Running page headers for a novel

[seasoned_geek]

All,

I've been in IT over 40 years now. I've written large scale systems for corporations, desktop applications, and embedded systems for medical devices. Along the way I've managed to write an award winning technical book series and several novels.

I'm not saying this to brag. Over the course of that writing I've used a lot of word processors: Word Perfect under OS/2, Lotus Symphony on Linux, LibreOffice on Linux for many titles. I'm currently putting the finishing touches on my latest novel Twenty of Two The Infamous They - Five Nuclear Wars You Can Win and part of those finishing touches is running page headings.

The proper way of putting page headings into a finished book is

First page of chapter has none and is on a facing page
Even pages of chapter has page heading with page number on the far left
Remaining odd pages of chapter has page heading with page number on far right

This puts the page numbers on the outside of the bound pages. It's how you format a book you expect people to pay money for.

After spending an hour going through the help text and this forum I cannot find the correct chanting incantation and bag of dried chicken bones to toss on the ground so this happens.

I'm on 2021 commercial and am not going to risk upgrading to the latest version and risk trashing something in the file. (Been there, done that, got the T-shirt hat and bumper sticker from other word processors doing that, fix one thing, break 8 others.)

How does one accomplish this in Textmaker? Is it not possible in 2021?

This should be a very simple thing.

Thanks,

[Woody44]

It is very easy in TextMaker -- but first you have to set up the chapters properly. Your description of the preferred way to handle headers in printed books is spot on (sort of):

• First page of chapter has no header and is on a right-facing (odd-numbered) page
• Even-numbered (left-and) pages of chapter has page heading with page number on the far left
• Remaining odd (right-hand) pages of chapter has page heading with page number on far right

Page numbers can be placed at the bottom of the page, and headers may include the author's name, the book title, or even chapter titles (more common in non-fiction). If the page numbers are in the headers but the first page of each chapter doesn't get a header, then the page number goes on the bottom of the first page of each chapter (usually, but not necessarily, centered in the footer).

The first key is to set up the file correctly. I'll assume that you probably use the ribbon interface, so I'll try to tailor my suggestions to that. I prefer the "classic" interface, so I'm learning as I go here.

1. Go to the Layout tab on the top menu bar. Click on the Chapter panel in the ribbon. That opens a dialogue box. Choose the Chapter tab to open the options for chapter formatting.

2. Under Master pages, click the boxes for "Different first page" and "Different left and right pages." Below that, there's an option for "Chapter starts on." Choose "Right page."

3. Ignore "Chapter number." Click the box for "Page numbers." Under "Options," this is where you can set the page number format to lower case Roman numerals for the front matter, and then switch it to Arabic numerals for the body of the book.

4. Now go to the first page of the first chapter. Click the Insert tab of the upper menu bar. From there, over toward the right side of the ribbon the the Header and footer panel. In that panel, Click the little black down arrow next to "Page number." From the dialogue box that opens up, choose where you want the first page number to appear. You want it in the header, so click "Header," then choose "Outside."

5. Go to page 2. Let's say you want the page number at the top, at the outside (left) margin. Repeat the process. Be sure the cursor is somewhere on the second page. Click the down arrow next to "Page number." Select where you want the page number to appear.

6. Now go to page 3. Repeat the process for page 2: Click the arrow next to "Page number." From the dialogue box that opens up, choose where you want the first page number to appear. You want it in the header, so click "Header," then choose "Outside."

7. IMPORTANT: DO NOT use a CTRL+ENTER as your chapter break. That just adds a page break. But you set up the file to start chapters on right-hand pages, so TextMaker will do that automatically -- inserting a blank left-hand page if a chapter ends on a right-hand page -- IF TextMaker knows you want to end the chapter. You do that by entering a chapter break code. At the end of each chapter, click the Layout tab on the menu bar at the top of the screen. On the Layout ribbon, in the "Page setup" panel at the left there's an option for "Insert break." Click the small black arrow, then select "Chapter break." That will put you into the next chapter.


I think that covers it. Feel free to ask if any of this isn't clear, or doesn't work as described. I don't check in here every day, but I'll be back every couple of days or so.