How does the guided path work, and where are all the settings?
When you start a new book, we walk you through it one step at a time. The bar across the top of each tool shows where you are:
① Interior › ② Cover › ③ Ebook
A step gets a check mark once its file is in your downloads. Each step uses the real tool with the same typesetting, the same cover and the same files. The guide only hides the controls you don't need yet, so the page tells you what to do next.
The three steps
- Interior. Your words come from the writer: write them there, or bring a Word file, then press Make it a book. Press Set it for me, and we typeset your book. The panel on the left shows how it's looking, lets you try a different look with one click, and lists anything to check. When you're happy, press Export.
- Cover. Add your front cover picture. We ask one question: is your title already on the picture? Say yes for a finished cover and we add no words to the front. Say no if it's just artwork, and we put your title and name on it. Then write the back cover text and download your cover. The spine is already sized to your real page count.
- Ebook. Your ebook is built from your words and your cover. Press Download the EPUB.
After each download, a box in the corner offers the next step. When all three files are done, press Finish and you're back on your book's page.
Where did Settings go?
Nothing is gone. Press Show all settings in the bar at the top, and the tool shows everything: Settings, trim, front and back matter, the findings panel and the numbers in the formatter, and every section of the Cover Maker. Press Simple view to go back.
This choice is remembered in your browser, so if you prefer seeing everything, you only press it once.
If something needs checking
If the formatter finds something, such as a river of white (word spaces that line up into a pale stream down the page), the left panel says Things to check with a show me link. The red to fix label at the bottom of the screen does the same thing. Either one opens the list, with a Fix button for each page. Press Done — back to the simple view when you're finished.
You can also download anyway and check those pages yourself. The Export page offers both.
Paying, or a preview first
The first time you download, the Export page asks you to choose:
- Unlock this book. One payment covers the interior, the cover and the ebook, with no watermark, and it never expires.
- Download a watermarked preview for now. Every page is your finished book, with a preview stripe across it.
If you take previews first and unlock later, your book's page lists the files that still carry the stripe, under get your clean copies, with a Download again button for each. See Why is my export watermarked?
Your page count stays put
On an unlocked book, moving from the interior to the cover locks the layout. That keeps the page count, and so the cover's spine width, from changing behind your back. See What does Lock layout do?
Leaving the guide
Press Leave guide in the bar to turn it off for this book. Everything stays exactly as it is. You just get the full tools and your book's page, where every job lives in one place.
If you'd rather not use the guide at all, choose Skip the guide under the Create my book button when you start a book.