I want to develop a manuscript for a new book. Does a template exist in Word
to do this? Should I be considering a different tool?

Hi Ralph,

You ask an interesting question. A template is nothing more than set of
styles containing the document's structure elements pre-defined. The real
question is two fold. 1. how large do you anticipate the finished manuscript
to be and in what format will you publisher want the manuscript submitted.

The advantage of using word is that it is easy to use and widely available.

The disadvantage to using word for a project such as yours is that word does
not work well for handling large (150 pages or more) documents. However Word
can be used very successfully if you just follow a few best practices.

1. Define the styles and structure before starting the manuscript. Word has
a great outline view.

2. Write in individual chapter length documents. Then, tie them together
using Word's Master Document or Referenced Document functions. There is a
good artical "Building Books in Word" in The Society for Technical
Communications (STC) August 2005 Intercom [magazine] on how to use Reference
Document.

Hopefully this is helpful.

Jim
--
Never at a loss for Word


"Ralph G" wrote:

I want to develop a manuscript for a new book. Does a template exist in Word
to do this? Should I be considering a different tool?

See the article "Creating a Template - The Basics (Part I)" at:

http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customizat...platePart1.htm

and "Creating a Template (Part II)" at:

http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customizat...platePart2.htm


--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP
"Ralph G" Ralph wrote in message
...
I want to develop a manuscript for a new book. Does a template exist in
Word
to do this? Should I be considering a different tool?

In addition to the resources Doug suggests and the tips Jim offers, see this
article: http://daiya.mvps.org/bookword.htm

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Ralph G" Ralph wrote in message
...
I want to develop a manuscript for a new book. Does a template exist in
Word
to do this? Should I be considering a different tool?

Jim Palik wrote:

The disadvantage to using word for a project such as yours is that
word does not work well for handling large (150 pages or more)
documents.

This will be news to the many people who produce documents of hundreds or
thousands of pages in Word.

2. Write in individual chapter length documents. Then, tie them
together using Word's Master Document or Referenced Document
functions. There is a good artical "Building Books in Word" in The
Society for Technical Communications (STC) August 2005 Intercom
[magazine] on how to use Reference Document.


The Master Document facility in Word is notorious for corrupting documents
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/Wh...ocsCorrupt.htm

There is no reason why a book cannot be prepared as a single document. If
repagination becomes a problem on a slower PC, then work in normal view with
background repagination switched off.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org

[Marian]

I have my basic manuscript (ms) in Word 2007. I am at present copying it
into Microsoft Publish 2000, using the Catalog template. So far, so good.
My only concern at this point is if that program will handle hundreds of
pages the way Word does.

"Ralph G" wrote:

I want to develop a manuscript for a new book. Does a template exist in Word
to do this? Should I be considering a different tool?