[stylist] Book Share and libraries- JAWS and Word

[Bridgit Pollpeter]

Donna,

My husband says Word's template program should be accessible with JAWS,
and that the crashing of your computer is most likely a specific problem
for your version of JAWS and Word or some other computer-type glitch
than that the program itself isn't working. Not to be glib, but have you
ever tried restarting your computer when this happens?

Sincerely,
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter, editor, Slate & Style
Read my blog at:
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/
 
"If we discover a desire within us that nothing in this world can
satisfy, we should begin to wonder if perhaps we were created for
another world."
C. S. Lewis

Message: 10
Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2012 17:26:19 -0500
From: "Donna Hill" <penatwork at epix.net>
To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [stylist] BookShare and libraries
Message-ID: <D68D77EC0B08471ABF5C5E241BAE359F at OwnerHP>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"

Hi Phyllis,
Thanks for the tip; I hadn't heard of Smashwords. 

As for the level of difficulty in using Create Space, here's where I am.
First, they have a lot of clear information on the site to teach you
what is
necessary in terms of formatting and what your options are, but there is
a
lot to digest. I ended up taking a lot of notes and copying a lot of
info
from the site into files that I thought would make it easier to find. 

Basically, you need to get all of the formatting done in Word, and then
you
either upload it to their PDF converter on the site (I'm just guessing
that's a mess) or you convert it to a real PDF yourself by using
something
like Adobe's online PDF creator, which I think costs under $100 per year
to
subscribe to. I wrote to Adobe about whether the converter tool itself
was
accessible and whether it made an accessible PDF. It makes an accessible
PDF, which they proved to me by converting a document I sent them. They
couldn't really say if the tool itself is accessible, so I'd have to
spend
the money to try it. 

Create Space gives you all of the specs for determining what the margins
and
gutters need to be, depending on the number of pages. I was able to
change
my standard document from 8.5" x 11" to the 6" x 9" format, which is the
size I chose from their extensive list. My husband likes 12 pt. Times
New
Roman using the "at least" setting for line spacing in the paragraph
dialog.
It didn't even make the page count higher, but it has just a little
space
between the lines making it easier for sighted folks to read. I was also
able to insert blank pages, which they require at the beginning and end
of
the book, and I set the numbers so the odd numbers are on the facing
pages
-- the one on the right with the book open.

I changed it from aligned left to "justified," as they suggest, but
therein
lies the first problem. I read something on the site that suggested that
when you change the alignment to justified, you may have to manually
adjust
some of the lines to make them look right. I suspect my husband can deal
with that part of the process.

I tried to use one of their downloadable templates for title page, but
couldn't do it with Jaws. Similarly, I couldn't use Word's templates for
title page and contents; both Jaws and Word crash every time I try. That
too
will probably be something my husband can do.

I had better luck with making sections and numbering pages, though you
don't
get some of the feedback you need to clarify that the changes register.
It
is possible though, using Jaws and Word 2010 to create different
sections,
so they can have different attributes like the type of page numbering.
For
instance, I want the text of the book to start on page 1, but I have
prefatory material, which I am using Roman numerals for. I could set the
place on the pages where the numbers appear, choose from a long list of
numeral types, Roman numerals, A,B,C and some with lines or stars before
and
after the numbers. 

Theoretically, Word has an automatic contents generator, but I don't
know
how it works and suspect it will be tedious at best. I think it requires
each chapter to be a separate section and possibly that you have to do
something special with the chapter title to get Word to recognize it. I
haven't yet, but I intend to make each chapter a separate section so I
can
eliminate headers on the first page of each chapter.

I just wrote to Create Space member support to clarify something. They
offer
copy editing, which I don't need, but it wasn't clear to me if they
would
allow you to send them your normal old Word document and do  the
formatting
and conversion for you. From what I read yesterday on Book Tango, the
e-book
service -- they do offer that, but even if you had access to that file,
I'm
sure it wouldn't be right for creating a print book.

Create Space offers a laundry list of options though, including cover
design. If you do the cover yourself, you need to get the whole thing
laid
out using their specs and put that into a separate PDF. They give you
the
information as to how to calculate the width of the spine and such.

Hope this hasn't made your head explode. *grin*