by Aaron Shepard
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| List Price: | $12.50 |
| Amazon Price: | $12.50 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. |
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Product Description
Often rejected out of hand as a typesetting tool, Microsoft Word has greater typographic capabilities than even most long-time users realize. With a little tweaking, Word can produce type that few readers could distinguish from the best of Quark or InDesign. In this book, Aaron Shepard gives a tour of the depths of the program, describing the settings, commands, and manual adjustments you need to create type that no book reviewer will scoff at. Skeptical? This book's own typesetting is the proof!
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 This Book's a Home Run!, 2009-01-02
Aaron Shepard's "Perfect Pages" took me from zero to a published book Pay Less Per Click in just a few short months. It's a huge undertaking to provide a step-by-step instruction guide. Your audience starts with different skill and knowledge levels. Such a book could be infinitely long and still not cover everything. However, Shepard took on this challenge and generously shared the knowledge he obtained through hands on experience. The result was a book that gets you there. In conjunction with his equally valuable "Aiming at Amazon" I learned what I needed to know to become a book builder, publisher and marketer. And like all good books it led me to additional resources, some provided by Shepard himself and some by others. Shepard also showed me that a clean and simple design is just fine and can provide enormous value. I have purchased other books that might look better (or rather busier or fancier) but provided a fraction of the helpful content. He hit a home run with Perfect Pages. It's wonderful to get a book for just a few dollars and feel so grateful to the author that he took the time to write it!
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
 Imperfect Pages, 2008-12-29
I bought this book based on reviews and commentary on Amazon. I regret to say I am disappointed; in fact, I think I am severely disappointed.
There are definitely some hints and tips in this book that are helpful, but to be honest, I felt all of them could have been reduced to about 10 pages. I felt there was a lot of time spent talking about the fact that those hints/tips would be explained at some other point in the book. I kept reading about those "upcoming attractions," and got so frustrated that I just read the book as fast as possible so I could get to those hints/tips, since those are the things that I bought the book for.
The author made two assumptions: that the people reading the book knew almost nothing about how to access certain features in Word (and sometimes, he was right) and that readers would be familiar with certain uncommon terms, such as "antialias." Sorry, I never heard of it, and I don't feel like running for a dictionary. I am not a "novice," but there were a number of terms that went right over my head and I am sure will go over other heads as well.
The author only has a few crystal clear examples of what he is talking about such as on page 135 where he shows a graphic for a cover layout, which he has just finished explaining in great detail. This was helpful. But other sections where he sort of breezily explains things and bounces along to the next section left me feeling like I had been left "home alone" while he had run off to the beach to have a nice time.
In brief, yes, there were some tips; no, there were not enough. Yes, there is some value in the information he imparts; no, he is not consistently specific, nor does he consistently offer clear examples, with graphics, of what he's talking about.
I did not notice any grammar or spelling mistakes, so that part was good, but otherwise, I absolutely cannot say these pages are perfect (but they could be in future versions, versions in which I hope he will consider readers' comments very seriously).
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
A beginning writer's Word format handy reference , 2008-10-07
This slim volume helps a beginning writer to use Word's capabilities to the max. His suggestion to use columns to lay out ones book cover saved me many hours of keyboard abuse. The book is a very quick read, furnishing the writer spot solution for his most common format problems, thereby making the book a handy reference.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Great information!, 2008-08-24
I used "Perfect Pages" to format my book, "The Magi of Futurity" for print-on-demand publishing. The instructions were clearly defined and easy to follow. This how-to guide is a great addition to anyone's library who wants to use Word to design and format a self-published book.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Hated the cover, but LOVED the content!, 2008-08-24
The cover looked home-made and hokey, so I really only purchased this book because of the enthusiatic reviews.
I have to admit that this is a pleasant case of not being able to judge a book by its cover. The content is well organized and filled with great tips for layout and design. Definitely worth a read by self-published authors.
J.D. Mosley-Matchett, Ph.D.
Author of A month of Marketing Technology tips
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