Book Description
Often rejected out of hand as a typesetting tool, Microsoft Word has greater typographic capabilities than even most long-time users realize. With a little tweaking, Word can produce type that few readers could distinguish from the best of Quark or InDesign. In this document, successful author/publisher Aaron Shepard gives a tour of the depths of the program, describing the settings, commands, and manual adjustments you need to create type that no book reviewer will scoff at. Skeptical? This document's own typesetting is the proof!
REVIEWS AND COMMENTS
"One of the most interesting things about the ebook is the impressive quality of its typesetting, done in Word, of course. Check it out!" -- Jack Lyon, Editorium Update, Oct. 22, 2003
"Excellent not only as a guide to using Word to design books, but also as a concise guide to book design." -- Morris Rosenthal, Foner Books
"I wish I had had the advantage of reading your words a few years ago!" -- Jonathan Pearce, Balona Books
"What you've provided is everything I wish I knew about MS Word when I put together the three draft versions of my book. You've opened my eyes to a lot of features and options I did not even know existed." -- Kevin McKernon, Easy Rudder Press
"Direct, simple, easy to understand. If only Microsoft were so clear." -- Bill Allin, Member, The Writing Collective
"Great article! I'm learning stuff I didn't know about Word, and it works. You have made my life easier. I plan to use Word for my next novel, and your article will be my guide." -- Teri Brown, Crary Publications
"What a wonderful, useful, and helpful piece. Concise, so easily readable and understandable, in English, not computerese. It is like turning Greek into English for me." -- Toni Graeme, Beaconhill Books
"Marvelously informative. As a long-time user of Word, I was surprised to find possibilities I hadn't dreamed of." -- Debra Murphy, Idylls Press
"Very impressive work. You make a persuasive case that Word is a good tool if properly (that is, skillfully) used. Hats off!" -- Kevin Walzer, WordTech Communications
"I am truly and honestly impressed. You've done some serious thinking and great work." -- Ralph Roberts, aBOOKS
SAMPLE
Use adjusted hyphenation. For justified lines with good spacing, you'll need to turn on hyphenation. To find this setting, choose "Hyphenation" from the Tools menu, or else "Language" and then "Hyphenation." (If the command isn't there, then you didn't install Word's Hyphenation tool.)
As with Word's default typeface and font size, its default hyphenation is better suited to newspaper columns than to books. For fewer and better hyphenated words with your longer lines, change the settings in the Hyphenation dialog box so that the hyphenation zone is half an inch, and the limit on consecutive hyphens is two.
Despite wild legends to the contrary, Word's hyphenation is impressively accurate. I regularly use a dictionary to check hyphenation by Word that looks wrong to me, only to find out I'm the one wrong. But if you do see a break you don't like, you can always place your cursor at your preferred break point and insert an optional hyphen (Control-hyphen in Windows, Command-hyphen on the Mac).
With hyphenation on, you may sometimes want it off for specific text. To do this for your selected paragraphs, choose "Paragraph" from the Format menu, and click on the "Line and Page Breaks" tab. To do it for your selected word or words within a paragraph, choose "Language" from the Tools menu, or else "Language" and then "Set Language." Select "no proofing" at the top of the list, or the option "Do not check spelling or grammar." Just make sure beforehand that your selection is spelled correctly! You can also add these settings to styles.
Download Description
Often rejected out of hand as a typesetting tool, Microsoft Word has greater typographic capabilities than even most long-time users realize. With a little tweaking, Word can produce type that few readers could distinguish from the best of Quark or InDesign. In this document, successful author/publisher Aaron Shepard gives a tour of the depths of the program, describing the settings, commands, and manual adjustments you need to create type that no book reviewer will scoff at. Skeptical? This document's own typesetting is the proof!
REVIEWS AND COMMENTS
"One of the most interesting things about the ebook is the impressive quality of its typesetting, done in Word, of course. Check it out!" -- Jack Lyon, Editorium Update, Oct. 22, 2003
"Excellent not only as a guide to using Word to design books, but also as a concise guide to book design." -- Morris Rosenthal, Foner Books
"I wish I had had the advantage of reading your words a few years ago!" -- Jonathan Pearce, Balona Books
"What you've provided is everything I wish I knew about MS Word when I put together the three draft versions of my book. You've opened my eyes to a lot of features and options I did not even know existed." -- Kevin McKernon, Easy Rudder Press
"Direct, simple, easy to understand. If only Microsoft were so clear." -- Bill Allin, Member, The Writing Collective
"Great article! I'm learning stuff I didn't know about Word, and it works. You have made my life easier. I plan to use Word for my next novel, and your article will be my guide." -- Teri Brown, Crary Publications
"What a wonderful, useful, and helpful piece. Concise, so easily readable and understandable, in English, not computerese. It is like turning Greek into English for me." -- Toni Graeme, Beaconhill Books
"Marvelously informative. As a long-time user of Word, I was surprised to find possibilities I hadn't dreamed of." -- Debra Murphy, Idylls Press
"Very impressive work. You make a persuasive case that Word is a good tool if properly (that is, skillfully) used. Hats off!" -- Kevin Walzer, WordTech Communications
"I am truly and honestly impressed. You've done some serious thinking and great work." -- Ralph Roberts, aBOOKS
SAMPLE
Use adjusted hyphenation. For justified lines with good spacing, you'll need to turn on hyphenation. To find this setting, choose "Hyphenation" from the Tools menu, or else "Language" and then "Hyphenation." (If the command isn't there, then you didn't install Word's Hyphenation tool.)
As with Word's default typeface and font size, its default hyphenation is better suited to newspaper columns than to books. For fewer and better hyphenated words with your longer lines, change the settings in the Hyphenation dialog box so that the hyphenation zone is half an inch, and the limit on consecutive hyphens is two.
Despite wild legends to the contrary, Word's hyphenation is impressively accurate. I regularly use a dictionary to check hyphenation by Word that looks wrong to me, only to find out I'm the one wrong. But if you do see a break you don't like, you can always place your cursor at your preferred break point and insert an optional hyphen (Control-hyphen in Windows, Command-hyphen on the Mac).
With hyphenation on, you may sometimes want it off for specific text. To do this for your selected paragraphs, choose "Paragraph" from the Format menu, and click on the "Line and Page Breaks" tab. To do it for your selected word or words within a paragraph, choose "Language" from the Tools menu, or else "Language" and then "Set Language." Select "no proofing" at the top of the list, or the option "Do not check spelling or grammar." Just make sure beforehand that your selection is spelled correctly! You can also add these settings to styles.
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