Microsoft Word places a section’s Page 1 on the right side (Print Preview) for manuscripts. The application also resists attempts to push it to the left and may insert blank pages into the manuscript.
To override, consider:
Starting the section on page 2;
Continue the numbering from a previous section; and
Accept that the blank page will be inserted and move on.
While Microsoft Word offers many types of Section Break, the application makes assumptions and alters their behaviour on your behalf. It’s often best to use Next Page section breaks, even if you need to use more than one.
Breaks create divisions within a manuscript. Two reasons are:
Formatting reasons. E.g., Keeping paragraphs intact by moving them to the next page; and
Separating content into distinct sections. E.g., Front matter, back matter, and chapters.
Breaks are preferred over the insertion of empty lines. The latter creates a cascading effect, which is difficult to manage in large manuscripts. I.e., End up with chapters starting at random points on a page.
Both types of breaks can be inserted under the Page Layout ribbon.
Print Layout is ideal for formatting manuscripts for publishing. However, what we see differs from reality. That’s where Print Preview comes into play, because it confirms the layout prior to submitting to the printer/publisher.
Designers can implement CSS styles that creates realistic Text message conversations. These elements reflow automatically, maintaining a consistent look and feel across devices.
The challenge in designing eBooks are the unknowns. It’s impossible to know what devices your readers will use and these uncertainties stack up. Some of these elements are:
Fonts can be embedded into an EPUB to control the look and feel. However, there is no guarantee that Amazon, Apple, Google, or Kobo will not strip them out in favour of their own. E.g., Bookerly on Kindle platforms.
It’s important that an EPUB reflow its content to adjust to changes in any of the above elements. A book that reflows ensures a quality reading experience for the reader.
To start the process, add the following CSS style to your EPUB‘s stylesheet. This document is normally named stylesheet.css in a Calibre generated eBook.
Instead of using pt, or px to define the dimensions, we use em. This type of measurement is relative, enabling the document to adjust automatically when the user changes fonts or size.
The next step is to go through every chapter and find the first paragraph. While the converted document’s formatting will differ from this example, it will look similar to this:
Default Code
<body>
<h1 class="blockFirstTop">THE VAN HELSING INCURSION</h1>
<h2 class="blockFirstChapter">CHAPTER 1</h2>
<p class="blockSubtitle">THEY’RE MAGICALLY DELICIOUS</p>
<p>Clara had been lying flat against the snow-covered ground
since the witching hour. The sky was taking on red hues,
and the moon would soon secede its dominion over the
celestial plain.</p>
<p>She maintained a low heart rate while her movements were
kept to an absolute minimum. Freshly fallen snow had
accumulated during the night, all of which helped to
conceal her position.</p>
Output
For a drop character the first letter of the paragraph must be wrapped in a SPAN with the class defined. Once the changes are made, the preview panel will update the look and feel.
For a consistent display of drop characters, consider:
Remove the first quotation mark prior to wrapping the character; and
Remove additional formatting like bold or italics.
Adjusted Code
<body>
<h1 class="blockFirstTop">THE VAN HELSING INCURSION</h1>
<h2 class="blockFirstChapter">CHAPTER 1</h2>
<p class="blockSubtitle">THEY’RE MAGICALLY DELICIOUS</p>
<p><span class="dropCharacter">C</span>lara had been
lying flat against the snow-covered ground since the
witching hour. The sky was taking on red hues, and the
moon would soon secede its dominion over the celestial
plain.</p>
<p>She maintained a low heart rate while her movements were
kept to an absolute minimum. Freshly fallen snow had
accumulated during the night, all of which helped to
conceal her position.</p>
Output
That’s it!
Note
The look and feel may change based on the rendering engine. Viewing it on Google Play Books may have a a different reading experience Apple iBooks, or Rakuten Kobo.
It’s a challenge to maintain consistent spacing within a manuscript. Iterative edits, multiple users, along with copy and paste oddities all contribute to the problem. While the manuscript may look fine on the surface, converting it to other formats can bring out unexpected quirks. E.g., paragraphs that start with a space, or create blank lines because of a trailing space(s).
This tutorial shows you how to normalise a manuscript using a series of Microsoft Word’s Find and Replace functions. This process will cut down on the time needed compared to doing so manually.
Copy and paste these instructions into the Find and Replace function within Microsoft Word. Replace All can be used for every operation except for the last two.