Long document formatting

[Pete]

Greetings friends,

I am helping the editor of a (very low budget) journal to format books.
These are fairly complex and long documents (although, in the scheme of
things, probably not too complicated). I would estimate that we are
intermediate level users. We both have macs (mine is a Macbook Pro
using OS X version 10.4.8) and are working on Word 2004 version 11.3.
Here are some of the formatting needs of the books we are working on:

The goal is to have a book (probably in the 200 - 300 page range) with
continuous pages from start to finish. Book chapters need to start on
odd number pages. Sometimes we have to insert a blank page to fulfill
this requirement. The blank page must have a page number and "Blank" in
the header and both must show. For some reason this has been difficult.


We have also struggled with when we make a change, the rest of the
document shifts (header titles revert to the previous section, page
numbers shift).

We are needing a document that has 1 3/4" margin on the bottom and top
(from the top of the header) and two inch margins on the sides. For
some reason these also have shifted.

For the first page of each new chapter the header and page number do
not show.

Lastly, we have a table of contents and an index we are working with to
integrate into the book. We have been doing the TOC by hand. The index
has been done manually by looking up the words and inserting the
indexing function and then letting word format the index. At times, the
auto-indexer has been off in terms of page numbers.

Obviously, there are number of questions here. Here are my questions:

1) Does anyone recommend a resource (book, training, website) that
would answer these questions?
2) Would we be better served, given our experience level, by having
someone else do the formatting for us? If yes, how would you recommend
that we find such a person (we have a small amount of money)?
3) What fixes would you recommend for the above questions?

Sorry for the long post with multiple questions. Any advice or ideas
would be very helpful. Thanks!

Pete

 

[CyberTaz]

Start here:

http://word.mvps.org/

And don't neglect to d/l & study the article entitled "Bend Word to Your
Will" available here:

http://word.mvps.org/Mac/Bend/BendWordToYourWill.html

Most anything that refers to PC Word applies to Mac Word as well, & don't
hesitate to post any specific issues here. Initially you'll need to look at
Headers and Footers - Odd & Even Page, Page Numbering, etc. so follow the
links from the first one above. Margins in Word docs are measured from the
edge of the "page", so you'll have to adjust your settings accordingly...
but you'll also need to understand that Word doesn't have any concept of a
physical *page* as conceived by the user.

The material available from the resources I've cited will give you a better
understanding of how the program & its features work & interact.

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Pete:

Oh my It takes years to learn to do this

Send me an email address to which you can accept a five meg file, and I will
send you a copy of a book formatted for direct double-sided printing out of
Word. It has 20-odd chapters and blank pages.

Some rules:

1) Do all of your formatting with styles. To get your TOC to work, you
must use the built-in Heading styles for your headings -- the TOC is
compiled from the styles applied.

2) No hard page breaks

3) Learn (study!) section breaks

4) Study the paragraph properties: Keep Lines Together, Keep With Next,
Widow Orphan Control. You need to know what these do and how to use them.

No, it's not worth getting someone to do the formatting for you. If you set
your styles up correctly, the formatting will "just happen" while you type.

However, it will be worth your while to hire an Editor/Proof Reader when
you've finished.

Now here are some links:

The basics of how formatting works in Word:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart1.htm

http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart2.htm

Automatic blank pages
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/tblsfldsfms/InsEvnPgEndChap.htm

Indexes:
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/formatting/Createindex.htm

All of those pages will give you trouble in Safari: Use FireFox or another
browser

Cheers

Greetings friends,

I am helping the editor of a (very low budget) journal to format books.
These are fairly complex and long documents (although, in the scheme of
things, probably not too complicated). I would estimate that we are
intermediate level users. We both have macs (mine is a Macbook Pro
using OS X version 10.4.8) and are working on Word 2004 version 11.3.
Here are some of the formatting needs of the books we are working on:

The goal is to have a book (probably in the 200 - 300 page range) with
continuous pages from start to finish. Book chapters need to start on
odd number pages. Sometimes we have to insert a blank page to fulfill
this requirement. The blank page must have a page number and "Blank" in
the header and both must show. For some reason this has been difficult.


We have also struggled with when we make a change, the rest of the
document shifts (header titles revert to the previous section, page
numbers shift).

We are needing a document that has 1 3/4" margin on the bottom and top
(from the top of the header) and two inch margins on the sides. For
some reason these also have shifted.

For the first page of each new chapter the header and page number do
not show.

Lastly, we have a table of contents and an index we are working with to
integrate into the book. We have been doing the TOC by hand. The index
has been done manually by looking up the words and inserting the
indexing function and then letting word format the index. At times, the
auto-indexer has been off in terms of page numbers.

Obviously, there are number of questions here. Here are my questions:

1) Does anyone recommend a resource (book, training, website) that
would answer these questions?
2) Would we be better served, given our experience level, by having
someone else do the formatting for us? If yes, how would you recommend
that we find such a person (we have a small amount of money)?
3) What fixes would you recommend for the above questions?

Sorry for the long post with multiple questions. Any advice or ideas
would be very helpful. Thanks!

Pete

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Most of the articles most useful to long documents are linked from here:
http://daiya.mvps.org/bookword.htm

So you might use that as an index.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

You can definitely do this yourself, and we'll help with specific questions.
I think the problems you cite should go away with proper setup. You've got
some responses in the longdoc newsgroup also.

Some basics:
All text in the same document, formatted with styles.
Section breaks between each chapter.
First Page header and footer in each section, left blank.

Re blank pages with Header and footer, see here:
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/tblsfldsfms/InsEvnPgEndChap.htm
(hit reload a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)

If margins are shifting, someone may have made the error of adding an indent
via Format | Paragraph rather than changing the page margins in Format |
Document.

Word-generated TOC and Index page numbers will be accurate so long as you
update them last thing before you print, being sure to hide hidden text
first. In particular, you can't create index fields without showing hidden
text (I think), but hidden text is given page space and showing it will jack
up your index page numbers.

Word is not a page layout program, though, so page breaks, and therefore
numbers, however, will change according to the printer you are using. Are
you sending the printer a Word doc or a PDF or what?

 

[Elliott Roper]

Re blank pages with Header and footer, see here:
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/tblsfldsfms/InsEvnPgEndChap.htm
(hit reload a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)

I would have tried to answer the questions, but I could not think of
the solution to "This page intentionally blank"
All I can say is that McGhie is evil and devious, and that I have
squirrelled a bookmark to that article away for the next time I need to
be insufferable.

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Elliott:

That's the article that made me an MVP

It was as a result of that article that Jonathan West nominated me as an
MVP, back in 1997

Interestingly, despite abusing Microsoft about this every year since then,
Word still does not have this most obvious of functions

Cheers

I would have tried to answer the questions, but I could not think of
the solution to "This page intentionally blank"
All I can say is that McGhie is evil and devious, and that I have
squirrelled a bookmark to that article away for the next time I need to
be insufferable.

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410