Word for book editors on Mac: manuscript setup, styles and Track Changes in Microsoft 365

Many book editors use Word on Mac for one long job. They open a single file, mark it up, and send it back to an author or a typesetter. That job rewards a clean setup more than any single trick. Get the page size, margins and styles right on day one, and the rest of the file behaves.

This page covers the Mac side of that work. It shows which menus to use, what common editing standards ask for, where Track Changes keeps its controls, and where Lazur fits. Menu paths come from published guides, because Microsoft's own help pages would not load when I checked them. Menu names can shift between versions, so treat each path as a starting point.

Set the page size and margins in Word on Mac before you type

Set the trim size first. Trim size is the finished page size of the printed book. If you change it later, line breaks and page counts move, and chapter starts shift with them. Amazon's KDP guide, written for Word version 15, sets the trim size under Format > Document > Page Setup > Paper Size > Manage Custom Sizes.

Margins come next. For a paperback between 24 and 150 pages, the KDP guide sets Mirror margins with an inside margin of 0.375 in. Mirror margins give the inside edge of each facing page the same width. Your printer may ask for other numbers, so check their template before you lock the setup.

1. Choose Format > Document, then click Page Setup.
2. Open the Paper Size menu, choose Manage Custom Sizes, and add your trim size.
3. Under Margins, choose Mirror margins if the book has a spine.
4. Set the inside margin to 0.375 in for a 24 to 150 page paperback, unless your printer says otherwise.
5. Save the file as a template before you add any text, so the setup stays intact.

Make the Normal style carry your body text

Body text should use the Normal style. Put the font, spacing, alignment and first-line indent in Normal. Then every body paragraph inherits the same settings. Change Normal once, and the whole manuscript updates. Open the Styles pane from Home > Styles, then choose Modify for Normal.

Editors often expect a specific body setup. A common manuscript guide asks for Times New Roman 12 pt, double spacing, one-inch margins, and a first-line indent with left alignment. The KDP paperback guide sets Normal to justified text with a 0.2 in first-line indent and single spacing. The two guides disagree, so the file's destination decides which one you follow.

Do not press Enter for blank lines, and do not press the Space bar to fake an indent. A manuscript guide tells editors to use Find and Replace to remove extra paragraph marks and spaces. Press ⌥⌘F to open Replace. Search for ^p^p, replace with ^p, and run it until nothing changes.

A reader of one manuscript guide reported a worse problem. Setting paragraph indents in Word 2010 moved the entire manuscript instead of just the first line. Those are anecdotes, not tests. They still show why an indent belongs in the style, not in each paragraph.

Start each chapter on a new page with Heading 1

Heading 1 marks each chapter title. The KDP guide applies Heading 1 to chapter titles and sets its spacing to 60pt before and after. That gives every chapter opener the same space above it. Heading 1 also gives you a clean outline, which helps later when you build a table of contents.

Next, add a Next Page break at the end of each chapter and after the front matter. Go to Layout > Breaks > Next Page. The KDP guide uses this method for every chapter. Each break also starts a new section, and sections control headers, so the break matters beyond spacing.

1. Apply Heading 1 to the chapter title.
2. Put the cursor at the end of the previous chapter's last paragraph.
3. Choose Layout > Breaks > Next Page.
4. Check that the new section's header is not still linked to the previous one.
5. Turn on the ¶ button on the Home tab to confirm there is one break between chapters, not a row of blank lines.

Scene breaks inside a chapter follow a different rule. The manuscript guide recommends a row of three asterisks. Center the asterisks in their own paragraph, in the body style. Avoid a blank line for the break, because it is easy to lose when someone cuts or moves text.

Headers, page numbers and odd and even pages in Word on Mac

Headers and page numbers follow sections. The KDP guide sets them with Link to Previous, Different First Page, and Different Odd & Even Pages. Use Different Odd & Even Pages for a book that prints on both sides. Use Different First Page so the chapter opener has no running head. Link to Previous keeps a section's header matching the one before it. For the steps, see how to add a header in Word on Mac. For numbers, see how to add page numbers in Word on Mac.

Track Changes on Mac: turn it on, read it, accept or reject

Track Changes records each insertion and deletion, and it records who made it. Turn it on from the Review tab before you change any text. The shortcut ⌘⇧E toggles it too. Check the Review tab to confirm it is on before you start. Edits made while tracking is off leave no marks.

The Display for Review dropdown on the Review tab changes what you see. Balloons put comments and formatting changes in the margin. Inline shows insertions and deletions inside the text. Many editors read in Inline view for flow, then switch to balloons to check formatting. Next and Previous move you from one change to the next.

1. Open the Review tab and turn on Track Changes.
2. Set Display for Review to Inline to read the flow, or to balloons to see changes in the margin.
3. Use Next and Previous to move from one change to the next.
4. Click Accept or Reject on each change. Use the dropdown for Accept All or Reject All.
5. Save a copy before you accept a batch, so you can compare the result later.

Read each change in its sentence before you accept it. A tracked deletion can remove a word the next sentence still needs. A tracked insertion can repeat a phrase that already sits two lines up. Accept is a decision, not a way to clear the screen.

Use comments for queries to the author. Put each question next to the line it concerns, so the author sees the context. For the steps, see how to add a comment in Word on Mac. Keep queries short. One question per comment is easier to answer.

Where Lazur helps while you edit in Word

Lazur is a voice assistant that lives in the notch on your Mac. Hold ⌥⌘ and ask about anything on screen. It answers out loud. Ask where something is, and Lazur draws a circle and a label around it. Ask how to do something, and Lazur guides you one click at a time, waiting for each click. It does not click for you, and it is not an add-in for Word.

Some questions suit Lazur well during a manuscript pass. Ask it to walk you through mirror margins, a Next Page break, or Find and Replace for double paragraph marks. Ask where Track Changes sits. Ask it to explain why a heading looks wrong. Lazur explains and points. You make the change in your own file.

Hold fn to dictate. Dictated text lands at the cursor in any app, clean and formatted. Snippets, a personal dictionary and clipboard slots help with phrases you repeat, such as a standard query to an author. Dictation is unlimited on both Lazur plans.

Lazur listens and looks at the screen only while you hold the shortcut. Audio and the screenshot go to AI providers to answer, and they are not stored. Content is never used to train AI models. A manuscript under contract may carry confidentiality terms, so check them before you ask about a page out loud.

What the research says, and what it does not

I found no survey that measures how much time book editors spend in Track Changes. The published sources are mostly how-to guides from Amazon KDP, Book Editing and gentext.ai. Reader comments on the manuscript guide report that Word stopped responding and that indents misbehaved. Those are anecdotes, not measurements.

The nearest study is Bedeian's 2003 survey of authors of Academy of Management Journal and Academy of Management Review articles from 1999 to 2001. It had 173 completed surveys. Almost 25% of authors said that, while revising, they made changes they felt were wrong. Those authors are not book editors, so treat the figure as a signal, not a benchmark.

Keep Word current and know what it costs

Start with the version number. Go to Word > About Word to see yours. The newest Word for Mac build I could verify is 16.114.3, Build 26102720, released October 27, 2026. Microsoft describes it as quality and performance improvements.

From September 16 to October 27, 2026, Microsoft listed nine Word-related Mac builds, from 16.113 through 16.114.3. The notes mention quality and performance fixes and security updates. They list no new Word features or interface changes. So older menu paths should still be close.

If you still run Office 2019 for Mac, check the date. Microsoft ended support on October 10, 2023. After that, Microsoft stops software and security updates, and phone or chat support. You can keep using the app, and your files stay accessible. A manuscript holds an author's unpublished work, so plan an upgrade.

Microsoft 365 Personal lists at $99.99 a year or $9.99 a month in the US. The plan includes desktop Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote, plus Microsoft Copilot. The Microsoft Store comparison page has no date, so check the current price before you buy.

Common mistakes book editors make in Word on Mac

• Faking spacing with Enter or the Space bar, which breaks when the text reflows.
• Setting indents by hand in each paragraph instead of in the Normal style.
• Accepting all changes before you read them in context.
• Leaving Link to Previous on in a section that needs its own header.
• Turning off Track Changes for part of a file, then missing marks later.
• Saving over the author's draft instead of working in a named copy.

Each mistake costs time late in the job, when the file is long and the deadline is close. Fix them at the start, while the file is still short. A clean file also helps the next editor or typesetter who opens it.

Pricing and next steps

Lazur starts with a short Pro trial that needs no credit card. The trial starts the first time you open the app. For plan details, see Lazur pricing, or download Lazur for your Mac.

For the next steps, read how to apply heading styles in Word on Mac and how to insert a section break in Word on Mac. When the file is final, save it as a PDF in Word on Mac for a proof.