![]() Everyone can open and work with a Word file, so it’s universal. Like it or not Microsoft Word is still the standard for written, electronic documents. If you have any problems with using Word’s Styles gallery and pane, drop me a note in the comments and I’ll do my best to fix the issue.įancy watching a video tutorial? Visit my YouTube channel and watch: Self-editing Your fiction in Word: How to Use Styles.I know it can get frustrating to constantly learn new applications or features, but it is worth it to have a cursory understanding of Words’ Track Changes feature. And because any style can be tweaked, you get to change your mind as often as you like. Styles let you focus on your writing rather than fretting about internal text design.Īpplying a style to an element of your book file takes a fraction of the time required for manual formatting. You can expand or collapse subheadings by left-clicking on the arrows.įurthermore, if you want to shift a headed or subheaded section to another position in your document, left-click on the relevant heading and drag up or down the menu. Headings with arrows next to them indicate lower-level subheadings. ![]() I use this function when I’m editing and want to check that chapter headings (and subheadings) are formatted consistently, assigned the correct level of priority, and numbered chronologically. Open the styles pane and left-click on the A+ button in the bottom-left-hand corner. by updating an existing unused style to match a piece of text you’ve selected or clicked within.There are several ways to create a style in Word: If you’ve assigned styles, however, it’s as simple as cut, paste and left-click. Now you have to manually format the new sections so that they match the existing work. You copy and paste the writing into your book file. You’ve written 12 additional paragraphs for your book but they’re in another document. The change will automatically change all the main text, and only that element, to your new font. If, however, you’ve assigned a style to your main text, you can modify that font property in just a few clicks. Instead, you have to work through the file, locate the main text elements manually, and change the font. The problem is, you can’t select all the text in the file with CTRL A and change it in one fell swoop because that would affect the chapter headings and the emails your transgressor is sending to the police, all of which are formatted differently. A serif font like Times New Roman would be easier on your reader’s eye. Now that there are 85,000 words in place, your thriller’s looking more like a textbook thanks to the font you’ve chosen for your main text: Arial 14. You complete the writing, drafting, and editing, and get cracking on designing the layout. Perhaps you can invest a little more time or money on cover design, sales and marketing, or learning how to improve writing craft.Ĭan you format manually? Of course, but you could be making a lot of unnecessary work for yourself. Time is money, so when you do the job instead of asking other professionals to do it, your book budgets goes further. Using styles gives you control over design, consistency and formatting time. There are two ways to access the Styles function onscreen: page flow (widow/orphan control ensuring headings and corresponding text don’t fall on separate pages page breaks).alignment (left, right, centred and justified).However, in a novel, you’ll most likely focus on the following: You can influence every property of your text when you assign a style to it. Modifying these is still a little quicker than creating fresh styles so take a look at the properties and work out what you’ll retain and what you’ll change. Microsoft Word has a handy suite of on-board styles, though it’s unlikely they’ll match your specific requirements. displayed matter such as letters, texts, emails, reports. ![]() full-out paragraphs in new chapters or sections.In a novel, you might want to create different styles for the following: The Styles tool allows you to apply design consistency to the various text elements in your book. How to assign a style to an element of text.In this article, I’ll walk you through the following:
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