Thread: Microsoft word formatting margins

I have finished the fourth draft of my manuscript and am readying it to send off to a prospective publisher. They are an American publisher and require 1 inch header/footer, left and right margins.

I am not sure if this is laid out correctly or not.

Can anyone tell me how to access the layout in word and set the appropriate margins. Being Canadian I think it was originally set up in metric, so I would like to convert to inches.

Thanks in advance for advice, and if this is in the wrong section I apologize to the staff.

Mark

Hey, MJ, I moved this from Writing 101 to Writing Discussions for you.

As far as the formatting goes perhaps someone with Word can help you. I currently use Open Office so I'm not sure where all the bells and whistles are in Word.

Hi, Mark. First, it depends on what version of Word you're using. I used to know '03 like the back of my hand but it's been a while since I used it. This is the way to change settings to inches in '07 and '10.

First, click on 'File' and select 'Options'. On the tab to the left choose 'Advanced'. This will take you to advanced options with several drop-down boxes at your disposal. Scroll down until you see the one titled 'Display'. The second option in the Display menu is called 'show units in measurements of'. Select the drop-down box and change it to inches. Click 'OK' and you're good to go.

Remember that you need to highlight the entire document to apply inch margins to all of it. Move your pointer over to the left-hand corner of the document and triple click. This will highlight everything. Now go and change your margins to inch.

Setting the measurment unit is done in the general section of the options menu: tools>options>general on my ancient version, google something like "ms word metric version n" if yours is different. Otherwise, it defaults to whatever you operating system default is. Setting this will make the ruler and page setup units what you choose. I have very good luck googling for MS Office advice in general, better than the official help which is often Byzantine. pp

I'm fairly certian that word will make the conversion automatically for you. Just type in 1 inch, or whatever is apropriate. Otherwise you can use any number of online converters. Or convert yourself, 1 inch = 2.54 cm.

Thanks folks. That squared it up!

Now I have to take 121, 000 words and stuff it into a two page synopsis.

Good God, does it ever end?