Re: confused about word templates

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From: Bill Weylock (bill_at_nospam.net)
Date: 01/08/05 

Date: Sat, 08 Jan 2005 03:19:18 -0800

The good news is that nothing sounds really hard to fix.

The bad news is that youıre going to have to read some help files about your
software. You just canıt do decent work in Word without a basic
understanding of how page numbers and headers and footers work.

However ...

First thing I would do is forget about a template. It gives you things to
manage that you donıt understand.

Start a new Word doc. Go into Page Setup and Format/Document and set the
pages up the way you want them. I recommend left and right margins of 1.25²
and top/bottom of 1² with header and footer at .5².

Do NOT copy ANYTHING (!!) from the current Word doc!!

Why you have only six pages in your ³book² is a mystery to me, but that can
wait. :)

Go back to the TextEdit files. Open them and copy/paste the text into the
new Word doc (we wonıt look at the old one again) where you want it. Donıt
worry about chapters or anything else yet, although you should put some kind
of note to remember where they start.

Got all of your text into your book? Save. Make sure you go into preferences
and select an autosave every few minutes, by the way.

Select all of your text at once (Cmd-A). Go to Format/Paragraph and set up
indents and spacing the way you want them. I recommend 12pt ³before² spacing
and 0 ³after². Also set double for line spacing. If you know how to do
hanging indents and stuff like that, go for it if you want. Otherwise leave
the indents at 0. Make sure text is aligned the way you want it (justified
or left). Also make sure that the Outline Level is set to Body Text.

Go to Line and Page Breaks in that dialog. Make sure Widows/Orphans is
selected and that nothing else is selected. Click OK to accept. While you
still have the text selected, make sure you like the font and size. Deselect
the text.

Now for chapter numbers.

Since you donıt seem to need a table of contents, keep chapter headings very
simple. Type the first one where you want it. Make it look good by adjusting
font and alignment and stuff.

When you have the first chapter heading the way you want it, copy it and
paste it where you want the second chapter heading. (Change One to Two or I
to II or 1 to 2.) For the second chapter heading (NOT the first one) select
the heading paragraph and go to Format/Paragraph. Change ³before² spacing to
0. Change ³after² spacing to 12. Go to Line and Page Breaks and deselect
Widow/Orphan. DO click on Page Break Before (assuming you want a new page
for each chapter beginning).

Copy Chapter Two paragraph and paste it where you want each of the other
chapter headings, correcting the number manually each time.

You should now have a decent looking manuscript. Save.

Do page numbers: Go to Insert/Page Numbers... Select Bottom (footer) and be
sure NOT to check Show Number on First Page. Click on format and make sure
you have the kind you want (arabic, roman, etc). Donıt change anything else.

Go to View/Header and Footer. Select footer paragraph mark and set a tab at
6.5 (Format/Tab or on the ruler at top of page). While your cursor is still
in the paragraph, hit Tab key to put cursor at the 6.5 tab. Go to the little
icon ribbon that pops up when you start viewing headers and footer and click
the page number icon (##). That inserts a page number at that tab stop. Exit
header/footer view.

Take out your check book or go online and send $15 to one of the tsunami
relief agencies.

If you decide you want a title page, youıre going to have to accept a page
number 2 on the Chapter One page or learn to use sections, which I just
canıt deal with. If youıre sending a hard copy, just do a separate title
page. If you have acrobat use that to insert a title page in the pdf
version.

Hope this helps. Somebody just wrote three custom macros for me to solve a
problem I was having in an Excel spread***, and this is a little
give-back.

Let us know how/whether this works for you? Hope it does, and Iıll be happy
to answer questions.

Best,

 - Bill

On 1/7/05 4:05 PM, in article
1105142706.810078.318390@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com,
"mack@internode.on.net" <mack@internode.on.net> wrote:

> hi,
> I have about 60 textedit files that I want to put into a book. A
> couple of them are complete chapters. The rest have to be stuck
> together to make chapters. I don't need tables, footnotes, or anything,
> as it's fiction. I would like page numbers, I suppose starting from the
> second page as per 'Word Templates' by John McGie.
> I seem to have completely muffed things up. Can't get rid of underline
> on first page;(not all that important); Not sure if my default section
> break is set up properly (very important); now seem to have 6 pages
> instead of three- not sure exactly what tabs to press to 'insert break
> after the front cover'...then 'immediately insert a blank
> paragraph'...??(which tabs please?)...'and another section
> break'...)I'm sure I'm doing it wrong because my page numbers are:-
> page1=nothing(correct); page 2=nothing (wrong); page 3= '4'
> (wrong);page 4= nothing (wrong); page 5= '6' (wrong); and page 6= '7'
> (wrong).
> I am sure this is hilarious to you, but not so to me! I understand
> that it is impossible to write an accurate instruction manual for more
> than one version of a piece of software, so please forgive my lack of
> savvy. Also tabs worked before bur they don't seem to now. I am sorry
> to bother you as I feel that this is microsoft's responsibility- surely
> they need to provide John's template as a built-in feature-
> Thank you.
> P.S. I am perfectly happy to try another way if there is a simpler one,
> as I am only wanting a double-spaced book manuscript and don't want to
> take up anyone's time.
>
> I am using a G4 powerbook with OSX 10.37 & Office 2004, + a Kyocera
> FS1010 printer.
>

Panther 10.3.6
Office 2004
Windows XP Pro SP2
Office 2003

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