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?