Workflow for typesetting a novel

[Clarkman 2]

Hello all -

I'm pretty excited about Publisher!  I watched all of the tutorials Friday, and my first great act was to publish our Thanksgiving turkey recipe as an 11 page brochure.  I attached it for fun.

My next use case is to typeset an existing novel.  I'm not asking for help (yet), but I do plan on documenting the steps here if thats ok.

Here are the specs:

5.06" x 7.81", facing pages, no default master page.

Section 1:  Title, copyright, dedication, preface.

Section 2:  128 pages of linked text frames, preceded by TOC

Section 3:  Afterword, plug for other novels, author bio

 

First attempt:

1. Made new doc per specs above (and saved as preset).
2. Created master page, inserted headings, and facing page numbers
3. Added text frame to first page.
4. Copied body of manuscript into text frame
5. Shift double clicked the link triangle, and presto 128 pages of facing page, correct inner/outer margins!

That was cool, but somehow I ended up with "No Style", and it seems that I have missed the boat.  Cannot crawl through all text boxes to specify body style.

 

Second attempt:

1. Made new doc per specs above from preset.
2. Created master page, inserted headings, and facing page numbers.
3. Added text frame to first page.
4. Clicked inside frame and set paragraph style & changed font
5. Copied body of manuscript into text frame.
6. Shift double clicked the link triangle, and presto 128 pages of facing page, correct inner/outer margins

It worked, and now I discover some interesting things.  Text box was too close to the header text, so I lowered it on first page.  This of course produced zero effect on subsequent frames.  But then I discovered that if I delete all pages but the first, that I can make adjustments and Shift-double-click again to regenerate!

 

Third attempt:

Now add afterword and regenerate.

1. Made new doc per specs above from preset.
2. Created master page, inserted headings, and facing page numbers.
3. Added text frame to first page.
4. Clicked inside frame and set paragraph style & changed font
5. Copied body of manuscript into text frame.
6. Create two pages of after matter
7. Shift double clicked the link triangle, and presto 128 pages of facing page, correct inner/outer margins

Regeneration occurs, but the pages are after the after matter pages that I added.  Gotta run now, but I'll do more later.

BrinedMoistTurkey.pdf

[Fixx 484]

12 hours ago, Clarkman said:

I ended up with "No Style", and it seems that I have missed the boat.  Cannot crawl through all text boxes to specify body style.

You can just "Select all" and set style. All text in linked text boxes in all pages is selected. Of course if you expected to reuse imported styles it does not work but I assume you would set subheadings and first paragraphs manually.

12 hours ago, Clarkman said:

pages are after the after matter pages that I added

Autoflow pages are always added after last page of any content. This is not always useful. I would prefer forced added text boxes after start page, regardless if there is content already.

[Clarkman 2]

Thanks Fixx;

Finally back at this after the holidays.  I'm at 221 now, and making a 4th attempt.

1. Made new document: w=5.06, h=7.81, DPI=300, facing pages, default master, portrait, Arrange=Horiz, Start On=Right.  I explored what's under Type:, and it wiped out my dimensions even though I didn't select other than "Presets."
2. Tried to add sections to make the three described above, but the Sections Manager doesn't add them (clicking Add Section in lower left), rather it wipes out the Section Name I entered and does not seem to add a section.  But I did find that if I create three pages first, then I can add them.  So now I have three sections: Preamble; Body; and Post Mortem.  I set Body to restart numbering at 1.
3. Created a text frame on the right facing page 1.  It is at X:0.856, Y:0.526, W:3.71, H:6.758
4. With a direct copy and paste from Apple Pages 4.3, I got preamble inserted, double clicked link triangle, did some cleanup, and now Section Manager reports that I have seven pages in  section 1.  Couple of comments:  1) It is a little disconcerting that text pushed down past the last page of the section disappears.  Double clicking the red link restores it though, so that's good; 2) The paste from Pages honored fonts, but not page breaks; and 3) The Section Manager is truncating the name "Preamble" to "Pr".  Said more correctly it lets me add one more letter each time I try.  (The other two sections are fine).
5. Next I tried to copy the text frame from section 1 so that I could paste the body into section 2.  It did copy and paste a text frame, but the dimensions are wrong.  Instead of pasting onto a facing page, I got a frame spread across facing pages: X:2.53, Y:2.381, W:5.06, H:3.905.  Fixed it manually.
6. Pasted 112 pages of body, and double clicked link.  Somehow the paste turned my font bold after the first paragraph, fixed.  Interestingly the body started on an even page, and thus the facing pages got flipped around so that the big gutter was on the outside.  I deleted the last page of the prior section, and that seemed to fix it.
7. I clicked on my chapter title and then right clicked Heading 1 -> Update Heading 1, and it took my style and re-defined itself, so that was nice.  Set all my chapter titles to Heading 1.  Pushed them with page breaks to all be on an odd page, found text pushed down had truncated, and double clicked red link to repair.
8. As I tried to navigate down, I found that my page down and page up keys just beep at me and do nothing.  Another navigational comment:  It seems that when clicking into an empty text frame, the flashing cursor is obscured by the frame line.  Try it:  Click into empty text frame (or at left edge of text), no cursor.  Click the italics button, and it appears, behind the frame edge.
9. Figured out how to add page numbers, did it on master, left and right pages.  The red alignment lines helped a lot.  Created a new master slide and applied it to front matter where I don't want page numbers, so that worked.
10. Now for Post Mortem section.  There was a spare blank page on the body section.  Deleted that and created a new frame.  It's a little weird that the frame coordinates are to the left of the pair of pages, and that I had to add 5.06+0.856 to arrive at the correct position.  I must be missing some key concept here.  Whatever, made it work.  I pasted in the post mortem and everything came except the author photo, which I added separately.
11. Next I tried to insert the Table of Contents.  First I added two pages at the end of the preamble section for the TOC.  Happily all subsequent pages were correctly pushed down.  but when I added the TOC, it went way wrong.  Somehow when I placed the pages numbers on the master page they had style Heading 1.  Trust me this is not the TOC that you want.  Fixed.  One comment here is that I appreciate the control over the style of the TOC.  It can be pretty awkward in some other programs that I know.

That's it!  Or so I thought.  I realized then that I had forgotten to set my favorite before paragraph spacing, so I selected everything in the Body, and pressed 'option down arrow' three times.  Yes I had to go and double click the red link triangle on the last body frame.  Only this time when I did, it destroyed my Post Mortem section!  That ain't cool.  It is gone in the Section Manager, too.  Repaired.  I could post the file if you want, as the work is already copyrighted and published elsewhere.

I hope the feedback helps, I really want this product to become my replacement for Pages 4.3.  The next project I'll try is to typeset my cookbook.

Clark

[Clarkman 2]

I should have looked more carefully.  The Body section has 22 pages pushed beyond the last frame, and they will not autoflow.  I tried adding pages as a placeholder, nada. I tried deleting section three nada.  I tried selecting all text in that frame and repasting it, nada.  Now the doc is a mess.  When I autoflowed the second section again, it jumped over section three autflowed to some arbitrary point and refuses to go further. The author photo appears at both the end of the body section (immutably) and the end of the post mortem section.  The Section Manager is confused and does not report the ~22 pages that appear after the third section as belonging anywhere.  Doc is wrecked, looks like I need to start over.

[Wosven 324]

Can't you select the Post Mortem pages and put them at the end?
Perhaps you need to edit he section?

[Clarkman 2]

One example of typesetting a novel, trade paperback size, three sections: Preamble; Body; & Post Mortem

Here are the specs:

5.06" x 7.81", facing pages, no default master page.

Section 1:  Title, copyright, dedication, preface, TOC.

Section 2:  ~128 pages of linked text frames with chapter titles

Section 3:  Afterword, plug for other novels, author bio

1. Make new document: w=5.06, h=7.81, DPI=300, facing pages, inches, default master, portrait, Arrange=Horiz, Start On=Right.  (I explored what's under Type:, and it wiped out my dimensions even though I didn't select other than "Presets.")
2. Right click on the only page and click "Add Pages ...".  Add two pages.
3. Under document menu, choose Section Manager.  Click lower left page icon to create two more sections.  Clicking on each section, enter a name for the section (I used "Preamble", "Body", and "Post Mortem") First section will only accept one letter at a time, other two ok.  On Body section, choose, "Restart page numbering at "1".  Close Section Manager.
4. Right click on Master A page to create a second master page. (I name mine PrePost).
5. Right click on page 1 (Preamble) and click "Apply Master ..."  Choose your new master.
6. Repeat for page three.  Now you can place page numbers in the body independently of the Preamble and Post Mortem sections.
7. Double click on Master A to bring it up.
8. Click the Frame Text Tool and create a text frame wide enough for the novel title, one line high.  Enter novel title, select a font and size.  Press cmd-A to select all, then click the centered paragraph button.  Position this near the top of the left side page near center.
9. With the text frame selected, copy-paste.  A new text frame appears on top of the first one.  Drag it to the right page and position similarly to the one on the left.  Enter author name.  Note how the alignment lines appear and help you.
10. Select both frames and copy-paste.  Now drag these down to the bottom to hold the page numbers.  It doesn't matter if they are wide, page number will center.  The vertical alignment lines ensure that the frames that hold the page numbers are centered under the header text.
11. Now click into each of the lower text frames, one after the other, and select all and hit backspace to delete all text.  Now under Text->Insert->Fields, select Page Number.  A hash sign (#) will appear, indicating that Publisher will substitute the page number there.
12. Now double click Page 2, and you'll see the header and footer.
13. Double click on Page 1, and create a text frame there.  Set dimensions thus:  X:0.7, Y:0.6, W:3.75, H:6.6 inches.
14. You are ready to start pasting in content, but before you do, Save As ... "NovelTemplate".
15. Now paste in your front matter double click red triangle to autoflow text, clean up, set fonts, right facing pages, etc. until you are happy with it.
16. On the last page (should be left side) right click to add two more pages as a placeholder for the Table of Contents.
17. On the single page that is Section Two Body on right side, create a text frame with the above dimensions (except that X:5.79)
18. Now paste in your content.  Double click red arrow on the right side to autoflow your text.  Set all chapter titles to Heading 1 style, and insert necessary page breaks such that all chapters start on a right page.
19. Go back to the blank right page you inserted as a placeholder for the TOC and create a frame, ~centered on the page.  Choose Text->Table of Contents->Insert Table of Contents.  Size and position as needed, I inserted another frame to hold the words "Table of Contents"  Format this to your liking.
20. Now go to Third section and paste in text there.  Clean up, adjust font, spacing, page breaks, etc. and make sure that the last page is a left side page.

[Clarkman 2]

Thanks Wosven;

I will try that on the broken file.  Following the procedure I just posted, I was able to get it right this time. 

[Wosven 324]

The interesting point is: each time we redo something after "an error occured" (administration says: "button's error"), we do it faster