iWork Pages novel templates ?

[Bootz]

Are there any novel templates for iWork Pages?

I'm new to mac. I downloaded demo versions of Scrivener and Pages.

Scrivener looks great, but...I think the learning curve is steeper than I want to tackle right now. I don't need any more distractions and excuses not to actually WRITE.

I took a one hour Pages workshop at an Apple store today. I barely got my feet wet, but I am very, very impressed. And the $19.99 price tag is cheaper than Scrivener. I think I'm going to purchase Pages next month, when the demo runs out.

I'm sure I can eventually figure out how to use Pages to do the most important parts of what Scrivener can do, but it sure would be nice if someone has a template.

My current WIP will be a Harlequin Presents 55,000 word, 12 chapter novel. The plot will be a typical 3 act screenplay romantic comedy type plot. I want to make this project as fill in the blank as possible and to FINISH it. I have never finished a rough draft. I think I will learn a lot from FINISHING a project for the first time. The more formulatic this project is the better.

[thothguard51]

My opinion, is finish the book first, let sit awhile, go back and polish it till it shines and then worry about transfering into an e-template...

[Medievalist]

Are there any novel templates for iWork Pages?

What do you mean by a "template"? What kind of features ae you looking for?

There's one for making an ePub book:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4168

But it's not using standard ms. format.

I'd use the Blank template in Pages.

[kuwisdelu]

What do you mean by a "template"? What kind of features ae you looking for?

What she said.

I have a couple Pages templates I made that I use for my own manuscripts, but I don't know if they're what you're looking for. Making your own template is pretty easy. Just set up everything the way you like and go to "File->Save as Template".

[Medievalist]

For a standard no-frills novel, TextEdit, Bean, and WriteRoom are all free Mac word processors.

That said, I really do like Pages.

[amergina]

I looked around at one point for novel templates for Pages. The ones I found were useless, because they weren't anything close to standard manuscript format.

So I used the Blank template, modified the Body style to use Courier 12, with a 0.5 inch first line indent, double spacing, and I turned off widow and orphan control.

I have another style for centered text (like scene break markers) that doesn't have the 0.5 indent but is otherwise the same as the body style.

That's pretty much what you need, really.

[Bootz]

I guess I was hoping for something like the nanowrimo and novel templates for Scrivener. I wish there was a lesson plan type formula template for Pages, meant to get a student through their first novel.

Looking at some of the notes I've taken, Part 1 should be about 3 chapters, Part 2 about 6 chapters, and Part 3 about 3 chapters. So I'd like a table of contents divided into 3 parts/acts, and then further divided into chapters.

It would be great if the template was aligned to a lesson plan or a book about plot development.

I'm approaching this project very student like, similar to the idea of a 5 paragraph essay. I just want to FINISH this as an EXAMPLE of how a book CAN be written.

[Medievalist]

I guess I was hoping for something like the nanowrimo and novel templates for Scrivener. I wish there was a lesson plan type formula template for Pages, meant to get a student through their first novel.

Pages is an entirely different kind of animale than Scrivener; Scrivener is specifically a tool for creating books, with all sorts of extra features and tools for that purpose.

Pages is an elegant but non-specific word processor and document layout tool.

Story Mill is another program that offers some features that are similar to Scrivener; you can download a trial version of it as well.

[Bootz]

I saw a tutorial video that showed a table of contents for Pages. I guess I'm going to have to do this on my own. It's just hard, because both Pages and the three act structure are both new to me. I'm having to learn multiple new things all at the same time.

http://www.apple.com/findouthow/iwork/#pages-toc

[Medievalist]

I saw a tutorial video that showed a table of contents for Pages. I guess I'm going to have to do this on my own.

You create a TOC via using Paragraph Styles in Pages. Style your chapter openers with a particular style, then you can use the Palette to indicate which Styles are to be inserted into the TOC; page numbers will be generated automagically.

The docs / help for pages is quite good; you can generally go to the section you want easily and follow the instructions without reading the whole thing.

Go to the ePub link I posted; read then download the template.

Print out a copy of the template to read in hardcopy (built in instructions) and have by you while you write.

And Import the ePub template into Pages.

You'll be able to set your font choices, etc. — it will not as it stands fit ms. form.

But honestly, I suggest write-revise-write etc. etc. and only worry about formatting when you start subbing.

[Bootz]

What do you mean by a "template"? What kind of features ae you looking for?

There's one for making an ePub book:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4168

But it's not using standard ms. format.

I'd use the Blank template in Pages.

Thanks, this is helpful. I was thrown off by the ePub title.