No matter how you create your file, be sure you carefully review your print-ready PDF before uploading. Look at the layout, and page size, and check for embedded fonts so you can publish and print successfully!
Paul is the Content Marketing Manager at Lulu. When he's not entrenched in the publishing and print-on-demand world, he likes to hike the scenic North Carolina landscape, read, sample the fanciest micro-brewed beer, and collect fountain pens. Paul is a dog person but considers himself cat tolerant.
How To Print A Book In Word For Mac
When creating a document in Microsoft Word for print binding, you must allow for added margin space in the area of the page that falls within the spine of the finished product. Word calls this area the gutter and allows you to customize the size based on your binding needs. Word also offers options for binding with facing, double-printed pages and center-folded, booklet-style printing where you have two pages per sheet of paper.
To prepare a Word document for binding, you must adjust the document margins to the printer's specifications. The printing company will tell you what values you need for the top, bottom, left and right margins on the pages. Word accepts decimal values in inches, centimeters and millimeters and whole-number values in points and picas. You enter these settings in the margins dialog box, accessible through the "Margins" command on the "Page Layout" tab. On this Margins screen you can also choose the paper orientation for your bound document, either tall or wide. The options are labeled "Portrait" and "Landscape," respectively.
Before you close the Margins dialog box, you must also enter a value for the gutter. The size of the gutter depends on the size and type of binding your document will receive. Your printing service will provide you with this crucial margin setting so the document prints correctly. Too much gutter results in extra white space near the binding. Too little gutter may cause text to run into the binding or become cut off. Next to the gutter measurement, a drop-down menu allows you to set the gutter position, either along the top of the page or the left side.
Next you must set what type of binding the document will receive. In the "Pages" section of the Margins dialog box Word offers you a few choices. "Normal" indicates one-sided printing with the binding at the top or the left as determined by your gutter settings. If you plan for the final product to look more like a book, with double-sided pages bound on the left, choose the "Mirror Margins" option. This ensures that the margins for facing pages remain equal and the gutter adjusts automatically to the left or right side of a page for even and odd pages.
If your final printed product will have two pages per sheet of paper, folded in half with a binding at the center, choose the "Book Fold" option in the "Pages" section. This setting automatically checks that your page orientation is set to "Landscape," to accommodate two-page printing, and places the gutter between the pages, at the center of the paper. If you aren't sure how a particular format option affects your printed document, a thumbnail image at the bottom of the Margins dialog box in the "Preview" section gives you a quick snapshot as you change settings in this window.
Many Konica Minolta copiers on campus default to double-sided printing. Follow the below instructions if you need to print single-sided on a Mac. (Please keep in mind that single-sided printing is more expensive)
When writing your book you should separate the writing from the formatting. Write first, format later. However, there are some steps you can make when writing your book in Microsoft Word that will make the job of formatting your book easier and help prevent errors in the book formatting process.
You should not use extra spaces or tabs to indent the first line of each paragraph. When formatting, your book designer will use style settings to set the first line paragraph indent. If you used extra spaces or tabs to create a first line indent in your document, they will need to delete them from your document.
Now, when you type your text into Word using the Normal style and hit Enter to start a new paragraph, it will be indented automatically and no extra spaces or tabs should be used. When you send your document to your book designer they will not need to remove any tabs or spaces, which will speed up your job and reduce the possibility of errors (plus your designer will love you).
When people were using manual typewriters, they were taught to hit the space bar twice between two sentences. However, with modern word processors (such as Microsoft Word) and fonts, only a single space should be inserted between sentences. If you place two between sentences, it will throw of justification and the book designer will need to remove the extra spaces.
Most likely, you will write your book in a typical 8 1/2 x 11 page size in Word. However, if you will be creating tables, charts, graphs, or other similar items you should consider setting your page size to the size you plan on printing your book. If you create your tables or other elements for an 8 1/2 x 11 page and your book is smaller, such as 5 x 8, they might need to be redone to fit the smaller size.
It is common when writing to create a visual break when there is a scene change or time lapse in a book. Often this is done by simply inserting a few extra paragraph breaks before the new scene. The problem occurs when your book is sent to your book designer. One of the first things they will usually do is a find and replace to replace two paragraph breaks with a single one, as placing two paragraph breaks between paragraphs is a common mistake they correct for (see #2). If you only use paragraph breaks to create the scene breaks they can be lost in the formatting process.
Kimberly,I am writing a family history and have limited word knowledge. Do you have a service where I can send you my problem page and have you fix it? Such as flowing type around pictures? If this is something you do, please tell me how much and how I submit problems to you.Dave Rauch
Kimberly, you are an angel! I am formatting another book for a friend, but this time I am stumped. He has several paragraphs throughput the manuscript in which there are paragraph breaks at the end of each line in the paragraph. How to fix??? He has also used tabs to indent first lines. When I clear all tabs, this leaves a hanging indent. Please help!! Thank you.
I am just writing my third book, my first two were 8 1/2 by 11 this is 6/9. anyhow, for some reason there are at least 25 extra blank pages which keeps adding an extra one every time I complete a new page. I have just published one book with Amazon Direct, and I do not believe they will help me, it will just get published that way. I have tried to get help but to no avail. Is there a good help program for WORD 10?? Thank you, Rebecca
Hi Kinberly,I really enjoy your helpful blog and found many useful tips.Can you tell me if I need a section break after every page in a book or just one section break at the end of the chapter to start the next chapter on the right (odd numbered page)? I felt I could use page break if a need arises otherwise.Will numbering pages go well with out a page break after every page?Thanks, Gail
Typically the format a publisher wants to see your manuscript in is very different than how a printed book looks. If you are self-publishing you should write the book in the font, font size, margins, etc., that you are most comfortable writing in while keeping in mind the tips mentioned in this article. Write first, format later. When it is time to format the book for print, it will need to be set to the right specs for printing. That will include the right trim size, margins, gutters, line spacing, fonts selected, font size, running heads, title page, copyright page, page numbers, etc. All of those can vary depending on the printer used, the genre of book, reading age, etc.
Word is the best word processor to write your book in. For the layout, a professional book designer would take your Word document and format it in Adobe InDesign, but the book should not be written in InDesign, which is a page layout program.
Hi KimberleyI note this blog is years old but am about to write my book and want to format properly in advance. This advice looks fab. I am about to purchase Home and Student 365 will this do the trick and is all this advice still appropriate.Best wishesMargaret
Any version of Word is appropriate to write your book in. For formatting, do-it-yourself authors often use Microsoft Word but professional formatted would take the Word document of the manuscript and bring it into Adobe InDesign for the book layout.
I feel it is very important for me to thank you from my heart for the wonderful information you placed in this article, Kimberly. I have no problem writing a book but using the Word formatting terrifies me so I have never tried it in case I mess everything up. That you also used diagrams to show how things are done has been such a great help and given me confidence. I have now LEARNED more from you from one article about Word than I have in over 12 years of owning the programme. I cannot possibly tell you how excited I now am to have become more proficiant with my computer, and my manuscript now looks so exciting. I have also read the questions here from your readers and you have helped me further with your replies to them. A hundred thanks, Kimberly.
Then you need to go into the even page header, make sure you are left aligned, then go to Insert > Page Number > Current Position > Plain Number. Click Tab on your keyboard, then enter what you want your header text to be for the even pages in your book (author name, book title, etc.).
Go to your odd page header, make sure you are left aligned, click Tab, enter the header text you want on the odd page headers in your book, click Tab, then go to Insert > Page Number > Current Position > Plain Number. 2ff7e9595c
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