How to set up a fiction writing style in Word

[Nikky Lee]

This was just shared on by someone from the Australian Writers Centre. If you're working in Word, you might find it helpful.

How to set up a fiction writing style in Word

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I also find the heading styles handy for moving through the document quickly via the navigation pane (especially so when editing and I'm jumping around the MS a lot).



This is what it looks like in a the navigation pane.

 

[Barbara]

Erm, dim question, but keep in mind I'm not particularly computerised (I time jumped from cavemen times to the modern era - there was this portal ... ):

I also find the heading styles handy for moving through the document quickly via the navigation pane (especially so when editing and I'm jumping around the MS a lot).

This is what it looks like in a the navigation pane.

I also find the heading styles handy for moving through the document quickly via the navigation pane (especially so when editing and I'm jumping around the MS a lot).

Looking at your screenshot, how do you get that panel up on the left, or do you only get that option when you work with those heading style thingies?

 

[CageSage]

If you have the top banner set up to show: File, Home, etc. and below that the most used sections of the quick access toolbar, you'll most likely have: clipboard, font, paragraph, styles, and editing. People set these up to suit themselves.
Find the Styles section of the toolbar (look for Normal, Heading 1, etc.). As part of that section, you'll see a down arrow with a line across it - that moves the styles up and down so you can see what you have. Updating a style is a right click and changing it at the end (and when you close all documents, saving the normal template with the pop-up box opens).
To see the navigation pane, it's in the 'View' tab, in the 'show' toolbar.
And I hope I haven't confused you more. Sorry.

 

[Steve C]

Thanks Cage, I was wondering the same thing as Barbara. So if you create a Heading it is stored in the navigation panel. Very handy! It seems once you have created a heading you can convert it back to the original font and black colour and it still shows up in the navigation panel

 

[CageSage]

Thanks Cage, I was wondering the same thing as Barbara. So if you create a Heading it is stored in the navigation panel. Very handy! It seems once you have created a heading you can convert it back to the original font and black colour and it still shows up in the navigation panel

You can make a new style based on what you want it to be ... by highlighting what you want, clicking on the down arrow with the line above it, and saving it as a new style. And I hope my version of Word 2010 is the same standard toolbar thingies!

 

[Jonny]

How do I bring up a view of 'the quick access tool bar?

As an experiment I tried adding Heading 1 to QATB (right clicking and it showed me I could do this) but in the event it seems to have added it to something it's calling 'style gallery' which I cannot find. I'm baffled. I'm on Word 365. The Heading 1 can be removed from the Style Gallery buy is now greyed out on adding it to QATB whch seems to indicate I have successfully added it it

Is there a foolproof default setting that allows for setting up lets call it - writing a standard novel?

 

[Jonny]

Just watched the video which explains a lot but how do I get the new paragraph to be positioned slightly further to the right of the page without moving it one place with the tab key?

 

[Steve C]

The way I do it is to highlight the text then right click . Go to 'Paragraph'
in the Indentation section go to the box with 'special' written above it.
on the dropdown option click 'first line'
In the box next to it click say 0.5 or whatever you want
Click OK at the bottom and your indents should appear.

 

[Jonny]

Cheers @Steve C Just had a fiddle and that seems to do the trick.

 

[Steve C]

 

[Barbara]

Thank you @CageSage. I feel downright modern now.

 

[Hannah F]

I recently found out a handy thing for word:

If you want to make sure you start your next sentence/heading on a new page, don't click "page break" under the insert tab. It will do what you want on your computer but maybe not on an agent/editor's system.
Instead, press CTRL and ENTER. Your next sentence/heading will always be on a new page.

 

[J Babo]

Since we are all sharing...

One of the functionalities I found most useful was the 'Replace' on the right of 'Home'.

We probably all used it, but if you go to 'More' you get a more options. Mocking around with 'Format' and 'Special' allows you to, for instance, get rid of all Tabs (if you use them for paragraph). That can take a lot of effort and time out. Then you select the entire text and go to 'Paragraph' as @Steve C explained.

The great advantage is that you can replace styles and formats very quickly, which I for one had lots of issues with. Also, if you have an issue with leaving two spaces and want to make sure you get only one, you can use this function for that too. It's worth wasting a bit of time to understand if you have repeated small editing stuff like the above.

 

[Nikky Lee]

Since we are all sharing...

One of the functionalities I found most useful was the 'Replace' on the right of 'Home'.

We probably all used it, but if you go to 'More' you get a more options. Mocking around with 'Format' and 'Special' allows you to, for instance, get rid of all Tabs (if you use them for paragraph). That can take a lot of effort and time out. Then you select the entire text and go to 'Paragraph' as @Steve C explained.

The great advantage is that you can replace styles and formats very quickly, which I for one had lots of issues with. Also, if you have an issue with leaving two spaces and want to make sure you get only one, you can use this function for that too. It's worth wasting a bit of time to understand if you have repeated small editing stuff like the above.

Yep, I use that ALL the time. Especially to swap out straight quotes and apostrophes with curly ones. So handy.