writing a book with Word

[Danny Lawrence]

I'm a relatively newcomer to Word, having migrated from
another platform (Acorn) where I used a word processor
(Easiwriter) that was a joy to use when writing academic
articles and books.
I'm surprised that I haven't found any particular help -
or even reference - in Word (Office Professional 2003)on
how to write a book. I assume I should be using a Master
document of some kind but, given how many templates are
provided in Office for so many other tasks, I'm surprised
that there does not seem to be any default provided in
Word for writing a book - which I appreciate would have
to be altered to suit the requirements of particular
publishers.
I don't want to squander time needlessly reinventing the
wheel so I should be very grateful if those of you with
more experience of Word:
(a) will tell me if I am I missing something obvious?
or, if not:
(b) point me in the direction of some more explicit help
than the general notes on using Master documents in Word -
which I find daunting rather than user-friendly.
TIA
Danny Lawrence

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

Master documents are daunting, but they corrupt easily anyhow, so there's a
great excuse for not bothering to learn them.

Below are a lot of links for you to check out, roughly in order, re learning
how Word works and dealing with long documents. I suggest you just
experiment with Styles and Templates, and I found reformatting a previously
written long document a good way to find out how stuff worked--sounds like
you have some handy, so play with them. For specific difficulties, as you
dabble, this newsgroup and the microsoft.public.word.formatting.longdocs
newsgroup will be invaluable in answering questions, and you might want to
set a newsreading program to track them, or access them easily. Google
Groups will also efficiently search past answers.

This site is a treasure trove of information
http://word.mvps.org/index.html
And most of the links below are from it, or linked to it in some way--you
can follow my links or just explore the site.

Good luck,
DM

***How Word Works***

Some Tips and "Gotchas" for those who are new to Word
Especially if migrating from WordPerfect
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/TipsAndGotchas.htm

How Word differs from WordPerfect
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/WordVsWordPerfect.htm

Is There Life After "Reveal Codes"?
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/RevealCodes.htm

(even as someone who never used WP these may be useful re Word--the first
one is crucial!)

***The Tools Menu Is Your Best Friend***

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

Customize all Toolbars and Keyboard shortcuts to suit you, under Tools |
Customize.
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/AsgnCmdOrMacroToToolbar.htm
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/AsgnCmdOrMacroToHotkey.htm

Under Tools | AutoCorrect, AutoFormat as You Type, turn off most stuff.

Go through Tools | Options, and explore the settings there.

http://members.verizon.net/~vze27sds/autotext.htm


****Advice from MVP Suzanne Barnhill on managing Long Documents***

"You will need, above all else, plenty of RAM (and of course plenty of free
HD space). The usual suggestions for dealing with long, complex documents
are:"

1. Use styles conscientiously. Keeping track of style tags imposes less load
on Word than keeping track of an infinitude of direct formatting (this
reduces file size as well).

2. Avoid long tables, especially single-row tables. If you must have long
tables, find ways to split them: for example, let subheads be in text
paragraphs outside the table.

3. Link graphics as much as possible and don't display them except when
absolutely necessary. On the View tab of Tools | Options, check the box for
"Picture placeholders" and clear the box for "Drawings." This will suppress
the display of all graphics.

4. Work in Normal view as much as possible; turn off background repagination
if you can bear it (Tools | Options | General), but note that it will be
turned on again automatically if you shift to Print Layout view.

5. Many experts will advise you to avoid section breaks. As long as these
are used for good reason (beginning of a chapter with "Different first
page," change in page orientation or number of columns), they should be
acceptable, but do avoid manual page breaks wherever possible. And you can
keep running heads simple by using StyleRef fields.

If you're doing all the above already, consider that a document that hangs
Word repeatedly may be corrupt or verging on corruption. See
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm"


***Styles & Templates***

http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/styles/TipsOnStyles.html

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Formatting/UsingOLView.htm

http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/legal/Styles.asp and a supplemented
version of the same article, http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/index.htm

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart1.htm

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Formatting/WorkWithSections.htm

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

http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/UseBuiltInHeadingStyles.html


***Other Useful Links***

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Formatting/NonPrintChars.htm

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Numbering/CreateIndex.htm

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Formatting/FootnoteOnDiffPage.htm

http://home.zebra.net/~sbarnhill/index.htm

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


***Master Documents***

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

How to recover a Master Document
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/RecoverMasterDocs.htm

http://www.addbalance.com/word/masterdocuments.htm

General advice from the experts is that putting all chapters (if you have
chapters) in one document as different sections (not always necessary), and
using styles and headings properly, works fine for long documents.

 

[John Lindner]

Danny,
Last year I wrote two books using Word. I just used a
template that was comfortable for me to read. Basically
it was 12 pt. Bookman single spaced, with 6 pt. between
paragraphs with .5" first-line indent. I used different
styles for body text, subheads and titles. I typeset it
myself in Word (transferring it to a different template)
and it was self-published by the organization I worked
with at the time, so I didn't have to worry about another
publisher's specs.
I found the footnote feature worked well, and if I had
had more time I would have run an index, but didn't.
Most publishing houses require double spacing, but you
can always do that later by modifying your style. So it's
important that all of your body text be one style, etc.
Typesetting a book is tricky; Word takes on the
characteristics of your final print device. So set your
document to that device before making any final line by
line adjustments.
--John Lindner
I don't know if I'm supposed to enter my real address on
the line above or not, but if you want to reach me
directly, write to (e-mail address removed)

 

[Danny Lawrence]

Many thanks John and Dayo for your very helpful replies.
Regards
Danny