Title

Subtitle

Author/Pen FirstName LastName

Table of Contents

Heading 1: Instructions for This Template	2

Heading 2: Style References	2

Heading 2: Cascading Styles	3

Heading 3: Fine Print for Heading 1	3

Heading 3: Clear Style Overrides	4

Heading 1: And Away We Go!	5

Heading 1: Instructions for This Template

Fill in the header on the cover page with your name, contact details, and word count. Then – using the same styles already used – add your title, subtitle (if applicable), and name/pen name to the first page.

You’ll find that your headers on the following pages automatically update to include your last name and title!

This is intended to be a standard manuscript format. While it follows most general guidance out there, you may need to modify some styles to fit more specific requirements. For example, some may prefer no indents, 1.5 line spacing, and additional space after a paragraph.

Heading 2: Style References

The headers on pages 2 onwards automatically update to match the information you entered on the cover page due to the magic of style references! What this means is that the document will automatically fill your last name and manuscript title based on the first use of the Title and Last Name styles.

If you accidentally lose a style applied on the cover page, you’ll see this text in the place where your name or title should have been: “Error! No text of specified style in document.” To fix this, simply reapply the style on the cover page. As the Last Name style is a character style, be sure to highlight only your last name before applying it.

Heading 2: Cascading Styles

The styles in this document are meant to cascade – meaning that style settings carry from one style to another. This means that if you change something in a style at the top of the chain, every style below will update as well.

For headings, the cascade is as follows:

Title

Heading 1

Heading 2

Heading 3

Heading 4 (et. al.)

The Normal style also has a few styles based on it:

List Paragraph

Header

Footer

Word automatically has headings cascade from the Normal style, but we’ve separated them in case you want to use a different font for headings.

Heading 3: Fine Print for Heading 1

Unfortunately, Word does not allow you to both have a style automatically start on a new page and include space before. We’ve used a workaround by adding a white border with spacing in the style settings (not included in Heading 2, 3, et. al.). If you don’t need the space before Heading 1, you can simply turn off the border.

Heading 3: Clear Style Overrides

Did you change a style but don’t see the change in an existing paragraph? Did you add overrides – like changing the color, line height, or making something bold in the font and paragraph options on the Home tab – and want to just get it back to the basic style settings?

Select the text where you want to clear these overrides. Then hit Ctrl + Space.

Heading 1: And Away We Go!

We hope this Word template will help you format your manuscript more easily!