Your cover, your layout, your project - a tutorial

[Red Pins]

So, I finished ANOTHER new project a few days ago, a 31-day TRO project and it was fairly easy.  After a few hours I had an acceptable cover, and the longest delay was learning how to cross-reference the MUL with the types of vehicles and 'Mechs equipped with Rocket Launchers in service with the Marian Hegemony.

Today, I was out working outside and thinking of nothing in particular other than how much I hated rain in February, when I thought to myself, "Self, I wish somebody had been around to teach me this stuff earlier.  I can go back and finish a half-dozen projects without a sweat, now.  I wonder how I can help other people with theirs?"

Eureka!  I'm going to run through a step-by-step method of creating a random cover, choosing a layout, page art and images.

So, here's an image attached of the Word Ribbon.  Love this image; the home bar is absolutely VITAL - spend any time at all for anything more than a letter home to mom, and you will use most of these buttons at some time.  Incidentally, my purchased copy of Word proudly displays my name, which is why I take screenshots with the ribbon closed - which brings us to Screenshot 61.  Clicking this icon allows you to a. Hide the Ribbon, b. Show Tabs Only, or C. Show Tabs and Commands.

The correct answer is 'C'.  I hate rolling over the tabs, waiting the heartbeat, selecting or rolling off the ribbon, trying again... not worth it.  So, leave them up.

*EDIT2- The circle on the upper left is the most important one in the home screen - the 'undo one step', and 'forward one step' buttons.  If you try something and goof up, USE THIS BUTTON!

The remaining tabs all have those individual gems for our project; we'll leave them for now until they come up.

Next, choosing Portrait or Landscape, Styles, hidden formatting symbols, and art.

*edit-I'd have put this up over at the ourbattletech forum, but for some reason I've been unable to log on and the 'forgot my password' option isn't working for me.  I don't really miss it; its pretty quiet and I spend more time on Spacebattles now for quite some time.  So, it goes here.

[Red Pins]

Good evening, BookWarriors!  So, where were we?  Oh, right, "Next, choosing Portrait or Landscape, Styles, hidden formatting symbols, and art."

So, let's choose whether to use Portrait or Landscape.  Generally, we're looking at purpose rather than style at this point.  Everybody know why TRO's use the landscape format; room for art.  Similarly, portrait books are more sourcebook oriented.  The space for art is a little overwhelming; if you try to use 'free' art, its generally at lower resolution and starts to blur, let alone centering or placing the art on the page or in an appropriate place.  For a long time, scenario packs and sourcebooks offered a signature 'Mech or units and frankly it's the first place I look in most canon books even now.  Ah, good times.

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Regardless, let's look at the ribbon and get things clicking.  Naturally, the choice between Portrait or Landscape is found under the Layout tab->Orientation button on the left side of the screen, seen here in Screenshot 62.  Note the blue bar under the Layout tab; that tells you where you are on the ribbon.  You can use a mouse thumbwheel or just click on it.
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So, now, we choose style, seen here in Screenshot 66, with the thick arrow.  Click/spin back to the Home tab, and find the large Styles section in the center of the screen.  Generally, I don't have enough space - there's NEVER enough space - and from early on using Word a long time ago, I use the 'No space' option.  I hate the sight of wasted space, but you can see the slight grey button on the Home menu at the point of the arrow that opens the menu to show the entire list of options, or you can just choose from the most popular options.

At this point if you have no particular style :) in mind, right-click and highlight bit of text then roll the arrow over the ribbon to pick one of the other choices.  I normally don't fiddle with style beyond selecting 'No space', myself. 

Note that 'Style' is not 'Font'; this delightful option (over the thin arrow) offers a large selection although I've never found the supposed official Battletech font, and although its a simple method of separating and emphasizing sections of text I've found I prefer colored 'Text boxes' to highlight it.

Beside the font style is the size of the print.  Seen here, its Calibri (body) in 11-point print.  Don't ask why its called 'point', I don't know, and don't care.

Now, see the two black 'A' 'A'?  Type and highlight a section of text; the big 'A' makes the text one size bigger, the small 'A' makes it smaller.  I only use it increase the size of the sub-Headings, otherwise I just highlight the text and write in the number of the points it has to be.

The A-with-an-eraser eliminates all the changes you make.  I never use this, myself.

Below the font style are the important buttons; Bold, Italicized, and Underline.  Bold and italicized text is on almost every page; you can either just point and click the button and type, or do what I do and type then go back later and highlight and select either one to change it.
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Ok, along with all this is a BIG DEAL; the hidden formatting button in Screenshot 68 makes tables and arranging your text EASY.  During this last project, I had the format button and the 'grid' button on all the time as I arranged spaces to be consistent between rows and columns almost the entire length of the book.
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Ok, that's three attachments, time for a new post.

[Red Pins]

 "Next, choosing Portrait or Landscape, Styles, hidden formatting symbols, and art.", cont.

...And now, the biggie - art.  Hold on tight!  In Screenshot 70, we have a picture.  See the circled button, 'Gridlines'?  LOVE THIS BUTTON.  LOVE IT!  When you do layout, the combination of hidden format marks and the grid is EVERYTHING.

The arrow is pointing to an option, found in the 'page' button beside the image.  Clicking on it, the picture can be moved anywhere on the paper, either on the grid or off it.  If you don't press this button, you can only move the image to the left and right edges; it will not cover the 'Header' or 'Footer' at the top or bottom of the page.  Press it, and the image can overlap the edge of the page - this is very important in making a cover.

As well, the little circle on top rotates the image while remaining centered on its position on the page.

"BUT WAIT!", you say!  Where did this 'Picture Format' tab come from!  Well, it's only visible when you click on the picture.  And there are some AMAZING things you can do with this tab.

Erase the background?  There's a button for that.  There are so many options here, you'll need to copy a picture and paste it, and then spend some time playing with the buttons on this tab.  A couple gems are here, including the 'reset picture' option, the 'picture border' and 'picture effects' buttons, and the 'position' button.

I include a couple screenshots, just to illustrate the potential of the format/grid options and the Picture Format tab.

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PRO-TIP; recently, I was messing around, and found out by pressing the Ctrl-button and spinning the mouse thumb-wheel, I could change the zoom of the screen, making 8-pt text look about half an inch tall at 500% zoom.  this might be old news to you, but this MASSIVELY changed how easy it was to work with small fonts.
*

With that, the next entry will concern saved files, back-up files, and why you should be VERY, VERY, CAREFUL.

[Red Pins]

whoops.  Well, one.

[Red Pins]

"With that, the next entry will concern saved files, back-up files, and why you should be VERY, VERY, CAREFUL."

Alright, so you have an idea, put something together, and save it.  Time goes by, and it gets bigger.  Eventually, you get worried you're going to do something stupid, and make a backup.  This is where it goes pear-shaped.

You start saving it to a different file, and you're almost done, when - BANG!  Your computer dies, the motherboard a delicate piece of trash - and all your work was on it.  It never happened to me; I have my files on 2 computers, a separate Seagate drive, an on-line file storage, and the biggest danger has been accidentally working on an old file and writing it over the one I last worked on.

So, lets discuss what might be the best way to save your backups.

1. Your primary computer has a current, and a backup.  Put the 'working copy' on the desktop and everything else in a named folder with a different name.

2. Depending on your work, it might be worth naming them as dates - Feb10 2023, for instance - and keeping them in an external drive with another copy in a free online data storage.

Saving your files is up to you, but Word makes it a bit easier by showing you the name of the open file, and the location it came from.  Screenshot 78 show where you last saved your file.

Okay!  With the silliness out of the way, lets make a cover!

[Red Pins]

...And there you go.  Now, let's go over the steps.

*edit-Forgot to black out my name.
*edit2-Oh, I forgot and left the prompt on the cover - you can see it on the top left.  Its not an issue when you're working with a document longer than a single page, you just page down.

[Red Pins]

SO!  I forgot the most vital button on home menu; the 'undo' button.  I'll put it in the first post.

*edit-this cover was done in 3:05:00.  Cool, huh?

We start with a blank page, oriented the way you want it, as described above with Layout->Orientation.

Generally by now, you know what image you want.  Go find it, right click->copy image.

Press return until you have an empty page - this is a step I skipped in the sample cover - don't be a Red Pins.  >:D

Right-click->paste image, seen here in screenshot 82.

Right-click again, and select size and position.  Go to the larger number of Horizontal/Vertical - depending on its size, reduce the larger number by 1-10, and see how the other number is reduced in proportion.  Stop when you get the size you want, align it with the View->grid button.

Go to Insert->shapes->choose a generic square.  Right-click->fix position on page, and move it to the corners.

Go to picture format, picture fill, pick a color.  "Wait!  Where's my image?"   Its behind the shape, so shape format->Send backward.  TA-DA!

But for now, we need to see the grid to align and organize our shapes, so LEFT-click to identify the square (not on the Dragon's Fury image) ->picture format->shape fill->no fill.  Now, go back to View->Grid.  1/8th Done!

[Red Pins]

Where were we?  Oh, right.  We've transferred art, sized and placed it, put in a backdrop...  Let's do Shapes!

Screenshot 89 is our first step, once past the backdrop-and-image steps.  Click the center of the image, and go to the picture format tab, seen here, or go to Insert->shapes.

You will see the circle around the square-box-with-a-letter-in-it.  This is a text box!  Click on it, then go over the cover and left click to place it.  You will note the cursor at the top of the box. By putting the text box over image, you can put words over your image, and with a couple options, 'shape format->shape fill' and '->shape outline', you can make the text box disappear to see the image behind it.

*How to move a text box
-First, click in the box.  This identifies it.
-roll the arrow around the edge of the box.  You can see around the points, the cursor changes to a white pull-point, and a black, 4-pointed cross.  That black 4-pointed cross if the 'grab-point' for the text box - by pressing and holding the left mouse-button you can move the text box.

*DANGER - MAKE SURE you identify the text box you want to move, or you will move the image or backdrop underneath it.
*DON'T PANIC - Remember the one-step-back in the blue border at the top left?  If you move the wrong thing, click on the back-step button until it looks like it did before you screwed up.  No problem!

Once the box is on the page, you can place it and move it where it needs to be, seen here in Screenshot 92.  Alter the print size, and use the circled buttons to choose to center the print at the center of the box - or, just leave it as the standard, left justified.

Once that is done, type your title, etc.

Then, we need to give the text box a color, with shape format->shape fill->choose color/more fill colors.

(Or, use the shape format->shape fill->no fill and shape outline->no outline to make the print the only thing visible.  Shape format-> wordart styles and the different buttons make give different options, as does Home->font.  Gothic letters?  check.  Orange?  check.  Cast shadows?  checkeroony!)

In screenshot 97, you'll note the beginning of the next step!  MORE SHAPES!  You can use the Insert->shapes or picture format->shapes seen here - it gives you the same options.

Note it doesn't matter what color they are right now - we're going to change it.  If you know what you need them for, pull them out, and put them wherever on the page.

Time for a new post!

[Red Pins]

Ah, shapes.  Shapes.  What makes up your project?  Give me an 's'! and the rest of the letters.  S-H-A-P-E-S!

We're going to make one of the shapes that most fans associate with the early TROs, the number accents - a square, a circle, and an 'X' under the number.  Lets begin!

First, click on an isolated corner of the backdrop, and use shape format->shape fill->no fill to see the grid again.

So, line up the squares (because those line neatly with the grid) an equal distance apart, using the 4-point black arrows to move the shapes.  Remember, if you grab the Dragon's fury logo by accident, just use the Home screen's backstep button.  Just click the squares to identify one at a time and move it.  Great!  Lined up where you want it?  Use the shape format->shape fill and ->shape outline to choose 'No fill' for an empty square, and choose your color for the shape.

Here's a new thing - weight!  This refers to the thickness of individual lines.  The lines here need to be thicker, to be more noticable, so after we choose the color, click the shape outline again and choose 'weight'.  I used 1 1/2 on all the shapes for these.  Now, we're going to use triangles and shrink them to go on top and bottom of the boxes.

So, select triangles from the shapes menu, place them on the page, and click on one to identify it.  Click the shape layout square, and use the pull points to make it the size you want.  Now, identify it, click the 'fix position on page'-button, then the 'more' button, and now for something completely different...

Press the size tab.  Now - use this method to make the other triangles the same size!  You can see how I did it in screenshot 107.

Once they're all the same size, place them.  Not able to make them equally spaced apart?  Well, we have to use the layout options square to put them in place.  You can see it in screenshot 110.  Now, do the same with the bottom.

This is getting old, so I'll just say - use the shape fill to leave the outline of the squares in place, change their color, then do the circles.

Now, the 'X's.  Use the pull points to put the points on the corners of the squares.  Use the weight button to thicken the outlines of each.  DONE!  And that's how you make them from the old TROs.  Cool, huh?  What?  We're forgetting something?  Oh, right.  NUMBERS!

[Red Pins]

Ah, Numbers!  And text boxes, of course.

So, we begin with Insert->shapes, unless you identify a shape to open the picture format tab.  We want one of the square boxes-with-an-'A' in it - a 'text box'.  As you put them on the page before using them, don't forget to use their layout option boxes to select, 'fix position on page'.  Screenshot 119 shows what the process looks like.

Here, we're going to make it oversized, then increase the font on the Home->font section to 72 pt. and type the numbers you want over the accents, in this case, '3148'.  After that, its a simple matter by now to use the pull-points to gradually reduce the height and width of the box to something just large enough not to cut into the number.  You don't really need to center it, although I did for this example - we're going to use the Fill and Outline options to make the box invisible, so the only thing you'll see afterward will be the digits.  Again, you can use the Home->Font or Shape Format->Wordart to change its appearance.  I wasn't interested, so I left them the normal black, although now I suspect they should have been that same eye-tearing green.  Oh well.

Ready for the big reveal?  Here we are, screen shot 121.  The only things left are to turn off the grid again - view->grid - hidden formatting - Home->reversed "p" button beside the styles - and to click on an isolated corner of the empty page, select the picture format tab, and fill with your chosen backdrop color....  Set...

[Red Pins]

*BANG!*

You've seen this before - our finished project, screenshot 126.

Next up; TEXT.  Gird your loins, and pack another pair of pants and boxers - we're going in.  I'm going to use screenshots from both an old and new project for these explanations; I'm not re-inventing the wheel, after all.

[Red Pins]

So, TEXT.  It can be hard, sometimes.  So, I'm going to force you to look at pictures of a recent project, and explain how I did each.

First, for any project you need the standard 'Credits, about this book and legal disclaimers'.  I've added screenshot 129 as an example.  To do this, you need to add multiple text columns, then center the column headers with the 'center justify' button, etc.  Oh, that Section break (continuous) thing?  That marks the break between the 3-column page, and the next one, the table of contents.

The top line of the next page is a single-column, center-justified, with a new 2-column page under it, again with the section breaks.  Columns, from Layout->columns.

No point splitting this up, so new post.

[Red Pins]

File too big - the next page, on screenshot 130.

[Red Pins]

In screenshot 131, you see the Layout->column window open - you have a couple choices how to proceed from here.  First, you can do your typing, then highlight the header on the page in this case, 'Asdasdfasdfsadfsdfsadfsadfsadfsadfsad', and choose '1 column' - and there's that section break (continuous) showing up behind it when you do.  That makes it the single, normal width line.  From there, its easy enough to choose the Home->paragraph->center justify of our example, and Home->font to increase the size of the text.

What?  'What if its not centered?  What if its just 1-2 columns wide?'

Well, you have to choose whether or not to allow the text to be even on both sides.  Screenshot 31 is a good example of this.

[Red Pins]

Columns are going to be a thing in your project.  You're going to DREAM of the grid and the hidden formats, and columns.  But they're fun, most of the time.

Copied images are next.  For most of us, purchasing art from artists isn't a possibility.  I'm cheap, my wife is poor, nice to meet you.   :P  But 'fair use' and a good legal declaration make it reasonable to use, and Sarna is my go-to.

Once you Copy/Paste your art, seen here again in screenshot 72, you can see the picture format tab when it's identified.  So lets get into the picture format->adjust options.

There are literally so many cool options, I don't know what to say is more important.  You're going to have to play with them and see what you want to use.  Holy cow!  So - Many - Cool - Things!

[Red Pins]

Before I sign off for the night, here's screenshot 132, a sample from the next (old) project - the Blake Threat File.

I'm working on a format for a series of Technicals - military adaptations of civilian vehicles.  The idea behind it is that a series of generic mods allowed guerillas/terrorists to create standardized military variants.  You can think of this as an advanced layout, using the invisible text box trick and shape format->text->text direction option to allow me to present a role, and put a series of motive types that could perform that role in a larger text box underneath the vertical print that straddles the first- and second text columns.

Hopefully, this will come up with something suitable for the drones I need to include for this project as well - even doing 4/page, the tentative number of drones is daunting.

Don't mind saying, this is new territory for me - lots of fiddling with it ahead, I'm sure.

[truetanker]

El Yonko!

Minez... get yerz.  :P

TT

[Red Pins]

Eh?  Hope I'm not stepping on your toes...   ;D 

[truetanker]

I've been busy, and your tutorial is what makes my life a slight bit better.

Thanks Red pins...

TT

[Red Pins]

 :o

That's like diarrhea in a crowded bathroom.  I almost never hear that, thanks.

[Red Pins]

So, text.  >YAWN<  You can type, right?  Yup.  Can you spellcheck?  Grammar nazi?  Able to find every 'aple' in the orchard?  No?

First, lets look at an example.  Screenshot 135 shows several things; the introduction to the House Steiner sourcebook on Sarna, the exotic fonts, those weird red, wavy lines, and the right-click menu with some paste options beside the arrow.  And those paste options are really, really cool.  Lets take them from the far right.

*What you don't see here are some blue wavy underlines.  Those are for grammar.  We'll get to that.

First is 'text only'.  If you highlight the text, right-click, choose 'copy', then you can copy the plain text into your document without all these exotic fonts.  The red, wavy lines under the occasional word would stay - they identify words the computer doesn't know and can't confirm are spelled correctly.

Next is 'picture'.  If you're copying a picture, this is the one you use.  Only for pictures.

Next is 'merge formatting'.  You really, really, DON'T WANT TO USE THIS BUTTON.  By choosing this button, it merges fonts, and it is a nuisance to remove if you use it by accident.  By merging the text, the file will have odd formatting quirks only detectable with the hidden format button on the home screen.

The last one on the far left is the most important; 'Keep source formatting'.  In the course of your project, you're going to have some repetitive text, whether that's blank data tables for a TRO project or whatever.  So, let's say you're highlighting a section of text, and want to copy it multiple times.   Highlight, put the arrow over the highlighted text, and RC->copy.  Now, position your cursor where you want it, RC->paste (keep source formatting).  Done this way, all the italicized, highlighted, or bold text will be duplicated with your text.  Note, you could have just chosen 'text only' if all it was was plain text.

The 'keep source formatting' button is even more important if you choose to use the 'cut' option.  Lets say you're writing a story - you  realize you put an important comment in the wrong spot - and rather than loose the time spent hunched over the keyboard, you realize you can cut-and-paste.  Great!  So, highlight, RC->Cut.  Position the cursor where you want to put the text, and RC->paste.

What's that?  You used the 'text only' option, and there was lots of italicized thought bubbles or 'Mech names, etc?  No problem.  Remember the 'back one step' button?  Use it.  The text will disappear.  Now, RC->'keep source formatting'.  Great!  But.. why did it work?  Because the text is kept on 'the clipboard', a 'virtual memory' of whatever you choose to 'copy' or 'cut'.

I don't mess much with the RC menu.  But looking at screenshot 135, you have some VERY advanced options, and I wouldn't dare touch these while working on one of my own projects.  Automatic indents would be nice, but not vital.  I know how to pronounce most of the words I use  :D  I don't want to translate words or phrases in most of my projects, and Links are so confusing to me I'll probably never use them.

That just leaves one more useful option; 'new comment'.  Comments are also available under the Review tab, Review->comments.  In general, these are useful if more than one person is using a document, say, a volunteer reading your story to ask a question or highlight a problem.  Screenshot 137 shows you what it looks like; you can either just use the 'new comment' option, or actually highlight the text you're commenting about, RC->new comment as you see here.  The Review->comments section is fairly self-explanatory, but the Review->tracking and ->changes is too unfamiliar to me to describe using it.  If a comment is used by somebody, I generally just alter the text its referencing and delete it.

The last really useful button here is the Review->compare button.  if two Word documents are open, you can see the two documents side-by-side, but zooming and moving around makes it a little too confusing for me to use regularly.  Since most of the time I'm referencing the same document, but on a different page, I use the View->split screen option.

*By the way, compare screenshot 135 with the Review tab.  Mostly the same, right?

Love this button!  Got all your definitions, character names, locations, plot ideas and stuff at the bottom of your document?  Use this button to keep from having to lose your place every time you need to check something!  In screenshot 139, you can see the same document on each half of the screen.  Very helpful.  See the View->window section, where it says, 'remove split'?  The button toggles between on/off in the same place.  When you remove the split view, you go to one of the two locations.  I'm not sure which one, I've never really worried about it.

Ok, we'll hold up here.  Next up,

[Red Pins]

Next up, the Home->editing section at the far right.  This one is most important for large documents; screenshot 141 shows the two stages of the Home->find pulldown button.

The most simple is the basic 'find' function, seen on the left with the single mark and the descriptor, 'Navigation'.  Here, you put in a word, and the program finds all the times you used the word in your text.  Mind you, you can mis-spell it, and it won't come up here.  Word isn't psychic, after all.

But Word IS pretty smart.  The advanced find option blurs the line between 'find' and 'replace'.  This is a really useful thing if you screw up badly.  For instance, you confuse a name.  You use the basic search, and find every use of 'steve'.  You can read the text and understand the surrounding text to confirm its the right character.  But 'Stefan' is the one who leaves the room, leaving 'steve' sitting in the chair.  So, you can choose to use the 'replace' tab to eliminate the word 'Stefan' by replacing every single occurrence in the entire document.

The advanced find option can also change things like plain text/italicized text.  There are some other sneaky things it can do, but I generally don't use them.

By the way, the View->Navigation button does the same thing as the basic search.  I don't use it very much, I'm kinda set in my ways by now and use the advanced search most of the time.

Well.  Almost done!  Next up, tables!  (Yuck.)

*edit-also View->proofing - spellchecker, grammar and word count.  Also the little paper icons at the bottom right.  Text never ends.

[Red Pins]

In honor of visual styles, I wrote this one in Word!

*edit-Don't forget to control-spin the mouse or increase the zoom on the browser if the attachment is to small to read.

Fellow BookWarriors, you may reach out to me for aid!

[emmausa]

I believe that with the information you share, it will bring a lot of value to the readers and I hope that they will absorb the good and useful things.

[Red Pins]

I believe that with the information you share, it will bring a lot of value to the readers and I hope that they will absorb the good and useful things.

Maybe?  Its one of those things - you throw instructions how to fish out into the internet, hoping somebody else catches one and offers it to you.