Ebook Copy Format Guidelines

To ensure your ebook converts smoothly to PDF or other ebook formats, there are some standard copy guidelines to follow.

Copy Format Guidelines

Create your manuscript using MS Word or OpenOffice document, then format as follows:

1. Font Type - Courier, Helvetica or Arial are all easy to read online
2. Font Size - 12 pt.
3. Line Space - add a 6pt lead or at maximum, set line space at 1.5
4. Add a minimum one inch margins to sides
5. Add Header - with book name, chapter and author
6. Add Footer - with page number and copyright notice
7. Format all headings to H1
8. Format all subheadings to H2
9. Format all sub-sub headings to H3
10. Adjust the 'H' format to provide the design look and feel you want. All the tags will be automatically adjusted.

Additional Pages

Page 1 - Add publishing, copyright notices and contact details

Page 2 - Add a table of contents - this adds hoplink navigation

When you are finished go back and write in your table of contents. You are now ready to add navigation. Select the text in your table of contents that lists the first chapter. Then you want to add a link, to do this follow these steps:

1. Click the Insert Menu and then Hyperlink
2. Click the document button on the left hand side of the window that comes up
3. Under the section "Target in document" click the picture of the target
4. In the window that opens up expand the section titled headings
5. Choose the title of your first chapter in the expanded section to highlight it
6. Click Apply
7. Select the listing for the next chapter and repeat this process.

When you are finished adding hyperlinks to each chapter we can still further navigation. A simple hyper link at the end of each chapter that takes a user back to the table of contents adds an even better feel to the eBook.

Export to PDF

To export the document to a PDF file. You may collate multiple files into a single PDF ebook.

Click File > Export to PDF.

Make sure the tagged PDF checkbox is checked. This adds an additional level of navigation since the Headings you created will become Bookmarks within the PDF file.

Next: Preparing Your Ebook For Publishing

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