Preparing Your Manuscript
The short version: format chapter titles as Heading 1 in Word. Stet handles everything else.
If your manuscript is already structured that way, you can stop reading and import. This page goes deeper for anyone who wants to understand what Stet detects automatically — and how to get the best results from more complex manuscripts.
Don't waste time fixing typography first. Stet auto-applies smart quotes, em dashes, ellipses, and double-space cleanup at import, using the dash and ellipsis conventions you've chosen in Book Details. Leave straight quotes and double hyphens in your
.docx— Stet will sort them out.
Chapter headings
Stet looks for chapter breaks in three ways, in order of reliability:
1. Word heading styles (recommended) Apply the built-in Heading 1 style to every chapter title in Word. This is the most reliable method and the one Stet is designed around. Heading 2 is also detected.
To check: click a chapter title in Word, look at the Styles panel on the Home tab. It should say Heading 1, not "Normal" or a manual bold style.
2. Explicit chapter labels Lines that begin with a recognised label — Chapter, Part, Prologue, Epilogue, Interlude, and similar — are detected as chapter breaks even without a heading style applied. Numbered variants (Chapter One, Chapter 1, CHAPTER I) are all recognised.
3. Short ALL CAPS lines As a last resort, short lines in all capitals at the start of a section are treated as chapter headings. This is a fallback for manuscripts exported from older tools. It is less reliable than the above two methods.
Avoid mixed heading levels for chapter titles. If some chapters use Heading 1 and others use Heading 2, Stet may interpret the Heading 2 chapters as sub-sections rather than new chapters.
Front matter
Stet detects front matter by position (content before the first chapter) and by section title. The following types are recognised automatically:
| Section | Detected by |
|---|---|
| Title page | Position — first section before any chapter |
| Copyright page | Title text containing copyright or © |
| Dedication | Title text containing dedication or for |
| Epigraph | Title text containing epigraph |
| Table of Contents | Title text containing contents or table of contents |
| Foreword | Title text containing foreword |
| Preface | Title text containing preface |
| Introduction | Title text containing introduction |
| Prologue | Title text containing prologue |
If Stet can't classify a front matter section automatically, it will ask you during import. You can also right-click any section in the sidebar and choose Change Type at any time.
Back matter
Back matter is detected by section title. These sections are recognised:
| Section | Detected by |
|---|---|
| About the Author | about the author, about me |
| Acknowledgements | acknowledgement, acknowledgment, thanks |
| Also By | also by, other books by, by the same author |
| Afterword | afterword |
| Epilogue | epilogue |
| Appendix | appendix |
| Glossary | glossary |
| Bibliography | bibliography, references, works cited |
| Index | index |
| Notes | notes, endnotes, footnotes |
Sections that appear after the last chapter but don't match any known title are flagged for manual classification.
Scene breaks
Stet recognises the following scene break patterns in the body of your manuscript:
**** * *---- - -#
These are converted to the scene break style you choose in the Style sidebar (asterisks, rule, ornament, etc.). The original characters are not preserved in the output.
Blank lines between paragraphs are not treated as scene breaks. Use one of the patterns above to mark an intentional scene break.
Optional paragraph styles
If your manuscript uses Word paragraph styles beyond Normal and Heading 1, Stet can map them to specific roles in the book. These styles are optional — body text in Normal style always works — but they give you more control over how content is formatted.
| Word style | Stet role |
|---|---|
| Block Text / Block Quote | Block quote (indented, used for quoted passages) |
| Verse / Poetry | Verse (preserves line breaks, no indent) |
| Attribution | Attribution (right-aligned, used after block quotes or epigraphs) |
| Epigraph | Epigraph (styled opening quote) |
| Caption | Caption (below images) |
If you use these styles, make sure they are applied via the Styles panel in Word — not replicated manually with indentation or font changes.
What to avoid
Don't use decorative chapter numbers as part of the heading. A heading that reads ~ Chapter Three ~ may confuse Stet's chapter number detection. Keep the heading text clean — Chapter Three or just Three — and let Stet handle the styling.
Don't use images as section dividers. Image-based ornaments or rules between sections are not detected as scene breaks. Use one of the text patterns listed above instead.
Don't manually indent first paragraphs. Stet sets first-paragraph indentation (or lack thereof) based on the template. Manual indentation applied in Word will conflict with it.
Don't use multiple heading levels for chapters. Use Heading 1 consistently for chapter titles. Heading 2 can be used for sub-headings within chapters.
Getting help
If your chapter structure doesn't look right after import, open the Style & Checks panel and click Review next to Chapter Detection. Stet will walk you through any ambiguous sections.
You can also right-click any section in the sidebar to reclassify it, change its type, or move it between front matter, chapters, and back matter.