Ah, I prefer all the text and heads be unstyled, but simply coded with the name of the element–e,g., something like H1 for 1 heads, CT for chapter tile, BL1 for the first entry in a bullet list, etc. Then I simply name the stylesheets in the Quark or InDesign template to correspond to the Word file’s coding, so that on importing int the Quark template, all the styles are applied automatically. I just find that anytime styles are applied in Word it sometimes makes things messy on the other end.

Stephen, what do you mean by “coding,” exactly?

Marking up the textfile–that is, the word file. You know the way a textfile is marked up for HTML? Say I want to make a word italic in this comment, I first type an open angle bracket, then a lower case “i”, then a closed angle bracket, and then the word I want italicized. After the word I again type an open angle bracket, then a forward slash folled by a lower case “i”, then a closed angle bracket.

I’ll do it now: italic, and the word italic should be italicized. I’m sure you know how to do all this. It’s something similar for coding a textfile to signal the application of stylesheets from within Quark. I could send you a sample Word file from a strict layout-only job I did recently–the client had prepped the textfile with the coding and supplied the template–for you to get a look.

OK, I understand. Yes, we used to code everything this way when we first started typesetting on PCs/Macs (showing my age…) I’ve received coded files from publishing companies, but it seems a bit much to ask of many self-publishers. First of all, they might not know the codes. And second, by the time they contact me they have been working on the manuscript for 2 years and it already has lots of fonts & styles in it. So what I’m trying to do is ask them to simplify the stylesheets when they go through it a final time before sending the doc to me.

Yes, I guess I see where that’s a bigger project. Especially for a self-publisher. I must admit the coded files come from publishing companies—some very small, to be sure, but not individuals publishing themselves. On the other hand, I charge a bit more for formatting the whole book myself.