Microsoft Word has lots of features that make creating ebooks easy. You can use styles to format an ebook or update its formatting to work on a different platform. You can use the References tool to create a table of contents automatically. And you can produce a design template that's ready for repeated use, so you can spend more time creating content and less time futzing with layouts. Once you’ve mastered these steps, you can create great ebooks effortlessly. I’ll show you how.

Understanding Ebook Formats

Before you dive in, be aware that more than 20 common ebook formats exist today. Although some are readable on multiple devices, you'll find no single format that every device can read. On top of that, screen sizes vary, so page sizes, image formats, image sizes, and other elements vary, too.

If you want your ebook to be readable on multiple devices, you’ll probably need to publish it in multiple formats. You should plan out which e-readers to target before you start formatting: Your choice of devices will dictate which formats you can use, and from there you’ll need to research the exact specifications of each device so that you can design for it.

The most popular ebook file formats--the ones that most devices can read--include plain text, Adobe PDF, ePub, and HTML. Most e-readers can display images as well, although some, such as Amazon’s Kindle, have only monochrome screens. If you think people will read your ebook on a monochrome e-reader, make sure that the images look good in black and white.

(When you're done with designing, and you're ready to introduce your ebook to the world, read "How to Publish an Ebook, Step by Step.")

Design Your Ebook in Word

Within Word, you can save your file in .doc, .pdf, and .html formats; afterward, you can use other programs to convert the files into whatever other ebook formats you need.

To start your ebook, create a new Word document. If you plan to make multiple ebooks, design a basic layout and save it as a Word template so that you can use it for each new book. If you are making just one ebook, you can go ahead and place your text in it as you go.

Add the Title Page

Start with the title page, typing the book title, subtitle, and author name, along with any other details that should appear here. Select the title text and format it by clicking the Title style in the Styles gallery on the Home tab of the Ribbon toolbar. Select the subheading text and click the Subtitle style (if this doesn’t appear in the Style gallery list, press Ctrl-Shift-S to display the Apply Styles dialog box, type Subtitle into the field, and click Apply.

Click a style in the Styles gallery to apply it to the selected text.

Select and format all of the other text on the title page, too; for example, you can choose the style Emphasis for the author name and other information.

If a style does not format text the way you want it to look, you can change the style by right-clicking its name in the Style gallery and choosing Modify. Make your desired changes to the font, font size, and any other settings in the Modify Style dialog box, and click OK to apply them. All text formatted with that style will change automatically to match the new settings.

Configure the Table of Contents

As soon as you’ve finished the title page, you’re ready to start a new page. Choose Page Layout, Breaks, Page to begin a new page. If this next page is to be a table of contents for the book, type a title such as Table of Contents and then choose References, Table of Contents, Insert Table of Contents. Set 'Show Levels' to 1 or 2 depending on how many heading levels should display, select a format from the Formats list, and click OK twice. You will see a message stating 'No table of contents entries found', which is to be expected since you haven’t created any yet. Later, when your book does have content, you can update the table of contents by clicking that message and pressing F9.

Set Up the Ebook's Chapters

To continue, start a new page by choosing Page Layout, Breaks, Next Page. Now you’re now ready to start with Chapter 1 of the book. Type the first chapter heading, and format it using the Heading 1 style. Add second-level headings if you desire, and format them as Heading 2 style. It’s important to use Heading 1 style for chapter headings and Heading 2 style for subheadings, because Word automatically configures them to be the first- and second-level headings in the table of contents.

Add some placeholder text for the chapter content, such as Text goes here, and format it using the Normal style.

Add Page Headers and Footers

To make your pages look more professional, add a header displaying the book title, plus a footer with page numbering. To do this, click the Insert tab on the Ribbon toolbar and clickHeader. From the list choose Edit Header to create your header. Click Header & Footer Tools, Link to Previous (if it isn't grayed out already) to break the link, so that the headers in each section can be different. Now type the book title into the header--or enter some placeholder text indicating what should go there--and format it using a style.

Configure the footer for the document to start numbering at the first page of the first chapter.Still on the first chapter page, chooseInsert, Footer, Edit Footer, and again choose Header & Footer Tools, Link to Previous (if necessary) to break the link between this section’s footer and the footer in the preceding section. Click in the footer area. On the Ribbon toolbar, click Page Number, Bottom of Page, and then select a page number style (such as Page Number 2).

Now, choose Page Number, Format Page Number, and click Start at. Set its value to1 and click OK. This gives you a footer with the page number in it, starting with the first chapter as page 1. Click Close Header and Footer to return to the document.

Set Up the Next Chapter

To set up the next chapter, choose Page Layout, Breaks, Page and again add the chapter title (or placeholder title text), subheadings, and placeholder text for this chapter. Format these items using the same styles as you used for Chapter 1. Alternatively, you can copy and paste the placeholders from Chapter 1 and update them. Continue in the same way to add more chapters as necessary.

To test the table of contents, return to it, click inside it, and press F9 to update it.

Save the Design as a Reusable Template

To save this design as a reusable template, choose File, Save As, and in the 'Save as type' drop-down list, select Word Template (*.dotx). Click the Templates entry below the 'Microsoft Word' name in the top-left corner of the Save As dialog box so that the file will be saved into the Templates folder. Type a name for the template, and click Save. You can now close the document, as you no longer need it.

To create a new ebook based on this template, choose File, New, My Templates, and then select the ebook template you just created from the Personal Templates list. Click OK, and you’ll have a brand-new ebook document with all the prompts and layout in place.

If you are creating only one ebook, and if you don’t want to create an ebook template from your file, go ahead and save the file as you would any regular Word file.

Save in Other Formats

Once you have completed your ebook and it’s ready for formatting into a special ebook format, you can save it in the required basic format within Word. If you need a file in the .rtf or .html format, choose File, Save As and select either Rich Text Format (*.rtf) or Web Page (*.htm;*.html) from the Save As list. Type a name for your file, and click Save.

If you need a .pdf file, choose File, Save & Send, Create PDF/XPS document, and click theCreate PDF/XPS button. Type a name for the ebook, and then select the desired optimizing option and click Publish.

Test as You Go

Creating your ebook as a Word document gives you multiple options for publishing the ebook as a .pdf or converting it using an online or downloadable converter. As with any process that is likely to be somewhat complicated--particularly the first time you do it--you should create a chapter or two of your ebook and test the template design with your preferred publication method to make sure that everything works as expected, before you invest a lot of time and effort in formatting the entire document.

Although no “one size fits all” tool for ebook publishing exists, Word is a customizable and flexible layout tool. Its .doc file format is so widely used that you’ll likely find a way to get from there to any ebook format relatively simply.

The easiest way to build a platform in today’s world is to start a blog. While you can do this with free hosted options like WordPress.com, TypePad.com, and Blogger.com, you will get the most control by using self-hosted WordPress. This is what most serious bloggers use. 

However, this is where many people get stuck. They assume that the process of setting up a hosting service and installing WordPress is complicated and time-consuming. It’s not.(By the way, if you are not sure about the difference between hosted and self-hosted WordPress, check out this helpful infographic.)

In the video above, I show you how to setup your blog in twenty minutes or less. As a bonus, I explain to you how to write and publish your first blog post. If you don’t need this information yourself, perhaps you know someone who does. Please feel free to pass along the link to this post.

The good news is that you won’t need any technical expertise to setup your blog. This tutorial is simple. I walk you through the process, once click at a time.

If you prefer to read about the process rather than watch a video, you can do that too. I have written down all the steps here. This will also save you the trouble of taking notes as you watch the video.

Please understand: you can get everything you need just by watching the video above. The written material below is optional.

You can launch your blog by following these seven steps:

Gather your resources. To set up a self-hosted WordPress blog, you will need:

A domain name

A credit card

20 minutes (give or take)

It’s easier if you haven’t already registered your domain. It’s also cheaper. I will show you how to get one for free, using the service I recommend in Step #2.

However, if you have already registered your domain, no sweat. You will simply need to add an additional step. I will explain the process at the end of this post.

Set up a hosting account. This is where your blog will “live.” This is a server in the cloud (i.e., a remote computer), where you will rent space to install the WordPress software and manage your blog. It’s far easier than it sounds. Stay with me.

There are a hundreds of hosting services available—perhaps thousands. However, based on my experience and research, I recommend Bluehost. I believe it is the best option for most people for the following seven reasons:

Reason #1: Support. Bluehost has great 24–7 support via phone, e-mail, or chat. I have personally used it several times and found the support staff to be courteous, professional, and helpful. All of the company’s support staff are located in the U.S.

Reason #2: Reliability. Bluehost is super reliable. It boasts an uptime average of 99.9%. That’s about as good as it gets.

Reason #3: Ease of Use. Bluehost is super easy-to-use (as you can witness in the above video). In fact, shockingly so. They have worked hard to make it simple for non-geeks.

Reason #4: WordPress. Interestingly, WordPress itself only officially recommends three hosting services. Bluehost is number one. It hosts over 850,000 WordPress blogs.

Reason #5: No Limits. Bluehost offers unlimited disk space, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited domains (i.e., you can host multiple blogs or sites on one account), and unlimited e-mail accounts.

Reason #6: Affordability. Bluehost is inexpensive—about $4.95 to $6.95 a month, depending on which plan you select. The longer you are willing to commit, the cheaper it is.

Reason #7: Values. In its Terms of Service (see Section 10.03, Bluehost prohibits pornography, nudity, and other adult content. It strictly enforces this standard and deletes sites that violate it. Personally, I don’t want my blog sitting on the same server as some pornographer. If you feel the same way, you may be surprised to know that almost all of the most popular hosting services allow pornography on their servers.

Note: I am a Bluehost affiliate, which means the company pays me a commission every time someone signs up via one of my links. But this didn’t influence my recommendation, because all hosting services have similar programs. I recommend Bluehost because I honestly believe they offer the best hosting available.

You should also know that I do not use Bluehost for MichaelHyatt.com. My site is too big and complicated. It requires a dedicated server with a mirrored backup. However, I have my other sites on Bluehost, as do several of my family members and friends. Bluehost specializes in shared servers and it is the right choice for 95 percent of bloggers.

By the way, Bluehost offers a thirty-day, money-back guarantee, which is written into their Terms of Service. I have personally tested this and got my money back within a few hours. So there’s really no risk on your part.

Okay, so if you are still with me, go to the Bluehost home page. Click on the Sign Up Nowbutton.

Now you need to decide whether you need a domain name or you already have a domain name. I’m going to assume that you haven’t previously registered a domain, using some other domain registration service (e.g., GoDaddy.com). If you have, I will explain what to do at the end of this post.

Now enter your domain name in the left-most box, choose the appropriate extension (com, net, biz, whatever) and click on the Next button.

Fill in your account information and then scroll down to select your package. As you can see, the prices range from $4.95 to $6.95 per month. It all depends on the length of your commitment.

Keep in mind, you will be required to pay the annual rate in advance. That’s how Bluehost is able to offer these super low prices. Here's

12 months at $5.95 per month is $71.40 per year and $71.40 upfront.

24 months at $4.95 per month is $59.40 per year and $118.80 upfront.

36 months at $3.95 per month is $47.4 per year and $142.20 upfront.

I would not sign up for any of the other services listed on this screen, but that’s up to you.

Now enter your billing information. Confirm that you have read and agree with Bluehost’sTerms of Service, and then click on the Next button. The system will now verify your credit card information.

Bluehost will next ask you to “Select the Upgrades that Best Suit Your Needs.” I would skip all of these. Click the Complete button at the bottom of the page.

Now you need to choose a password for your account. Click on the Create your password link:

Use the Password Generator option to create a strong, difficult-to-hack password. Copy this to the clipboard by pressing Command-C if you are on a Mac or Control-C if you are on a PC. Now click the Paste button to paste the password into the appropriate fields. The click the Create button. This creates your new Bluehost account.

Warning: You might get an error message here. It is simply because it sometimes takes a few minutes for the Bluehost robots to create your account. Don’t panic. Worst case scenario, call BlueHost Support at 1-888-401-4678.

Then you will be asked to login to your domain. Your domain should be automatically inserted for you. If it is not, type it into the field provided. Now use the password you just selected. Since you previously copied it to the clipboard, you can paste it with Command-V on the Mac or Control-V on the PC. Now click on Login.

You may have to click through another upgrade offer. Feel free to decline by kicking on the “No thanks” link and proceed to the next screen.

You should be at the Welcome screen. Now click on cPanel (short for ”Control Panel”). You should now see a page with a lot of buttons.

Step 3: Install WordPress. Don’t be intimidated by the number of buttons in this step—it’s amazingly simple. The process used to be complicated, and you had to be a semi-geek to pull it off. But Bluehost now makes it super-simple. Trust me, anyone can do this.

Scroll down the page to ”Website Builders.” Click on the WordPress logo and wait for the new page to load. You should now be looking at a page full of ”scripts.” Again, don’t get overwhelmed. Simply click on the ”WordPress” logo under “Blogs.”

This will tell you it’s loading up your Mojo account. Mojo is simply a system for managing automated scripts. Don’t let this confuse or overwhelm you. This is what you should be seeing.

A new ”Install WordPress” screen appears. Simply click on the “Start” button. Now select the domain on which you want to install WordPress. It should default to the correct one. Click on “Check Domain.”

You should get a new screen with an error message. This is normal. Check “Oops. Looks like something already exists there. I understand that continuing will overwrite the files.” Since this is a brand new blog, you do. So select the checkbox that says, “Directory Exists! I understand that continuing will overwrite files.”

If we were running this on a website that we already had up and running, we would not want to do this. But it is not an issue here. Now click again on “Check Domain.”

The next screen will say “You are almost there.” You don’t need the “Advanced Options,” so leave that unchecked. Click on the item that says, “I have read the terms and conditions.” Now click on the “Install Now” button. The installation process should begin and will keep you updated on the process. Be patient, this will take a minute or two.

When it is done, you will get a screen with your Blog URL, Login URL, username, and password. Bluehost will also e-mail this information to you, but I like to have a backup. I would write it down or take a screenshot. Also, copy the password to the clipboard (again, using Command-c on a Mac or Control-C on a PC).

You’re making great progress! Now things will speed up considerably.

Step 4: Load your new blog. Simply click on the blog URL address. Your new blog should load in a new browser tab.

As you can see, there’s nothing very fancy here. WordPress uses a very generic theme by default. But that’s the beauty of WordPress. There are thousands of themes available. I will recommend one in a minute.

Step 5: Log into WordPress. While you’re still on your blog’s home page, scroll down to the Login link in the lower right-hand side of the sidebar. Click on the link.

You should now be looking at your WordPress login page.

Now enter your username and password. (Remember, you wrote these down in Step 3. You also copied the password to the clipboard.)

You are now looking at the WordPress “Dashboard.” Sometimes, bloggers refer to this as the WordPress back-end. The front-end is what your readers see—your normal blog site. Theback-end is what you see—how you control what appears on the front-end.

Step 6: Write your first post. Click on the Posts | Add New option in the left-hand side menu. You should now see the New Post screen.

Enter the title of your post, perhaps something like, “Welcome to My WordPress Blog!” (I know, clever, right?)

Now write your first post in the field directly below the title. Perhaps you could explain why you are starting your blog, the topics you plan to write about, and how often you intend to post. (Tip: under-promise and over-deliver.)

Now click the Publish button. This literally publishes your post for the world to see. You can click on the Preview Changes button to see it.

Congratulations! You have just published your first post on your very own self-hosted WordPress blog.

Step 7: Bookmark your blog. You’ll want to come back to your blog on a regular basis, so it’s a good idea to bookmark the two main pages: the front-end and the WordPress back-end.

In case, you have already closed the page to the back-end, you can re-open it by going to: http://[the name of your blog]/wp-admin.

If you have followed my instructions, you now have your very own self-hosted WordPress blog. Pretty exciting, huh?

The next step is to install a theme. There are literally thousands of free ones available. Personally, I suggest spending a little money and buying a premium theme, like the Get Noticed! Theme for WordPress. This is the theme that I personally designed and built with my friend, Andrew Buckman.

Get Noticed! Theme for WordPress has features that no other WordPress theme has. It is particularly helpful for anyone wanting to build a personal brand—authors, speakers, comedians, musicians, real estate agents, mortgage brokers, entrepreneurs, and so forth.

Note: If you need to move an existing blog from WordPress.com to your new self-hosted WordPress blog, I recommend you read this article: “How to Properly Move Your Blog from WordPress.com to WordPress.org.”

If you want to learn more about WordPress, I recommend WP101.com. This is a tutorial site with hundreds of videos on every aspect of WordPress.

If you know someone else who could benefit from this information, please pass along the link to this post. If you would like to embed the screencast in your own blog, please feel free to do so. You can find the video on both Vimeo and YouTube.

Optional: What if you have already registered your domain name on another service? No big deal. The first thing you will need to do is to point your domain name to the Bluehost servers. This will vary depending on where you registered it. Bluehost describes the process here.

For example, at GoDaddy, where I have some domains registered, you log in, then go to Domains | Domain Management screen:

Now click on the domain name you want to point to Bluehost. You should now be looking at the “Domain Details” page. Scroll down to the bottom, left-hand side of the page. You should see a section called “Nameservers”:

Click on Set Nameservers. A new screen should pop-up.

Enter ns1.Bluehost.com in the field for Nameserver 1.

Enter ns2.Bluehost.com in the field for Nameserver 2.

Click OK. That’s it. Now log out. It typically takes 24–48 hours for these changes to take effect. You might get lucky, and it will start working in an hour or two.

Please note: Bluehost or your Registrar (the company from whom you bought your domain) may change their procedures from time to time. If you have any problems, please check with them. I do not provide technical support for this process.

Once you have done this, you can begin the process of setting up your WordPress blog. In Step #2, after you click Sign Up Now, you will need to enter your domain name in the right-most box that says, “I Have a Domain Name.”

Now click the next button. Everything else should be the same. If you get stuck, you may need to wait for the change in your Nameservers to take effect before proceeding. Be patient.

Question: What questions do you have about the process of setting up your blog? I’m here to help! You can leave a comment !