Self-publishing how to–PART 4
Using Styles in Word
From Rick–
Since I will be on vacation for the rest of this week, I will be back next week with a bit more on manuscript clean-ups. One topic I had planned on covering next week is the use of Styles in MS Word (Jutoh also utilizes them) to help you format your manuscript.
However, Styles is a rather involved (but not difficult) topic. Once you master it, you’ll wonder what you did without styles. They are your key to clean and well-formatted manuscripts, and once you learn how to use them, you’ll find the work so much easier.
I have included several references below. The first on is a very thorough guide. The others are some simplifications.
I cannot say strongly enough that if you are serious about your writing, then you will learn how to use styles. You may even want to create your own special manuscript template that incorporates the styles you often use (as I have done) to use with all of your manuscripts.
If you do not wish to use styles, then you do so to your own detriment. You will end up doing more work then you have to and you will risk turning out potentially inferior manuscripts (unless you pay someone else to clean up after you).
In any case, the rest of this series will be aimed at writers who wish to dig in and do most of the work themselves. Those who don’t can simply farm out the work.
Next week, I will finish up manuscript clean-ups, talk briefly about styles, then I will launch into the steps of self-publishing itself–those things you do after you have a clean, finished, edited manuscript.
Dig into these articles and learn from them. The first one will tell you just about everything you’ll ever need to know about Styles.
A COMPLETE HOW-TO IN DEPTH ON STYLES
–Rick