How to edit A Book In Microsoft Word
How to Format a Book in Word | A Step-by-Step Tutorial
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hi guys welcome back to my channel today
I am giving you a complete tutorial on
how to format your book your paperback
book in word plus I'm going to link the
template that I use in this video down
below alright so today we're going to be
going back there and you're going to be
looking at my computer while you're
looking to me
we'll see if I can get it to work that
way first up I did not use word for my
book formatting I just wanted to give
you guys a tutorial because I know a lot
of you are looking for budget-friendly
options so let's jump right in
hello and welcome to my desktop yes it
looks a little crazy I changed my
background
first off I wanted to give you guys a
little tip she's going in slow motion
right now because I wanted to tell you
you can change the speed of this video
that you're watching right now you just
click on this little gear icon and you
can change whatever speed you want if
I'm moving too slow for you you can
speed it up or if I'm moving too fast
for you you can slow it down just a
little tip there alright I'm gonna try
to go sort of quickly so let's just dive
right in I have a document right here I
just pulled some generic text from Alice
in Wonderland and put it into this
document maybe this is what yours is
sort of gonna look like this is the
eight-and-a-half by 11 just generic word
formatting right now I'm gonna go step
by step and how to change it into your
format or your trim size and all that
shenanigans but I will post this
document online so you can just insert
your text into this and have the general
layout there is a plane going back okay
so first up let's go ahead and configure
the page size so click on layout and
yours may look a little different
depending on what kind of word that you
have but it's basically all the stuffs
gonna be the same so go to format and
I'm gonna change this to mirror margins
and this is gonna allow you to see a
two-page preview and then it's gonna
change this to inside and outside
margins and actually let's change the
paper size first before we get into that
I'm going to do the five point two five
by eight size that ones typically the
most
popular trim size you can obviously
change this I used five and a half by
eight and a half for my book but I know
five and a quarter and eight is usually
what people go for so change that 5.25
in this to eight your margins these are
your Texas your text needs a little bit
of room all right so just generic here
we're gonna set the top the bottom the
inside and the outside two point seven
you can change this up however you like
I have the outside margins I believe to
be 0.5 is what I chose for mine because
I needed to fit everything into a space
that point seven is a pretty good
generic it's pretty good so now that we
have margins and our paper size set
let's see what it looks like so you can
see it's um it's looking pretty squished
but let's jump into now that we have our
trim size and everything let's go back
up to the book title and since I resized
everything this is looking a little
squished alright so the order that you
typically have things in your paperback
book and you can look at examples if you
find something a little different you
can just always go to your bookshelf and
look for real published examples and
then sort of mirror your own book after
that so first step over here we have the
book title page it's usually the first
page that you come to followed by the
copyright page that's always on the back
of your book title page your book style
page is usually on the right-hand side
when you open the book it's on the right
side you flip that over your copyright
can't just right behind that after that
is your dedication page actually let me
zoom in a little bit so we're all on one
page here so we had the copyright page
and then the dedication page I have all
of these set to be a headings so that
they come up on this navigation pane and
that makes things super simple if you
have a really long manuscript I always
do that with my chapters so I can just
move around a lot quicker
alright so dedication page is
immediately after that and then table of
contents the preface and the
introduction those are for nonfiction
books typically fiction book so you
don't
those but I wanted to include those just
in case you guys are doing this for
nonfiction really quick you do have to
have even pages as far as I know you
have to have an even you have to finish
with an even number of pages so you have
to be a 400-page book you can't have a
399 page book if you want to know more
information on submission guidelines you
can go to this page right here I have it
linked in this description on this video
it has a few generic things but if you
click on this submissive submissive
submission specification I'm not linking
this document specifically because this
might change whenever you're watching
this video and then this is the actually
looked up trim size earlier so you can
see all the trim size options you can
look up margins so this has a good thing
on margin sizes let's see page these are
good recommendations on inside margins
if you have a longer book you need to
have a larger inside margin so people
aren't peeling open the book to try to
read there so like no text is lost if
you have a shorter book obviously you
don't need a bigger inside margin so
this is just a good like if you're
worried about anything
this is the createspace submission
guidelines I'm sure they update it
whenever they change something
ok so let's zoom out a little bit the
first thing that we're gonna do here is
separate sections so we want to be able
the body of our book right here we want
to be able to format that section
without changing anything in our
frontmatter right here in our back
matter actually let's go over back
matter so immediately after your book
finishes you can have a blank page here
you can choose not to have one it
depends on the formatting or the the
page numbers where you're at I'll go
over that in a second if you can
basically spare a blank page I do think
it looks nice having that I didn't have
it in my book I would have preferred to
have it but immediately after a book is
finished you do have the acknowledge
acknowledgments section and then and
about the author section with your
picture put links here to your website
where people can follow you find more
information and then if you have written
any other books also doing also by
section so people can look up at any of
your other books you can switch these
two so you can
have your sort of more important
information whichever one you do more
important have that one first so if you
want people to go check out your other
books put that before the about the
author or however you feel the
acknowledgments is just usually it's
classically immediately after okay so
let's jump up to chapter one we're gonna
divide our book here into sections all
right so I'm selecting the first page up
here I'm going to layout brakes and
clicking next page and to make sure this
worked you can click up here you can see
up here the header is section one this
is now section two we're gonna come all
the way down to acknowledgments and do
the exact same thing and that makes this
a new section as well so go back up to
section one now that that is finished
let's change the I'm gonna change the
font and the font size as far as I know
there's no quick way to do this so I
sort of formatted this how I kind of
want it we'll keep it like this some
only change a couple things so I'm gonna
leave this I'm not gonna highlight this
part so I'm gonna put my cursor at the
very beginning of the story scroll down
to the end of the story click shift and
click again to select everything so we
have variable Heights here but I'm gonna
change everything to this book in taqua
and whatever you call it and I'm going
to change my font to font size 11 that
is personal preference if you think this
is too small you can obviously bump it
up I think 11 is kind of like a safe
place to be and then we're gonna come up
here and go to line spacing options and
I'm going to set line spacing at exactly
14 you can kind of experiment
with us to see how you want it to look
but typically you want 30 lines per page
and this is sitting at 33 right now so I
think that's pretty good and then I'm
going to go ahead and justify this text
to make it look nice and clean the font
size that I used in my book was ten
point six that was very specific there
was a lot of trial and error but I think
11 is pretty good if that's - if you
think that's too small
obviously bump it up and then the last
thing we're gonna do right here is the
indent this is huge right here actually
that's not the last thing we're gonna do
but let's go ahead and address that so
the indentation we're going to do first
line we're going to set this to 0.3
instead of 0.5 that's gonna bring it
into a much more manageable area and
then we're gonna go to line breaks and
pages and I'm gonna turn off
widow/orphan control so let me just show
you what that is really quick you see
this huge gap right here where this line
this chunk this paragraph right here
that's what it's called it's not chunk
moves on to the next one because it all
doesn't fit on this page right here that
is where your widow/orphan control comes
in so I'm gonna actually turn that off
and you guys can see it looks a lot
cleaner if this is not something you
want to do what I did is I went page by
page to see so I had that control off
and then I went page by page to see if a
paragraph ended ooh this did something
funky don't even worry about that I
don't know what that did I think that's
like a yeah like I'm actually I have no
idea what that is
that looks hideous ignore it your book
won't do that okay so this didn't oh
that's perfect so this if your book has
this you don't really want one line on
one page it's fine if you do have that
we're not totally finished formatting
but what I'll show you what to do in
case this does happen to you I selected
all of this and then I manually change
the line spacing for that page so we're
gonna bump it down to 13 and see what
that does that was actually a little bit
too much so we're gonna change that to
13.5 this is just a little trial and
error that you can do
so I got really specific they're
intended at thirteen point eight five so
that's just what you can do just in case
that happens to you and then you can
delete that page to bring everything
back together so let's start at the
chapter titles up here like I said I
kind of already formatted this how I
wanted it so I'm just gonna copy this
right here control C copy that and go to
chapter two so I'm just gonna select
what I want to paste in right here and
then paste that right there and then I'm
gonna manually change this C one two
with just two spaces underneath and
that's perfect so I'm gonna do that on
the rest of them really quick that can
be a little tedious but I don't know of
a quicker way to do it I'm sorry about
that
so once I got it it's probably easier
for you because you probably won't have
well I'm not gonna say that you might
not have section titles like this which
makes it a little bit easier okay so
typically this is actually a little high
typically the first page start or I'm
sorry the first the chapter the text
starts about halfway down that's
typically like it's kind of typical for
a lot of fiction pay attention to what's
popular in your genre thriller might not
start that part down but you can go up
to view and click on ruler to sort of
see where the midpoint would be so this
is a little bit high but I don't think
that matters too much because you're
probably gonna change this to suit your
needs all right so we're gonna go here
so the first line of text immediately
following a new chapter in a new section
break always is not indented so
naturally they're currently they're all
indented because that's what I applied
to everything so I'm just going to
manually go through and change this I'm
going to click shift
and if you're on a PC that will work and
hopefully if you're on a Mac that will
also rip I'm sorry because I know a lot
of you do have Mac's but I'm a old
fashioned PC girl so I don't think
there's any section breaks in this so
I'm just gonna go to the first ignore
those hideous quotation marks I don't
know what that is just ctrl tab all of
these mmm if you don't control tab you
probably have to come up here and
actually use this will be the easiest
way because if you try to just backspace
actually I lied that totally worked
sometimes it'll move up mmm but still be
indented so then you'll have to it gets
a little complicated now let's go on to
page numbers so so let's insert pages
here insert page number the bottom of
page we're gonna choose the Sinta and as
you could see this affected your margins
so I'm just gonna bring this down 0.3 is
pretty good you're not supposed to go
under 0.25 I believe that will be in the
create space book so just read that to
make sure and you can see we're starting
on page 9 for chapter 1 which is not
correct so we are going to come up here
and unlink to previous which means we
can for this section we can just take
off page numbers so that means this all
the front matter that you have is not
going to have page numbers and actually
we should have unlinked previous here so
we avoid that as well in our back matter
okay so we don't want this with started
page 9 so let's go to format page
numbers and start at one so this is
where things get gonna get a little
tricky but you just kind of kind of it's
a little redundant so you don't want the
chapter page to have a page number on it
so you're gonna click different first
page and that's gonna get rid of it and
that's fine but when you come down here
actually before we continue on in this
let's change the font of this to make
things consistent
I'm gonna bring page numbers down to
size 10 it's kind of personal preference
but you know this is still you still
don't want this so what you're gonna do
is come back to layout create another
section break and see page number
disappeared so when you scroll down now
this is page 2 because it's a new
section right here so what you're gonna
have to do is let's go to format page
numbers again and continue from the
previous section and problem solved
so you're just gonna have to do that on
each one if this is something that you
care about I do think this is something
that you should do because I think you
should try to emulate traditionally
published books as much as you can and
this is something that they do so now
that y'all ready established that all
you have to do is do break next page
that gets rid of this and then it
continues on with the formatting so
that's perfect all right so let's go
ahead and do the headers and we're gonna
have a different odd and even page so
for this change your font um this
depends on what you want if you want
your book title to be on the left or on
the right or if you want your name to be
on the left or the right we're just
gonna do book title and I actually
prefer if book title is in all caps
that's totally up to your preference I
just think it stands out a little bit
and it makes it pretty pretty obvious
that this is not part of the book text
so let's go back up to design and we're
gonna again shift this a little bit so
it's not sitting right on top of our
text okay so this was something I should
have covered a second ago and I'm sorry
I didn't but as you noticed the page
number disappeared the even page numbers
disappeared and you can just fix that
really quickly by going just inserting
it back in changing the font again I'm
sorry I should have
that's because we changed the autumn
even page issue but now page numbers are
corrected and now we have author and
book title actually we don't want this
on this page we want it on this page and
everything's kosher and then it
automatically updates for that for your
trapper titles as well and then this is
just your preference but I actually
decrease the font size of the author
name and the book title just again so
it's it's not confused at all for the
actual text in the book all right so now
that we did that I'm coming down here to
the acknowledgement section and I forgot
to I already took a link to previous off
on this one just take off the link to
previous and delete that as needed
because you don't want page numbers on
any of this back matter you don't want
on the front matter you don't want
another back matter so just go ahead and
delete all that off actually I don't
know where this blank page came from
that is really weird oh the things that
happen when you're formatting okay so
you have to have an even number of pages
right now let's zoom in so you guys can
see specifically what I'm talking about
I have 51 pages you need to have an even
number of pages so um where was it that
I said oh I said it's kind of nice if
you have a blank page between the last
page of the book in the acknowledgments
so we're just going to go ahead and do
that insert page break but now we are at
52 pages right here which is awesome you
don't need to have a blank page in the
very back of the book for create space
for Ingram spark I do believe they say
that you need one so if you're uploading
to Ingram spark you can just pop that
blank page on the back I think it's just
one page not two I will leave a link
down to their specifications as well I
know most people are going to be
uploading to create a space we didn't
get rid of our headers all right so
take off link to previous because nobody
likes you link to previous you're
ruining my life and delete oh my lord
I'm sorry that was just a mass amount of
deleting okay so yes we've got a link to
previous somewhere then we don't need it
trial and error
is your friend make sure your indents
first line indent first chapters or
chapter titles just do it once over and
make sure everything's kosher this is
looking a little squeezed right here so
oh oh hi I think since I separated
sections before I did change that in the
previous one it didn't carry over so I'm
sorry for that just go through and make
sure that's why you do it once over
folks make sure it's all good in the
neighborhood so that was my fault
hopefully you watch this video before
you actually did it for your book I'm
not perfect okay
I tried all right personally I think
there's a really big gap down here and
there's not that much of a gap up here
so I would make these margins smaller
down here but whatever so I think I got
cut off from saying this but the last
page I had a blank page down at the
bottom instead of putting that blank
page there you can actually I forgot we
had a blank page at the beginning of the
book so you can just get rid of that and
now we should be at 50 pages even I
don't know what is the same 51 it's not
actually 51 pages it's 50 pages alright
so that's pretty much it you should be
saving it auto-saves but you should be
saving periodically so you don't get any
crazy
anything happens pick where you wanted
to go and then save as a PDF create
space has some stipulation on this I'm
not sure what Ingram Sparks is since I
didn't use word definitely research that
yourself but ingre create space does not
want any tags bookmarks
properties anything of that nature they
just want a plain PDF so we're gonna
save this and boom there it is pretty
book title all your information that you
should plug in and there's your book
doesn't it look so pretty alright I hope
this video was helpful hopefully it
wasn't too long and I'm recording it
actually took a little bit longer than I
thought it would the link for the word
document that I created for this is down
below purchase links for my book are
down below as well as the link for
signed copies if you're interested in
that and I will see you guys in my next
video bye
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