The Current Inca Template

by Robert

The Inca template has the correct formatting to set up your manuscript ready for upload to any printer, including Amazon. If you type your manuscript directly into it, you will have a professionally formatted document right from the start, and can ignore all the details below. If not, follow the guidelines and you won't go far wrong. Do contact the project for help if you get stuck anywhere.

Please contact us for the latest template, giving details of the page size you intend to use.

To use the template, you simply have to overtype the existing text with your own work. There is even the standard disclaimer at the beginning, although the Incas can accept no liability if you use it and run into any problems - however, because we are using Kindle and Print-on-Demand, if there are any issues arising from your work, you can change them instantly, and upload a revised version; so much better than having a print run of 500 when you might have had to destroy the lot. The same applies if a reader comes back to you, reporting an error. You simply correct it, and upload the latest version.

Briefly, a summary of the steps, if you haven't used the template from the start, is below.

   Download the template from one of the links above, and select Save File. You can copy it to your local drive.

   Open the template in Word - it is formatted for Word 2010 but works fine in earlier versions

   On the Home tab, click the Show/Hide formatting so that you can see all the hidden markers.

   On the View tab make sure you have Ruler and Navigation boxes ticked.

   For each chapter, highlight the text you want to copy from your own manuscript and press CTRL-C (to copy it in to your 'clipboard').

   Go back to the template and highlight the text you want to replace. Right-click with the mouse and select the 'Keep Text Only' option. This is important, because if you choose anything else, you will paste the formatting of your original document into the template, and mess it up. If you do this accidentally, press CTRL-Z to undo your last action. If you really have lots of special formatting such as italic and underlines (and really you shouldn't have, if you want editors to read your work), use the 'Merge Formatting' option instead (to the left of the text only), but you will have to go through afterwards to ensure that it still looks how you want it to. Take care not to overwrite the chapter title, beginning spaces and the end section marker in the template, or the chapter arrangement etc. will be compromised (always remember CTRL-Z to undo if you make a mistake).

   Overwrite the existing Chapter title with your own.
Note that if you accidentally rub out the formatting here, go to the Home tab, highlight the text and click the Heading 1 style box. You will notice the text in the title is all in upper case. You still have to type in the correct sentence case to ensure that the table of contents is readable.

   Likewise if you have any problems with the chapter text, highlight the text and click on the Normal style tab.

   Table of Contents: This will not automatically update, but it will keep the links to the chapters. To update, right-click anywhere in the table of contents and select 'Update Field'. Then in the next box you can either update just the page numbers if the chapter titles haven't changed, or the whole table if they have.

   Finally, don't forget to change your header - double-click where it says Author Name and hit the F9 key. Repeat with the book title - you only need to do this once - all the headers and footers will update with a single change. Close 'Header and Footer' afterwards.

WARNING: If at any time you get the option to 'Update your style to match selection', do not click on this as it will change the whole document. However, if you want to change your font, spacing, etc. and you feel confident, right-click on the style at the top, select all instances and then click Modify. Any changes you make will be reflected through the whole document. Likewise with Heading 1 format or the others.

 ANOTHER WARNING: If you ever get a prompt box to modify the style, select 'Reapply the Formatting', never Update Style, and make sure that the Automatically Update option is always unchecked in the style control box.

 And now what? Simply save your completed document as a PDF and it can be uploaded directly to any printer of your choice.

 Once submitted, do you need to correct your text? If so, change your Word document, re-save as a PDF and upload again. Job done.