page non-fiction book?

[BudV]

I would like to see a general discussion on the suitability of Word for
producing a 400-page non-fiction book, and all the bells and whistles that
that implies, including: Automatic page-number referencing, footnotes,
automatic creation of Table of Contents, indexes, etc.. The author is
familiar with Word, and it's free, so it starts off in the lead;
nevertheless, he is willing to purchase other software that will make his
project easier.

 

[Reitanos]

Word is more than capable and has all the features that you describe.

Microsoft has a few templates on their office server; here's a link to
the Word 2007 version of it:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC102635291033.aspx?pid=CT101445101033

 

[Ben M. Schorr - MVP (OneNote)]

I can vouch for the fact that it's totally capable, considering it's
what I used to produce my (largely) non-fiction book.

--
-Ben-
Ben M. Schorr, MVP
Roland Schorr & Tower
http://www.rolandschorr.com
http://www.officeforlawyers.com
Author - The Lawyer's Guide to Microsoft Outlook 2007:
http://tinyurl.com/5m3f5q

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I've used it to create longer books than that, with all the bells and
whistles you describe, plus pictures.

 

[Steve Hayes]

I would like to see a general discussion on the suitability of Word for
producing a 400-page non-fiction book, and all the bells and whistles that
that implies, including: Automatic page-number referencing, footnotes,
automatic creation of Table of Contents, indexes, etc.. The author is
familiar with Word, and it's free, so it starts off in the lead;
nevertheless, he is willing to purchase other software that will make his
project easier.

Word isn't free.

But otherwise, the answer to the question depends on the kind of book.

As far as I know, Word can only do one index, and one set of
footnotes/endnotes.

It also doesn't do microjustification, so it's best not to try full
justification.

If the author is prepared to live with those limitations, then Word can do the
book.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Word can do multiple indexes. Word can do both footnotes and endnotes (but
only one set of each, aside from custom-numbered ones).

 

[Graham Mayor]

..... and by 'free' he meant that he already had it.

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[Jonathan West]

I would like to see a general discussion on the suitability of Word for
producing a 400-page non-fiction book, and all the bells and whistles that
that implies, including: Automatic page-number referencing, footnotes,
automatic creation of Table of Contents, indexes, etc.. The author is
familiar with Word, and it's free, so it starts off in the lead;
nevertheless, he is willing to purchase other software that will make his
project easier.

I've used Word to create technical documents 5-10 times that long.

The key is preparation - you need to create a good template to start with.
Take a look at these articles..

Creating a Template – The Basics (Part I)
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart1.htm

Creating a Template (Part II)
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart2.htm

Creating Custom Toolbars for Templates
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=262

Why use Microsoft Word's built-in heading styles?
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/UseBuiltInHeadingStyles.html

 

[Terry Farrell]

Although it doesn't do Micro Justification, if you enable the 'Do
Justification like WordPerfect' option under Compatibility, Word is capable
of reasonable justification, though adjusting the character spacing by
decimal points can improve it.

 

[Phil Ardussi]

I'd like to see someone suggest BudV stay away from the Master Document
schema in 2007. Faithe and Herb Tyson, especially Herb, have warned readers
about this in their excellent books about MS-Word 2007.

Phil

 

[Jonathan West]

I'd like to see someone suggest BudV stay away from the Master Document
schema in 2007. Faithe and Herb Tyson, especially Herb, have warned
readers about this in their excellent books about MS-Word 2007.

400 pages with a well-designed template doesn't need to be broken up into
separate chapters. Word is pergectly capable of handling that size of book
in a single file, and has been since about Word 2000. (Earlier than that,
and you had to be very nice to Word to get it to behave with a book of that
size!)

However, if you want to break a book up into separate chapters (pehaps
becausew different chapters have different authors), then I would definitely
recommend keeping away from Master Documents. The following article
describes why.

Why Master Documents corrupt
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/WhyMasterDocsCorrupt.htm

Broadly, you have two choices when putting the book together. Either insert
all the chapters in order into a single file and then save it, or create a
multi-file Table of Contents as described in this article

Creating a Table of Contents Spanning Multiple Documents
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=148

Yes, there is some VBA involved in this, and yes, it might frighten people
not used to it, but if you want to a tool to create a 400-page book, you do
need to take the trouble of learning how to use its capabilities!

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

More links useful for long documents:
So You Want to Write a Book with Word
http://daiya.mvps.org/bookword.htm

 

[BudV]

Many thanks to all of you for your help.

Bud Vitoff