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Book Formatting – Beware of the Tab Key

Posted on: April 11th, 2014 by Publisher Services

The vast majority of self-publishing authors use a word processing program when creating their manuscript.  Since the demand for e-book versions of their work is increasing, authors need to be mindful of the keys and settings used in their word processing programs. For e-book conversions, authors following one simple rule mark the difference between an e-book that looks professional and one that looks awkward and difficult to read. Do not use the tab key and the spacebar to indent your text.

Most authors using Microsoft Word can adjust this fairly easily. You’ll need to go into formatting options and select the setting to indent the first line of
each paragraph. But what if you’ve already completed your work and you have used the tab key and the spacebar? You aren’t doomed. You can use the Find and Replace menus. Put “^t” in the Find field and leave the Replace field empty. Click Replace All. Doing this will most likely work for you and your tab indents should have been removed. From there, you can adjust your settings to indent the first line of each paragraph.

Publisher Services does offer professional Book Formatting  and Ebook Conversion Services.