Preparing Your Manuscript for Publication – Part 3

by Tracy Atkins | Nov 11, 2019

Smiling Mature Woman With Laptop Working In Home Office

By Tracy R. Atkins

In Part 1, we discussed how to transfer your content and insert more chapters and chapter headings when using a template from Book Design Templates to prepare your manuscript for publication.

In Part 2, we showed you how to format drop caps and headers and footers for print templates, and section breaks.

Today, in Part 3, we will cover how to format:

the table of contents
chapter name headers (print books)
page numbers (print books)
chapters to be continguous

The Table of Contents (TOC) included with non-fiction templates is pre-formatted to match the interior style of your book, and is designed to automatically update itself with the push of a button, so there is no need to manually change the table.

The table is generated from the chapter titles and subheadings you have in your book, based upon the styles used to format them. Once you have completed the copy of your manuscript to the template, and applied the Chapter Title, Subhead, and Back Matter Title Styles, the table’s update procedure will automatically generate the TOC using the tagged titles and subheads.

The TOC has 2 levels of indention, based upon the Style used:

First Level: Text Formatted with styles: Chapter Title, Back Matter Title
Second Level: Text Formatted with style: A Subhead (Level 1)

Note: The Table of Contents Title , Title (Title Page), and Subtitle (Title Page) Styles do not appear in the TOC.

Update the TOC by right-clicking the text of the TOC and choosing “Update Field” from the menu.
Choose “Update entire table” by clicking the radio-button next to it. Click “OK” to update the TOC.

Tip: Do not type over any text in the TOC, this may disable it’s ability to update automatically. Instead, update your chapter titles & subheads.

Chapter Name Header (Print Templates Only)

Chapter name headers are sometimes required to meet an author’s design or layout goals. By default, our templates come configured with the author’s name as the standard running head on even pages of the book. You can convert the author name running head to a customizable chapter name by following these easy steps.

Note: These steps should only be completed after all chapters have been formatted in the manuscript and all pages are included. This step should be a “last step” before going to print, as un-linking the headers in the template may interfere with proper page numbering if performed before all pages are in the book file.

Complete the process of transferring your manuscript to the template and complete all other formatting.
Open the even page header in the first chapter by double clicking it.
Change the author name to the title of the first chapter then Close.
Open the even page header in the next chapter by double clicking it.
Change the author name to the title of the chapter then Close.
Repeat for all subsequent chapters.

Page Numbering Sequence or Style (Print Only)

Occasionally, you may wish to change the page number sequence or style. Word utilizes a simple system to keep track of page numbering, with the option to “continue” a sequence from a previous section, or to start the numbering at a specific page number in the section. You can easily manage page numbering with the steps below.

Double click the header area, or choose Header / Edit Header from the Insert tab to edit the header.
Highlight the page number in the header, or footer and right-click it to bring up menu. Choose “Format Page Numbers”.
Choose “Continue from previous section” to have the numbering continue the sequence from a previous section or chapter. Choose “Start at:” and enter a page number if you wish to re-start the numbering sequence. (You may also change the numbering style to Roman numerals here.)
When finished, click “Close Header and Footer” on the title bar.

Formatting Chapters to be Contiguous

The templates and our instructions are geared toward producing books with chapters and other title pages starting on a recto, or right-hand page, odd page. This produces a well-flowing book with expected and consistent breaks between chapters. This also adds blank even pages where needed in the book, to maintain a consistent odd-page start for chapter and title pages.

However, some book project require that all chapters be contiguous, or that the book not contain any blank verso, left-hand pages. To do this, you can quickly and easily convert all Section Break (Odd Page) formatting marks to Section Break (Next Page) marks, eliminating blank pages caused by section breaks, and forcing all chapters to begin on the page immediately following the end of the previous chapter. This approach is useful for short story collections or books with many chapters.

Format the book as normal, completing the addition of all chapters, with a section break at the end of the last paragraph of each chapter.
Choose “Custom Margins” from the Margins drop-down menu on the Page Layout tab.
Click the “Layout” tab. Choose “Whole Document” from the Apply to drop-down menu. Choose “New Page” from the Section start drop-down menu. Click “OK.”
All “Section Break (Odd Page)” breaks will convert to “Section Break (Next Page)” breaks, removing blank pages.