How to import a Word document

In short

In Write, click Import a Word document, then Choose a file. When the review looks right, click Insert manuscript and the chapters open on the pages.

A finished manuscript often already lives in a Word file, with its chapters, a bold line, an italic phrase, and a footnote. Retyping that into the book is slow, and a paste can drop the chapter breaks. From Write you bring the file in, read what arrived and what did not, and only then place it on the pages. The words stay yours. The book's theme sets the fonts and the spacing.

Importing a manuscript comes with the Publisher, Studio and Founders' Lifetime plans. Writing on the same Write surface works on every plan. Choosing a file on a plan without the import opens the upgrade offer, and nothing is added to the book.

Import the document#

1. Open Write

   The book opens on Layout. In the bar under the title, click Write. Layout is the other choice on that same control.

   On an empty book the page says Write your book here, with Start writing and Import a Word document. If the book already has words, open More at the end of the top bar and choose Import a manuscript….

2. Start the import

   Click Import a Word document. The Import a manuscript panel opens in place of the page. Its subtitle says nothing in the book changes until you choose below.

   Choose a file is the button for a file on your computer. Under it the list shows Word .docx, Markdown .md, Plain text .txt, and EPUB made here. The same panel has Paste a Google Docs link when the file lives in Google Docs.

3. Choose the file

   Click Choose a file and pick the Word document. While it works the panel can say Uploading your document…, Reading your document…, or Reading your chapters…. Cancel stops it, and nothing is added.

   The review then names the file. Under the title, a line can read By and the author from the file. Words and Chapters sit beside that. Chapters lists each title. What came through counts the headings, the paragraphs, and a scene break when the file has a line of three asterisks. How your styles were read shows each Word style, what it became, and why. Read that review before you insert.

4. Insert the manuscript

   Scroll to the bottom of the review. The note reads It’s one undo step if it isn’t what you wanted. On an empty book the button is Insert manuscript. Click it.

   The panel then says Your manuscript is in. The line under it gives the word count. When the review flagged items, it says they were left as it described. The line ends with Not what you expected? Undo puts your manuscript back as it was, in one step. Click Layout. The first chapter opens on the page, the footnote from the file sits at the bottom, and the page thumbnails stay along the side.

5. Make the bold line a chapter

   A short bold line with no heading style stays a paragraph. The review names it as 1 paragraph that looks like a heading. The chapter list on the left shows each chapter and the page it opens on. To turn that line into a chapter, click Write. If the import panel is still open, click Close. Click in the bold line so the caret is there.

   Click + beside the line, then Chapter. The line becomes a chapter heading and opens on its own page. The same change is ⌘⌥1 (Ctrl+Alt+1 on Windows). A comment in the file is separate: the review names 1 comment, the words beside it stay, and no control brings the comment in.

Reading the Import a manuscript panel#

Also start a chapter at has three chips. “Chapter 3”, “Part Two” and Prologue, Epilogue start on. A line that is only “IV” starts off. Prologue and Epilogue also cover Interlude, Afterword, Foreword, and Preface. A heading the file already has stays a chapter either way. Turning a chip off does not remove those headings.

In How your styles were read, the columns are Word style, Became, Because, and Paragraphs. A heading style becomes Heading 1 because of the style's name. A normal style becomes Body text, and Because reads no heading style — body text. The theme still draws the list bullets. Word's own bullet glyph is not carried over.

When the heading counts items, each row says what happened. 1 paragraph that looks like a heading means a short bold or large line had no heading style, so it came in as body text. Select it and apply a heading, which is the + then Chapter step above. 1 comment means a review comment was left out. Comments are notes about the book, not part of it. Text boxes, a generated contents page, floating images, tracked deletions, and a footnote that is missing or that holds a table or a picture are named the same way, when the file has them. Bold, italics, headings, lists, a footnote whose text is in the file, and a line of three asterisks do come across. Items nested more than three levels deep still come through as list items at the third level, and the review names them when the file has any.

Take the import back#

Press ⌘Z (Ctrl+Z on Windows) once for the latest change. Press it again if that latest change was something you did after the import, and the import itself comes back. On an empty book, undoing the import leaves one blank paragraph, the manuscript Start writing would have opened. Discard, before you insert, throws the review away and leaves the book untouched.

A footnote whose text is in the file comes across with that text. Once the chapters are on the pages, what KDP checks in an interior PDF is the list the export is measured against.