Formatting an ebook: Microsoft Word Video Tutorial

Formatting an ebook is pretty easy with Microsoft word. You just need to define what structure you want for your ebook and you’ll be all set.

Although, doing it for the first time could be a bit complex. A night before uploading my ebook on Kindle Direct Publishing, I thought my manuscript was ready.

But when I previewed my book on kindle, it was a big mess. Chapters weren’t properly set, the index had a few errors.

Fortunately, I solved the errors and my ebook was successfully published on amazon.

In this blog, I will share really simple yet important steps for ebook formatting with a video tutorial at the end. Let’s get straight into it.

Formatting an Ebook

First thing first, choosing the right tool.

You can format your book on Google Docs, Word, or any of the word processor you like.

I would recommend using Microsoft Word. It’s comfortable and all the features are pretty decent.

Google Docs could be a good tool as well, but that depends on your ebook goals.

To be honest, I was not a big fan of Microsoft Word for formatting. But in the end, Word helped me clear my mess.

So I will be sharing a tutorial using Microsoft word.

Step 1:  Page size and Margin

Ebooks adjust to any screen size. So it doesn’t really matter what page size you set for ebook formatting.

But, to get a book-like effect, set page dimensions as 5.5 x 8.5 inch or 6 x 9 inch

Steps: 

• Go to Layout Tab->Size->More page sizes.
• Put 5.5 or 6 inches for width and 8.5 or 9 inches for the height.
• Hit Ok.

I’d recommend not using too narrow or too broad margins for the ebook. Remember, it’s an ebook, not a paperback. Pick a decent margin from the already existing ones.

Steps: 

• Go to Layout->Margins-> choose the normal one, which is 2.54 cm from all sides.

Step 2: Setting up paragraph, Chapter title, Subtitle 

Usually, Fiction books start with indented paragraphs with 1.5 line spacing and either left or fill-justified text.

For nonfiction, you can skip the indentation part and write as if you are writing a blog. But all this depends on what type of book you are writing and how you want to portray it.

My personal recommendations are a 1.15cm indentation on the first line of the paragraph. 1.5 line spacing and fill-justified text.

Steps: 

• Go to Home tab->Right-click on the normal paragraph section.
• Click Modify.
• Set the font size to 11 or 12 (10 is too small and 13 is too big. Rather go with 11 to 12).
• Set font style and color as Calibri-black.
• At the very bottom of the same tab, you’ll see a button called Format.
• Click on format->go to paragraph->set indentation as-> First line->1.15cm and line spacing->1.5 times.
• Hit Ok.

Now you need to set up heading for chapter names.

You might also have subheadings for the chapter name. In that case, you can set two heading types in Microsoft word.

Headings

Steps:

• On the home page-> Right-click on the heading 1 section->Modify.
• Set color, font size, and style. I prefer black, Calibri, 16.
• Below the font bar, you’ll see the text-justification bar. Set heading to center-justified.
• At the bottom, you’ll see the Format button.
• Click on format->go to paragraph->set indentation as-> None and line spacing->1.5 times.
• Hit Ok
• If you have subheadings, follow the same procedure with heading 2. Set font size=13, Indentation->None, Center-justified.

Step 3: Creating Pages

Title Page

• First Page will be Title Page
• Write Book Title->Set a bigger font size.
• Click on this icon-> ¶ to check how many spaces you want to include above and below the title.
• I would recommend 1 to 2 spaces above and below the book title.
• Then write the author name and ISBN no. if any.
• Go to Insert-> Insert page break (Very important step).

Copyright Page:

Not all books have this page, so you can skip it or write a simple copyright page as per your needs. You can also create a dedication page below the copyright page.

Insert page break (Cannot stress this enough. Very important)

Table of Contents

(Leave this step for after you complete chapter pages)

• Go to references:
• Table of contents
• Select your preferred format.
• Insert a Page break.

Chapter Pages: 

• Write chapter name->click on the chapter heading that we have set up in step 2.
• Write subtitle->click on subheading that we’ve set up in step 2.
• Put 2 spaces above the chapter name and 3 spaces below. Keep this consistent for all chapters.  Use this icon ¶ to confirm spaces. 
• Put your chapter content and set it to paragraph settings that we’ve created in step 2.
• Insert a Page break.
• Repeat for all chapters.

Once you finish writing all your chapters, go to the Table of Contents page->references->table of contents->your preferred format.

The chapters will automatically appear in the table of contents.

You can also add a Drop cap to the first letter of each chapter to beautify it. 

Steps:

• Click at the beginning of the first paragraph of the chapter.
• Go to the Insert tab
• You will see a Text tab where you will find a drop cap.
• Click on drop cap->drop cap options->Choose design and number of lines to drop. (I have explained this in the video tutorial.)

Important things in step 3:

• Page breaks are super important. 
• The format should be consistent for all chapters. 

Step 4: Headers

This is an optional step. You can skip this if you don’t want to have a header for your ebook. I have still explained it in the tutorial.

Now, header settings can be done in many different ways.

If you are interested in headers, you can either create the same header for all pages or two different ones for odd-even pages.

I am going to show the odd-even method in the video below.

Then, you don’t want to start headers from the title page. It should start from the 1st chapter page.

To do this, we are going to break all chapters into different sections and then we will be setting up headers and page numbers for that section only.

Steps: 

• Go to the last page above the chapter 1 page. In our case- it’s the Table of Contents page.
• Click below the table of contents
• Go to Layout tab->breaks->next page
• The next page creates a section break after the Table of Contents, which means all the chapters go into the next section.
• Now go to Insert tab->Headers->choose a blank one
• Then a very important step is to unlink the previous section. Click on the Link to Previous (as it’s already linked) to unlink it. 
• Then, put a checkmark at Different odd & even pages header settings right in the next tab.
• Now, write chapter name and author name on either of the odd and even pages header(as per your preference) and close the header.
• Scroll up, delete the header generated at the Table of Content page. Make sure the title page and copyright page do not have a header.
• You have unlinked the section, so the header will be applied to the chapter section only.

Step 5: Page numbers

You have already created two sections in the above steps. So now, when you put page numbers, the 1st page will start from chapter 1 and now from the title page.

How cool is that?

Anyways.

Steps:

• Go to chapter 1
• Go to insert tab->Page numbers->Choose your preferred location.
• If your page numbers do not start from 1. Then click on page numbers->format page numbers->click on start at 1.
• The page numbers will start from chapter 1.
• Finally, go to the Table of contents page.
• Click on Update Table->Update page numbers only.
• Click ok.

Ebook formatting Video Tutorial

 

 

See How it looks (Preview of the Above Book)

(If you are not able to view video and pdf preview on your smartphone->click on the desktop version of the smartphone browser.)

That’s all.

Your ebook formatting is done.

Make sure you preview your file before publishing it.

All the best for your ebook publishing.

If you like this tutorial, share it on your IG or with your friends. Let us help more writers with ebook formatting.

If you have any questions, put a comment below or contact me directly to ask. I would be glad to help. 

Happy Writing!