Formatting an entire imported manuscript

Papyrus Author Questions & Help
1

Hi, Amanda here, writing in New Zealand.

How do I use a template such as US Trade Paperback to format a 106K ms imported from Word? Is there a way to drop the complete ms in to the style, or must I copy and paste every chapter heading and running text individually? This would be tedious and time consuming, but if that is the only way then so be it.
Thanks!

2

Hi Amanda and welcome to the Community :grinning:

Don’t worry, we have an easy way for you to apply a template to an existing document.

With your imported document open, go to File / Generate / Adopt Styles from Other Document…

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In the open browser, select “New (from Template)” / “Imperial Formats” for the American US Letter layouts. Or “Projects” for a specific book style. Select the template you want by double clicking it or single click and “Open”.

This will create a new document with the original content but with the new layout. Simply save the document and you are ready to carry on writing or editing.

If you want to create the document as a project, once you have taken the steps above, go to Author / My Project / Convert to Project.

Let me know how you get on :grinning:

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3

Thank you so much. I have applied these steps and saved the doc - the format works but I had to insert page breaks at the end of each chapter and move the chapter headings down a quarter page as per standard. Is that the right thing to do or is there another way to have this magically happen? :wink:

4

If you are using the right Style, this should happen automatically for you :+1:

The positioning of the chapter headings is set in the Style dialogue. Check what is set up for the heading Style you are using.

Click in one of the chapter headings and check the toolbar to see what Style is being used. The example below shows “Chapter Numbered”:
Then click on the icon to the left (highlighted with the red box) to open the Style dialogue.:
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The positioning of the chapter heading is shown underlined in red, below.

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Please note that not all templates have the same layout for the same named styles. So, in the example above “Chapter Numbered” is set 36 pts above. However, in a different template “Chapter Numbered” may be set to 72 pts above.

If you find your chapter headings are not set correctly - either the wrong Style is being used or the format is not as you want, there are a few options for how to resolve this.

To change the Style you are using for your headings to a different one:

  • Click on one of your chapter headings.
  • Then in the Style dialogue, making sure the current Style is selected (in the “Select” field), click on the “Mark” button. This will highlight all the lines in your text assigned this Style.

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  • Now go to the toolbar Style drop-down and select the different Style you want, e.g. Heading Centered. Once you select it, this will change all the relevant chapter headings in one go.

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If the heading Style you are using isn’t set with the format you want and you don’t want to chose a different default Style, you can do one of the following:

  • If the Style is “local” (the “Available in all Papyrus documents (global)” option is unticked) you can edit the format.
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    The spacing above and below the headings, and option to start on a new page, can be set by clicking the “Advanced…” button next to “Paragraph format”.
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    Once you have made your changes, click “Apply” and all the headings assigned this Style will be updated.

  • If the Style is “global” (the “Available in all Papyrus documents (global)” option is ticked) create a new Style with the format you want. We don’t recommend editing global Styles as it could cause a conflict during future upgrades.

  • Even if the Style is “local” you can still chose to create a new Style. You can read about creating your own Styles in our Wiki article here.

Let me know how you get on. :grinning:

5

Great help! Thank you.

Just had to do the same thing with a first draft from earlier this year so I could move it across to PA Pro.

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