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Preparing Your Word File for Import

When importing a Word manuscript, Vellum will do its best to identify chapters, create Text Features, and maintain character formatting. To achieve the best results, structure your manuscript following the simple guidelines on this page.

Many of these guidelines make use of Styles in Word. For example, you can indicate a Chapter title by assigning the Heading 1 style:

Word document showing 'Chapter 1: The Strange Man’s Arrival' styled as Heading 1

Applying Word Styles

To apply a style in Word, select your text, go to the Style Gallery located in Word’s toolbar, and then choose your desired style.

If the style isn’t listed in the Style Gallery, use Word’s Styles Pane to list all available styles.

Chapters

To indicate the title of a new element, use Word’s Heading 1 style. First, select the entire chapter title, then use the Style Gallery to apply the Heading 1 style.

Word Style Gallery with Heading 1 selected

All chapters should use the word “Chapter” followed by a number, e.g.:
Chapter 1

Word document showing 'Chapter 1' styled as Heading 1

If your chapter has a title, add it after a colon, e.g.:
Chapter 1: The Strange Man’s Arrival

Word document showing 'Chapter 1: The Strange Man’s Arrival' styled as Heading 1

Front and Back Matter

Use the Heading 1 Word style for the titles of your front and back matter elements, too. If the title matches the name of a known element type — e.g., Prologue or Acknowledgments — then Vellum will create an element of that type.

Word document showing 'Prologue' styled as Heading 1 Word document showing 'Acknowledgments' styled as Heading 1

Parts

In Vellum, a Part acts like a title page for the chapters that follow, and should be a single page with little or no text. When importing, Vellum will group any chapter than comes after a Part under that Part.

To indicate a part in your manuscript, use ”Part” followed by a number, e.g.:
Part 1

Word document showing 'Part 1' styled as Heading 1

If your part has a title, add it after a colon, e.g.:
Part 1: Recalled to Life

Word document showing 'Part 1: Recalled to Life' styled as Heading 1

Text Features

Vellum will import images, endnotes, and footnotes directly from your Word manuscript. It will analyze the formatting to detect other Text Features as well.

Subheads

Use Word’s Heading 2 through Heading 5 styles to indicate that text should be imported as a Subhead. Text with the Heading 2 style becomes a Level One Subhead, Heading 3 becomes Level Two, and so on.

Word document showing text styled as Heading 2 for a Level One Subhead Word document showing text styled as Heading 3 for a Level Two Subhead

Ornamental Breaks

To indicate an Ornamental Break in your manuscript, use three asterisks (***) centered on their own line:

Three centered asterisks (***) on their own line in a Word document

For a Scene Break without an ornament, use an empty line between paragraphs.

Note: For information on importing other Text Features, see Supplemental Word Styles for Import.

Title Page and Table of Contents

Since Vellum creates a Title Page and Table of Contents, remove these pages from your manuscript before importing.

Word document title page to be removed before import Word-generated table of contents to be removed before import

Vellum determines the title and author for your imported manuscript by looking at its properties. You can set these values in Word by using its File ▸ Properties… dialog.

Word Properties dialog showing title and author fields

If you prefer, you can specify this information in Vellum’s Title Info pane after import.

What Not to Do

Since you’ll be using Vellum to format your manuscript, there’s no need to fine-tune the appearance of your Word document. Vellum will ignore or clean up most extra formatting in your .docx file.

When preparing your manuscript for import, avoid the following:

Supplemental Word Styles

To import Text Features or other formatting that isn’t covered here, you’ll need use a supplemental Word style.