Editing here changes the book, not the Word file on your device.
Front & back matter
Title page, copyright page, dedication, and the pages after the story.
Settings
Body font
The face your book is set in. All six were drawn for long reading on paper, not for screens.
Size
Larger type is easier on the eye but makes a longer book, and printing cost follows page count.
Line spacing
The air between lines. More is restful and adds pages; less is compact and can feel dense.
Paragraph style
Indented first lines are standard in fiction. Block style, with a gap between paragraphs, suits non-fiction and memoir.
Alignment
Justified gives both edges straight, as most printed books do. Ragged right leaves the right edge uneven and every word space identical.
Hyphenation
Splits long words across lines so word spacing stays even. Off keeps every word whole, but the gaps get wider. Learn more →
Hyphenate names and capitalized words
Off keeps names and proper nouns whole.
Curly quotes and proper dashes
Turns typewriter marks into the ones books use: “curly” quotes, and — dashes. Off leaves your file exactly as you typed it.
For the printed book. An ebook is laid out by the reader’s own device. Learn more →
Page numbers
Whether numbers appear at all, and where they sit on the page.
Alignment
Outside places them nearest the trimmed edge, which is easiest to thumb through. Centered is quieter.
Restart at Chapter 1
Begins counting where the story starts, so the front matter does not eat into page 1.
Number on chapter openers
Most printed books leave the number off the page a chapter begins on.
Pages before Chapter 1
Your file may open with a title page or copyright notice typed in Word. We can drop those and build proper ones instead.
Roman numerals for front matter
Numbers the opening pages i, ii, iii so that the story itself begins on page 1.
Running heads
The small line along the top of each page. Off is perfectly normal for a short book.
What the head says
Traditionally the book title on one side and the author or chapter on the facing page.
Margins
Wider margins look calmer and add pages. The inside margin is always larger to clear the binding.
Start chapters on a right-hand page
The traditional choice for printed books. Adds a blank page whenever a chapter would otherwise begin on the left.
Table of contents
Fiction usually goes without one. Non-fiction usually needs it.
Chapter numbering
Whether to print a number above your chapter title, and in what form.
Chapter headings you typed yourself
Some headings arrive already numbered — “Chapter Fifteen — University Legend”, “3.”, “SIX”. Kept as typed, no second number is added. Renumbered, yours comes off and the book’s own style goes on, so mixed headings come out consistent.
Chapter titles
Some books number their chapters and name them nothing else. Off prints the number alone.
Chapter subtitles
The second line some chapters carry beneath the title. Off prints the title alone.
Chapter title font
The body face is the quiet, traditional choice. A different one makes each chapter opening announce itself.
Chapter title size
Around twice the body size is usual.
Chapter starts down the page
The white space above a chapter title. Deeper feels more formal and adds a few pages.
Every chapter uses the same depth, so the titles line up when you flip through.
Drop caps
The large opening letter at the start of a chapter. A classic touch that suits fiction more than non-fiction.
Drop cap depth
How many lines of text the big letter reaches down through.
Scene-break mark
What separates scenes inside a chapter. A blank line is the quietest; an ornament is the most definite. Learn more →
Air around a drawn mark
How much space a drawn ornament keeps above and below it. A half line
reads as a break and usually costs no pages at all; a full line is roomier and can push
a long book onto more of them.
Mark breaks that fall at a page edge
A blank line is invisible at the top or foot of a page. This prints a small mark when that happens.
For the printed book. An ebook is laid out by the reader’s own device. Learn more →
Joined letters (ligatures)
Where letters collide, like an f’s hook against an i’s dot, type designers drew one joined shape — a ligature. Books have set them this way for five centuries. Learn more →
Letter-pair spacing
Closes the awkward gap in pairs like To, Wa and Ye that looks like a hole when the letters are set plainly.
Glyph-width fitting
Widens or narrows letters by a fraction of a percent so word spacing stays even. You see the spacing settle, not the letters.
Glyph-width limit
How far that fitting may go. Below 3% it does more harm than good.
Hanging punctuation
Lets quotes and hyphens sit a little outside the margin, so the edge of the text looks straight.
Hyphen-ladder repair
Clears runs of three or more hyphens stacked down the right edge.
Never split a word across a page turn
A word broken at the foot of a right-hand page makes the reader carry half of it over the turn. This re-sets that one paragraph to the same number of lines, so nothing else moves.
Page fill
How hard we work to make every page end at the same depth. Filling more costs slightly wider word spaces on a few lines. Learn more →
What happens to pictures by default. Any single picture can be set differently when you click it. Learn more →
Print captions
The line of text under a picture. Off keeps the caption in your file but leaves it off the page.
Full-page pictures start on
Forcing a side inserts a blank page when the picture would otherwise land on the wrong one. Either side is the economical choice.
How far a full-page picture reaches
To the text margins, out to the trim edge, or past it. “Past the edge” makes every page in the book a bleed page and changes how you upload it.
Fit or fill
Fit shows the whole picture and may leave space around it. Fill covers the area and crops whatever does not fit.
The few things a reader’s device cannot decide for itself. Learn more →
Where the book opens
The page a reader lands on the first time they open your ebook. Most books should open at the story.
Contents list
The chapter list in the reader's own menu, not a page in the book.
How full should the pages run?
Filling pages and keeping word spacing even are the same
trade-off pulled in two directions. These are your book's real numbers, not
an example — .
Export
A printed book can’t be recalled, and an ebook keeps selling the version
you uploaded. This is what a printer or a store would find.
Working…
Choose a .docx — from Word, Pages, or Google Docs — and we'll read
your chapters and show you exactly what came across.
Already started this book? The manuscript saved with it in this browser opens
by itself — and choosing a file keeps the settings this book already has.