Hello!

I'm working on a meaningful personal project. My wife and I had a 7-year correspondence long ago and I've edited our letters down into a 400-page
book I'll have bound for her birthday.

After distilling the text down to the interesting bits, designing the
artwork, etc, my last barrier, unexpectedly, is MS Word! I've realized
that I know way less about Word than I suspected.

I have to deliver this to the bookbinder soon and am worried I won't
make my wife's birthday. If anyone could kindly assist with the
following issues, I'd be immensely grateful. Hell, I'll send you $30 if
you can successfully help me with these issues; not kidding! (I mean,
I'm already paying the binder a pretty penny, so what's a few more bucks
to make it to the finish line?).

I'm hitting google anyway, but the clock is running out and I'm worried.
Here are my current issues:

How do I make the spacing changes of one page not push down the content
of other pages or sections?

The book is divided into lots of little 2-5 page "sections" (i.e.,
letters), but I'll be doing lots of last-minute edits and spacing
changes all over. My nightmare is that if I delete paragraphs, alter
spacing, etc, in one area, it's going to move the text all over the damn
book every time, and I'll have to hunt for the ramifications across
hundreds of pages every time. How can I "contain" the ripple effect of
my edits to just stay within a particular section?

2. How do I get the page count to start (and end) within a specific
range, and not on the actual first and last pages?

3. You know those header titles atop either side of book pages, usually
with the name of the book and the chapter you're in? What's the best way
to do this in Word? More importantly, how do I permanently associate a
section of text to its corresponding page heading so that no matter
where I move it, it'll stay in the same "chapter heading" section?

4. This is secondary, but I'd appreciate any guidance on great fonts to
use. It feels as though the commonplace, everyday fonts like Arial and
Times New Roman wouldn't necessarily work best for something like this.
The binder suggested I stay away from sans serif, but other than that,
I'm a bit adrift.

5. Just in case, if anyone knows of layouts or templates I can perhaps
use, I'd appreciate that as well. I'm fishing around and the web and
there's lots of folks who offer typesetting services, but I just don't
have that much time left and think I'm just going to tackle it myself.

For reference, I use Word from Office 365 (version 2010) on a Windows 10
64-bit PC. Thanks so much, I'd appreciate any input at all.




--
WhoSentYou

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I suggest you acquire a book on the most basic MSWord procedures.

On Wednesday, December 2, 2020 at 9:31:12 PM UTC-5, WhoSentYou wrote:

Here are my current issues:

How do I make the spacing changes of one page not push down the content
of other pages or sections?

The book is divided into lots of little 2-5 page "sections" (i.e.,
letters), but I'll be doing lots of last-minute edits and spacing
changes all over. My nightmare is that if I delete paragraphs, alter
spacing, etc, in one area, it's going to move the text all over the damn
book every time, and I'll have to hunt for the ramifications across
hundreds of pages every time. How can I "contain" the ripple effect of
my edits to just stay within a particular section?

If you use "Section Breaks" to demarcate your sections, this will not happen.

2. How do I get the page count to start (and end) within a specific
range, and not on the actual first and last pages?

You can set the starting page number for each separate section, and then
have the next section either continue or start over (or with some arbitrary number).

3. You know those header titles atop either side of book pages, usually
with the name of the book and the chapter you're in? What's the best way
to do this in Word? More importantly, how do I permanently associate a section of text to its corresponding page heading so that no matter
where I move it, it'll stay in the same "chapter heading" section?

(1) Place your cursor above or below the text area but in the margin area,
and double-click. That activates the "Header" and "Footer," which is where
you put your page number and your running heads.

(2) You use "markers" to repeat the text of a Section Heading in the left, right, or both running heads. You'll need to study the manual, or just
possibly the On-Line Help, for instructions.

4. This is secondary, but I'd appreciate any guidance on great fonts to
use. It feels as though the commonplace, everyday fonts like Arial and
Times New Roman wouldn't necessarily work best for something like this.
The binder suggested I stay away from sans serif, but other than that,
I'm a bit adrift.

There are literally thousands of fonts. Download some that you like.
Many of them have a specific "feel" that's associated with the place
and era where it was first used, or where it happens to be popular today..

5. Just in case, if anyone knows of layouts or templates I can perhaps
use, I'd appreciate that as well. I'm fishing around and the web and
there's lots of folks who offer typesetting services, but I just don't
have that much time left and think I'm just going to tackle it myself.

For reference, I use Word from Office 365 (version 2010) on a Windows 10 64-bit PC. Thanks so much, I'd appreciate any input at all.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)