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MSWord No Good For Book Writing?

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Ric

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Before I get started on writing my book, I have been doing a little research as to what publishers prefer.

From what my limited research has gathers, they really dont like getting things submitted to them in MS word. It seems they prefer Adobe or some other software.

Is this true? Or can I just go ahead and work with MS Word?

Thanks for your help!
 

alleycat

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You can use Word (as probably half the writers in the world do, the other half probably use a Mac). Only rarely will you need to send something as an Adobe PDF file; it might become more common in the future but for right now the printed submittal is the most common. You can always convert a Word file to a PDF.
 

A.M. Wildman

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You can use Word (as probably half the writers in the world do, the other half probably use a Mac). Only rarely will you need to send something as an Adobe PDF file; it might become more common in the future but for right now the printed submittal is the most common. You can always convert a Word file to a PDF.

You can also convert them to .rtf files that can be opened with many programs. Including notepad etc. Do it all the time when I go to my sister's as she doesn't have word on her computer.
 

JJ Cooper

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Hi Ric,

I have written everything in Word and submitted everything in Word.

I don't think it will be a problem with agents or publishers.

Good luck with your book.

JJ
 

kuwisdelu

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RTF is generally the best format for exchanging text documents. PDF is good for when the other end doesn't need to edit your document, but an editor/agent would probably prefer being able to easily do something like that.

Word can save as both, anyway. You don't have to save as a Word .doc or .docx file, anyway, if you don't want to. So really it's just up to you whether you like the program.

Personally, I prefer Pages. Can't stand Word. Yeah, I'm a Mac guy ;)
 

ColoradoGuy

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I've written a couple of books and a bunch of articles, all in MS Word for the Macintosh. I've never had any complaints or problems -- one publisher insisted everything be submitted in word.
 

Ric

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I've written a couple of books and a bunch of articles, all in MS Word for the Macintosh. I've never had any complaints or problems -- one publisher insisted everything be submitted in word.

Okay, thank you.

What part of Colorado do you live in if you dont mind me asking?
My memoir will have a few chapters dedicated to my time in Ft. Collins, Greeley and Cheyenne, WY.
 

Roger J Carlson

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Tech Help Mod Note: Since this isn't really a technical question about Word, but rather a question of whether Word format is appropriate for submissions, I'm moving this to Basic Writing Questions.
 

Roger J Carlson

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Best bet is to follow the publisher's Submission Guidelines. They'll tell you which electronic format to follow.

That said, all of my magazine articles have been in Word format. So have my novel submissions and no one has complained yet. Word is so ubiquitous that most places can handle it, I would think.
 

Christine N.

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Now, that being said, make sure you're NOT saving in the 'new' word format, .docx or whatever it is. I have Word 2007, and I haven't found many other people who can open the new format. Make sure you save it as a Word 93-2003 document. The newer version just won't be able to be viewed by older software. I always have to double check before I save something.
 

BlueLucario

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Yeah, go for it. It's better than OpenOffice.

You can use WordPad, so you don't have to worry about Spelling/Grammar checker(It's annoying and useless.)

EDIT: Hey I have a better idea. Try Google Documents, it's very convenient and it saves ever 2 minutes. You can publish it and show it to your friends, if you choose, and you don't have to worry about losing it. If anything happens to your computer it's still there. I still think you should have a disk, just in case you have no internet.

I use it for my story and perfect for school projects.

But if you want a program without distractions there's this program called West Edit.
 
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Matera the Mad

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Sez who?

Nah, Word is all right -- IF you take the time to understand and learn what you can do with it! Read the flipping Help crud, visit Word oriented websites that explain things in terms that you can understand, and fool around with it. It's hard to tame but worth the trouble you save yourself by letting it go unspayedhacked.
 

Fahim

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Now, that being said, make sure you're NOT saving in the 'new' word format, .docx or whatever it is. I have Word 2007, and I haven't found many other people who can open the new format. Make sure you save it as a Word 93-2003 document. The newer version just won't be able to be viewed by older software.

Not quite true :) The newer DOCX files can be opened by the older versions of Word if they have a patch, which is available for free from Microsoft, applied to them. But the advice is still good - save in the older DOC format or better still RTF, as has been suggested before in this thread, to be more compatible with others.
 

Chasing the Horizon

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I have a Mac and don't have any trouble opening .docx files *shrug* It made me download something the first time I came across one, and now opens them in TextEdit or Word For Mac just like any other non-Apple document.

Personally, I don't think MS Word (for Mac or PC) is a functional program for typing a letter, much less an entire novel. The few times I was forced to type business letters on a PC I used WordPad. Otherwise, I have always used and always will use Appleworks. No other word processor compares to Appleworks for simplicity and easy access to the features you NEED (bold, italic, fonts, word count, etc.). When I send documents to other people, I always save them in either .rtf, .txt, or .pdf format, though, because most computers can't open .cwk files. When I was submitting to agents, most wanted the documents in .rtf format.
 

Christine N.

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You got the patch. I always have to double check when I send my college papers in, because the college says they can't open the .docx files. It's easy enough to format the other way.

I've always used Word to write my books, and it's easy. Actually I like the Word 2007 features. Takes a bit to learn the interface, but it's got a lot of good tools. I particularly like the way you can stash your references in it and they'll format it in ALA or MLA format, whichever you choose. Not completely properly, especially if you've got an electronic source, but it's better than nothing.
 

Dave.C.Robinson

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Going back to the original question: Anything that saves text is perfectly good for writing novels. I've used Word, OpenOffice, AbiWord, and yWriter for novels and not had a problem with any of them.

If it captures your keystrokes and saves them in a document, it's probably going to be fine.
 

Soccer Mom

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Yup. Write your novel in whatever word processing program you choose and make adequate back ups along the way. Then simply follow the guidelines for the publisher or agent you submit to.

I've never had anyone ask me for anything other than a .doc or .rtf. I simply write in WORD because it's what I know.

PS: I actually write quite a bit with plain old pen and paper. This is my rough. Then I type it into word. I consider this my "first" draft. The bottom line is that there is no magical rule for how you actually write.
 
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