Formatting Your Document for Onscreen Reading: An MS Word Template for Producing Screen-Friendly PDF Documents

Paul Royster, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Abstract

The traditional 8.5” x 11” portrait page is not very convenient or reader-friendly for publications delivered electronically and read on-screen. This document and its attached files include a MS Word document template (“E-Pub format.dot”) that creates a page format to present text in two-page spreads; each spread fits on a single screen (of 1024 x 768 pixels) and remains readable at 75% magnification. The template includes page layout, design, and typographic settings engineered to accommodate most text elements: headings, subtitles, extracts, notes, etc. There is also a MS Word document (“E-Pub format sample.doc”) of the file from which the archived PDF document was generated. Instructions and commentary are also provided.