Manuscript Formatter

This macro combines automatic changes with simple dialog boxes to allow you to easily format your manuscript according to the traditional format for submission to magazine or short story publishers (a good source for those guidelines, which I used in making the macro, is here; another good guide is here, and a third here). Depending on whether or not you’ve already entered your name and address information before, it may take you anywhere from thirty seconds to five minutes to format your manuscript.

Included Functionality

  • Saved Under New Name: begins by saving the file with the suffix “_manu-format” so that even if the macro does evil things to your manuscript text, it will not affect the original file.
  • Main Text: modifies the main text to Courier, size 12 font, underlining in place of italics, double hyphen in place of em dash.
  • Margins and Header: defines one inch margins all the way around. In the upper right-hand corner of the header (starting with page 2) the macro adds: <your last name/title keyword (if desired)/page number>.
  • First Page: on the front page, this adds your name and address in upper left, word count in upper right, title in the middle of the page, centered, with your byline name two lines beneath and the story beginning four further lines down.

Works Best if Your Manuscript Begins with Title, Followed by Byline

If your manuscript is in a nontraditional order (for example, if your name comes before the title, or if name and title are only in the header), it may take you a couple extra minutes to run the macro, since you will have to correct them in the appropriate dialog box, instead of just pressing OK.

Download Here

Manuscript Formatter (.zip file)

The .zip file includes this file:

  • ManuFormat_example.doc: This is a document file with the macro and userforms attached to it. It includes example text, so you can run the macro on it to see how the functionality works.

Installation (Windows)

  1. Unzip the macro in a convenient storage location.
  2. Open the example file, ManuFormat_example.doc, in Word. First you will add the macro functionality to your Normal.dot template, so you can use it with any document you create using that template.
  3. Press Alt+F11 (PCs), or select Tools > Macros > Visual Basic Editor.
  4. If you do not see a window on the left side called “Projects,” press Ctrl+R.
    You should see a project called “Project (ManuFormat)“. In this project will be a VB file and three userforms. They are:

    • ManuFormatter.bas: the Microsoft Visual Basic file containing the main macro text
    • frmManuKeyword.frm: the userform (dialog box) called by the macro when asking you if you’d like a keyword in your page headers
    • frmManuNameAddress.frm: the userform (dialog box) called by the macro when asking you to provide your mailing name and address
    • frmManuTitleBy.frm: the userform (dialog box) called by the macro when asking you to verify the Title and Byline information for the macro
  5. Transfer the .bas file and three .frm files to your Normal template Project. (title ending with “(Normal)“). You should now be able to use the macro with documents you create from the Normal (default) template. If you use another template for your manuscripts, you’ll want to apply the formatter to that template, instead.
  6. Press Alt+F8 (PCs) or select Tools>Macros>Macros to bring up the Macros dialog box.
  7. Select the “manu_format” macro and press Run. Three dialog boxes should pop up over the course of the macro. When they do, you should be able to press OK each time. This will show you a test of the macro functionality.

If you encounter a problem when installing the macro, or would like more detailed instructions about installing macros, one good source (especially for Word 2007) is here.

Assign a Hotkey to the Macro

Once you have verified that the macro works, you can assign a hotkey (or shortcut key) to it In Word 2003:

  1. Select Tools>Customize and press the Keyboard… button.
  2. Scroll down the Categories list on the left until you get to Macros and select it.
  3. Scroll down the Macros list on the right until you get to “manu_format” and select it.
  4. Assign a new hotkey to this macro in the indicated text box and then press the “Assign” button.
    • The hotkey I use is “Alt+M, M” so I don’t hit this complex macro by mistake

Issues and Errors?

This is just a little project I wrote up in my free time so there may certainly be problems with it. If it does break on you, please leave a comment! I can’t fix it if I don’t know it’s broken. (You are also allowed to leave a comment if you like it and want to provide me with some invigorating praise.)

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License

The Visual Basic program and userforms above are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License. You may share (copy, distribute, and transmit) it, as well as adapt it for any noncommercial purpose, provided you include the attribution “Manuscript Formatter is a Visual Basic program created by Daniel J McMinn.”

Enjoy!

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