How to Import a Book

Importing a book that has already been created helps to simplify the book writing process.

JoEllen avatar
Written by JoEllen
Updated over a week ago

How to Import a Book

Chapterly accepts docx, odt, epub, md and txt files that can be imported as a new book. To import a new book to your Chapterly account, please click on the Library tab from the dashboard. At the top right corner of the page, click on the “New Book” icon. The menu will drop down and then you can choose “Import Book.”

You will have the option to add a Title to your book in the title dialogue box. The "Specific Header, My chapter headings start with "Chapter," split automatically and don't split" options are used to format chapters of a book being imported into the Chapterly app. When you initially choose the option to import a book the "Don't split" chapter format will be automatically selected.

If you choose the "Specific header level" option, the chapters will be split by either Heading 1, 2, or 3 depending on how the chapter heading text is formatted in the original book being imported. For example, if a .docx document has Header 1 format for chapter headings throughout, then you would select it so that the book chapters can be automatically separated by Header 1 formatting throughout the original book.

The option, "My chapter headings start with "chapter" is the second option used to automatically split imported book chapters based on the criteria of having the word "Chapter" in the name of every chapter heading such as, "Chapter 1 - Introduction, Chapter - 2 How to Use this Book," etc.

The "split automatically" option indicates that your book chapters will be designated by how they are separated and formatted in the original text editor of the book. Editors such as Adobe InDesign have the option to add chapters to a book and preserve the original chapter format for exporting a book.

If you are using a plain text document such as a .txt file and don't want to have chapters split automatically because the file has no formatting in it, then select "Don't split" to use the chapter splitting tool to apply the chapter breaks manually.

Once the chapter format has been selected the imported book document can either be dragged into the dialogue box, or you can "click to upload" the book. A window will open up that will allow you to select the book.

Once you have added the book title and have selected the correct chapter formatting, you can upload your book into the Chapterly app. The book will now be available to edit in your Chapterly dashboard.

Happy writing!

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