The format we use with most ease is IBM/PC (as opposed to Macintosh format). If you have a Macintosh computer, please consider having your Mac files converted to PC format if your acquisitions editor requests a sample disk or final MS disk from you.

Although many of us are now using highly sophisticated and powerful word-processing programs, in preparing a manuscript, simpler is still better: do not use the fancy font, style-formatting (including style sheets), page layout, and indexing features of your software. We want the electronic files for your MS so we do not have to rekey the text, and your MS is easiest for us to work with if it looks like plain, typewriter-generated copy. Extra styling and formatting require considerable time and expertise to eliminate and can even render files unusable by our typesetters.

All files you submit to the Press should be prepared as described below.

File Formatting
Keep all formatting to a minimum.

Create separate files for each chapter, naming them sequentially (chap01, chap02) rather than by chapter title. All front matter should be together in a single file, the bibliography in another. If you did not use the note feature on your word-processing software, all notes should be together in one file.

Do not use your word-processor's indexing or table-of-contents features.

Turn off the automatic hyphenation feature. The only hyphens in your MS should be those orthographically and grammatically necessary.

Turn off the widow/orphan protection feature (when activated, this feature will throw off MS length estimates).

Format all text in a 12-point (10 cpi, characters per inch) nonproportional (typewriter) font such as New Courier or Prestige. (It is not necessary to alter your word processor's font size for note numbers.)

Use left-hand justification throughout, even for chapter titles and subheads. Do not use right-hand or full justification anywhere in the MS. Do not center any text or use tabs or spaces to create a centered effect.

Double-space all parts of the MS, without exception.

Begin note numbering with "1" in each chapter.

Do not assign "styles" to headings, extracts, or paragraphs. Make sure that "normal" style is used throughout the text, with the characteristics described in this File Formatting section.

Turn off your word processor's Smart Quotes feature (it might be called something else): single quotation marks and apostrophes should print as straight ' and double quotation marks should print as straight ."

Do not use running heads. Use instead your word-processing pagination feature to insert page numbers at the upper right, printing from the first page of each file.

Use 1-inch margins all around. At the beginning of each file, insert two hard returns before the first text of the file. This creates space for copyediting and design markup.

Typing
Use consistent end-of-sentence spacing throughout the MS, either one space or two spaces, whichever is more natural for you to do.

Type all headings, chapter titles, and other special MS elements in title- style upper- and lowercase letters (Like This and This), not in all caps (NOT LIKE THIS). In text, use all caps only for such text as acronyms and certain abbreviations. Type "a.m." and "p.m." in lowercase.

Do not use boldface, italics, or other font formatting such as small caps or all caps. If you do not use your word processor's note-making feature, format note numbers in text as superscript.

Use underlining for text that you wish to be set in italics in the finished book (book titles, foreign words). Underline the entire phrase or title rather than inserting separate underlining commands for each word. Set the underlining feature to underline the spaces between underlined words.

Instead of hand-inserting diacritics, ligatures, math symbols, and special characters, use your word-processing program to produce them. If you wish to use a special character that your word-processing program cannot produce, hand-insert it and hand-write the correct character and its name in the margin to call it to the attention of the Press (e.g., è grave). Keep a list of the special characters you use and submit the list on a separate sheet of paper with the MS.

Do not type letters for numbers, for example, l for 1 or O for 0.

Type hyphens between numbers and in hyphenated words with the keyboard hyphen; do not insert spaces before or after: 1938-39.

Type em dashes--such as these--with two keyboard hyphens and with no space before, between, or after. Do not use your word processor's em or en dashes. In a bibliographic list, use six unspaced hyphens to indicate a repeated name when it is the first element in the entry.

Insert an additional hard return to create vertical space between paragraphs only where you wish a space break in the book to indicate a change of subject. Type "<space>" on the extra line to be perfectly clear. Use one additional hard return also to separate text from the next subhead.

Use the tab key at the very beginning of a line to produce a paragraph indent--do not use the space bar or a default paragraph style that includes a paragraph indent at the beginning of each paragraph. Set the tab feature to create a 1/2-inch paragraph indent, which is large enough to distinguish as a tab but small enough not to create MS length estimate problems. Do not type spaces or any characters before tabs.

Use hard returns (the ENTER or RETURN key) only at the end of paragraphs, headings, lists, and each line of a verse extract.

Use your word-processor's hard-page (insert page break) function (usually, <CTRL> <ENTER>), not hard returns, to force a page break. Since each chapter is in its own file, you will use this feature only between the elements in the front-matter file and in files with part titles.

Key ellipses in your MS instead of using an automatic ellipsis feature. Ellipses should be spaced . . . like this, with one keyed space between each point. . . . Do not alter this spacing even when the ellipsis will break over two lines.

Format prose extracts, or block quotations, by using your word processor's feature for left-indenting paragraphs. Prose extract is indented 1/2 inch from the left margin. Most programs have an indent feature; with other programs it may be necessary to change the left margin. Do not use spaces, tabs, or hard returns to create indents for extracts. Do not insert hard returns to create vertical space before or after extract, since this will throw off estimates of MS length. Remember to return the indent to 0 or the left margin to 1 inch at the end of the prose extract.

Format verse extracts by using your word processor's feature for left- indenting paragraphs; use hard returns at the end of each line of poetry. Verse extract is indented 1/2 inch from the left margin. Most programs have an indent feature; with other programs it may be necessary to change the left margin. Do not use spaces, tabs, or hard returns to create indents for extracts. Do use the spacebar within a line to align special text vertically exactly as it appears in the source you are quoting. Do not insert hard returns to create vertical space before or after extract, using hard returns only to indicate stanza breaks. Remember to return the indent to 0 or the left margin to 1 inch at the end of the verse extract.

In the notes, do not insert extra hard returns before or after each note. Use the same formatting as for the text.

In the bibliography, use your word processor's hanging indent function to create text with the first line at the left margin (1 inch) and other lines in the bibliographic entry indented 1/2 inch. Do not insert tabs, hard returns, or spaces to achieve this hanging indent. If you cannot get your word processor's hanging indent feature to work, use a paragraph indent to indent the first line of an entry, and let the remaining lines fall at the left margin.

If your MS contains part divisions, place each part title page in the file of the chapter it precedes, inserting a hard page break immediately after the part title. Part pages are numbered as standard MS pages.

Final Points
For all single-authorMSS, notes must be printed as endnotes and placed all together after the last chapter of the MS (consult The Multiauthor Volume pamphlet for instructions for contributed volumes). If you have used your word-processing program's note feature to generate endnotes, thereby embedding them in the chapter files, use the Master Document feature of your word-processing program to generate continuous endnotes at the end of the MS (note numbering starts with 1 in each chapter). Contact your word processor's or your institution's computer support line for instructions.

Front-matter pages should be numbered separately by hand. Then use your word-processor's page-numbering feature to number the rest of the MS consecutively from page 1 of text (excluding front matter) through to the last page. Excluding the front matter (which is hand-numbered), no two pages of your MS should have the same page number, and no page numbers should be missing. Finally, hand-number tables and the captions list after the last MS page, usually the notes or bibliography. Do not submit a MS with any unnumbered pages.

When you have completed all formatting and text changes and are ready to send your MS to your acquisitions editor, copy all final files to a diskette.

Print your final MS from this diskette, not from the files on your hard drive. This ensures that the disk and hard copy we receive from you contain exactly the same text and coding.

Print your MS on good-quality, medium-weight, white, 81/2- by 11-inch paper, using a laser printer if at all possible: dot-matrix printers are acceptable if the letter-quality setting ensures dark, sharp letters on all MS pages; please do not use ink-jet printers, which tend to produce smudges. Print on one side of the paper.

Print a complete second copy of the MS or make a sharp photocopy.

Print a directory of the MS disk you send to the Press and keep this sheet with the disk.

Finally, label your MS disks with your last name, MS title, the date, and the word-processing program, with version number (such as "WordPerfect 5.1-DOS" or "Word 6.0 for Windows").