On Book Design

Word processors are great for writing manuscripts, but poor for book layout design. I’ve tried to create ebooks using Word with disappointing results. The biggest problem I had was trying to implement graphics and screenshots.

Word’s idea of professional looking graphics is abysmal. For what Microsoft charges, they should have done better with this feature. Fortunately, services such as ClipArt.com are available.

Trying to maniplate the graphic on the page is a nightmare. I’ve spent hours trying to reposition graphics that didn’t load in the exact place I wanted them to. Sometimes I succeeded, although I couldn’t tell you how I did it because it was guesswork.

Then getting the text to wrap around these graphics also proved to be a pain. I tried reading Word manuals and online tutorials, but more often than not, they were less than helpful. In the end, I had a bloated file (5MB+) that looked homemade.

Another complaint is the typography. I recently edited a book for a colleague of mine. The first thing I noticed was the extra spacing that littered every paragraph. After about the second or third page, it dawned on me that he had used full justification to format his paragraphs.

Word processors can’t produce the professional look as a page layout program such as InDesign or Quark can. I’ve seen the difference between the two, and it’s like night and day.