Step 3 on your Factory page. Inspect reads your current manuscript and tells you what won't come through the way you meant: stray styles, headings the factory can't see, odd spacing, images, tables and notes. It's free and unlimited and never uses a build. A script checks your file against a list of rules. No AI reads your manuscript.
Choose Inspect manuscript, then Inspect again after each revision. The box shows how many findings there are of each kind, with a learn more link to each kind's page. Open the full report → shows every finding in detail.
How serious is it?
| Label | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Worth fixing | Likely to come out wrong in the book. Fix it in your editor and upload again. |
| Worth a look | May be fine; check it. |
| Just noting | For your information. The build handles it. |
| Carried through automatically | The build keeps it as you meant it (your italic and bold, for example). Nothing to do. |
Nothing Inspect finds blocks a build. You can always build a free proof and look. A clean file shows Things to look at: 0.
The full report
The report opens in place of the steps, with the step list still on the left; Back to the steps returns. It starts with one sentence, such as 2 things are worth fixing before you export a final, then a table with one row per kind of finding, grouped by the labels above:
- What it is and where (¶ is the paragraph number);
- What the build does with it;
- You: what to do, often nothing.
Click a row to see each place it occurs. From the report you can also:
- correct as is: on a Worth fixing or Worth a look row, or one place in it, say the text is meant. It stops being flagged and moves to Carried through, marked you said: correct as is. undo puts it back. It holds for this upload; a new upload is inspected afresh.
- fix here: for stray ">" marks and markers the factory doesn't recognize, correct the text without opening your file. The fix is made on every build and listed under Your corrections, with how many places it changes and a remove link. Download the corrected .docx gives you your file with the fixes made; keep editing from that copy, so your file and the book stay the same.
- choose sizes: on the Images row (print it smaller on low-resolution images), pick a size for each picture; a small page shows how it sits. Sizes save at once; Rebuild proof shows them in print. See Images.
An older report says an earlier run and links to the latest.
The book map
Inspect also shows how the build reads your file: what it takes as front matter, body and back matter, from your Heading 1 titles and where they fall. Your own title page and contents are dropped, because the factory generates them from the transmittal. If a chapter lands in the wrong place, check its heading. The report lists every section with its word count.
Common findings
- Headings without a Heading style. A line that looks like a chapter title but is styled as body text, so the factory can't find it. Give it Heading 1.
- Custom styles not in your transmittal. Your file uses a style the factory doesn't know, so its text is set as ordinary text. Fine if the style only changed the look; declare it if it marks a letter, a poem or a sidebar. Your editor's built-in styles (Footnote Text, Hyperlink and the like) are never flagged.
- Marked styles. The
[[markers]]it found and what each became. - Bold and italic applied by hand. Kept exactly as you typed them. Nothing to do.
- Lists, breaks and spacing made by hand. Usually harmless; styles are cleaner.
- Colored or highlighted text, unusual fonts. Fonts are ignored (the book has its own) and highlighting is dropped. Check colored text in a proof.
- Images. Every picture: how wide it prints on this book's page and its resolution there, with a size menu and a small page showing how it sits. Images too low-resolution for print, floating with text wrapped around them, or without alt text get their own findings.
- Tables. Every table, with its header row and caption; tables typed with tabs and captions on the wrong side of their image or table.
- Footnotes and typed note numbers. Real notes are counted; a superscript number typed in the text prints with no note.
- Emoji in the text. ⚠️ ✅ and the like, usually notes to yourself. The book's fonts have none.
Every finding has its own page, with why it's flagged and how to fix it in any editor: see Inspect findings in all help.
The counts
Inspect also counts chapters, words and images. They fill in the transmittal's checklist.
If Inspect couldn't read the file, export it again from your editor as a
.docx and upload it. Nothing is charged.