Write a book

[Benzadeus]

I'd like to know if you have a template for big (>800 pages) books. It would be a technical software book, like Wrox's.
I'll be using styles, fields and Word's resources, I just wasn't able to find a nice template.
Thank you.

[fumei]

Wow. While it may be possible to find some sort of generic template, each project has its own requirements. It would be far better to design an appropriate template for the project.

[Paul_Hossler]

The largest thing I ever did was a couple of hundred pages.

I found that I would change the formating as I went along; some things worked, some didn't Especially when I saw how it came togeather towards the end. Assuming of course that the publisher doesn't have their own house rules.

What ever you do, MAKE sure you use styles, and stick with them. When I needed to increase the leading or change the font, all I had to do was change the style.

If / when you need something formatted differently, create a new style, instead of manually applying formating.

Also, instead of just using Normal, Heading 1, etc. I found it's easier to name the style something that identifies it's use: Chapter, Topic, Pullout, etc.

Paul

[Benzadeus]

Thank you for your comments.
Yes, I'm using Word's resources. I've been using strong named styles and even created some themes. I've never written nothing greater than 200 pages too.
You made a good point about checking with publisher's rules.
I believe that my major problems are outside Word.

[macropod]

There's really no necessary difference between a template for a 50 page document and one for 500 pages. The real difference is in the content, not the template.

What you need is to have an appropriate set of paragraph Styles defined, for each type of content you'll have (eg normal text, bulleted text (one for each bullet level), numbered paragraphs, headings (Word already has heading Styles - use them), code snippets, etc). For the most part, it really doesn't matter whether those Styles exactly match what they'll end up being, as a simple change to the Style definition will update all content based on that Style.

If you're going to be inserting graphics that aren't formatted as in-line with the text, it's best to leave that until the editing of the Section they'll be contained in is otherwise finished, then insert them starting at the front of the Section and working your way though to the end. All sorts of grief awaits those who don't adhere to this rule. As an iterim measure, you could insert the images in-line and convert them to one of the floating formats at the final editing stage.

[fumei]

Listen to Paul! (macropod). Especially the last paragraph.

[EricFletcher]

I've used Word for many large documents, including a very complex one of ~800 pages published in both English and French. It was an economics treatise: rather dull, but full of graphs, charts, images and formulae. It included comprehensive index and table of contents, plus tables of charts and tables. The Word file for each volume was only ~1.8MB because all assets were linked to allow them to be used in both language editions.

I always create a custom template based on a generic set I maintain. Most styles use the default Word names (i.e. Body Text, Heading 2, Caption, etc.) with only a few custom names (mostly for custom character styles).

The most important tip about managing a large document is to plan everything first. If you try to adapt on the fly, you'll end up with a mess. Even better, if at all possible, consult with a graphics designer before starting: many orgs have style guides, and if some things are too difficult to achieve with Word, you can jointly work out alternatives. (In my case, their very fussy requirement for initial drop caps at chapter starts was negotiated to what Word could handle.)

Whenever possible, I create a mini document that includes samples of all styles and representative pages of each of the types of sections needed. If you stick with the default style names, you can maintain a "typical" document and reuse it for each new project by simply modifying the template.

Other things off the top of my head:

• Keep assets (like pictures, charts, formulae, etc.) in a subfolder below the Word document so links can be relative.

• Create your main section(s) in advance with at least 3 pages of content (tip: use =rand(x,y) to automatically generate x paragraphs of y sentences). This will ensure that you can populate each of the different header/footer types correctly. Then be sure to toggle the link to previous setting and the page number format & numbering as needed between different section types.

• Paul's note about leaving graphics as "inline" until the end is apt: ignore bad breaks during editing, and deal with them later during layout. I prefer to use the position option for graphics to force them to the top or bottom of pages. Full page graphics remain elusive with Word; ditto for landscape pages with rotated header/footers -- so if your book has any, you'll need to work around them with section breaks.

• Consider modifying styles to assist with the editing. I maintain two different templates with different formatting for an editing and final version. The edit template has visibility aids for character styles so I can see, for example, any text tagged with Latin in purple, indexed terms in bright green, or any acronym in bold brown. This is particularly useful for online editing because the editor (or proofreader) will see things that might otherwise be missed.

• Plan your naming conventions carefully for different versions and for the linked assets. Consider how file names will appear in a pick list and make the names sortable in a meaningful way. For assets, I use something like "XXXcYYtZZ detail.EXT" where XXX is a code for the project, cYY is the chapter and number (01-99), t is the type of asset (f=formula, c=chart, etc.), ZZ is the asset number (Formula 3 would be "f03"), detail is a short identifying descriptor -- and .EXT is the native extension. If you include the filename (and version info from document properties for even finer detail) as fields tagged with a unique character style in your document header/footers, you can have them visible during drafts, but set to invisible for the final. This is a great boon if the document if paper copies are being proofread.

• If you are delivering a PDF for final publication, be sure to choose the "for publishing" option. You can also modify various PDF settings to ensure best quality for graphics.

Word is much more capable of handling large complex documents than many people think. The key is to make effective use of the many features hidden behind the normal "simple" interface.

Just my 2¢ worth.