Difference between revisions of "Thesis Formatting for MES"
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| − | + | <div class="intro">[[File:Wordlogo.gif |left|50px]]These are tips to help MES students build and format their thesis. They are based on the [http://www.evergreen.edu/mes/docs/thesishandbook.pdf MES Thesis Handbook] and former students's suggestions. This assumes use of Microsoft Word 2007, other versions may vary. Feel free to contribute other solutions (even using different editors such as open office)!</div> | |
| − | <div class="intro">[[File:Wordlogo.gif |left|50px]] | + | |
====Preformat your document before you start==== | ====Preformat your document before you start==== | ||
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====Don't copy and paste from another Word Document==== | ====Don't copy and paste from another Word Document==== | ||
| − | + | This can transfer formatting to your current document and mess it up. It's hard to fix, but you can prevent it. Copy text into a text editor (notepad, textmate, etc.) to strip out the formatting. Copy it again from there, and paste it into your current document. | |
====Excel data gotchas==== | ====Excel data gotchas==== | ||
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====Use Reveal Formatting==== | ====Use Reveal Formatting==== | ||
Whenever you find yourself in a bind, format>reveal formatting will show you exactly where you are and what formatting is being applied to the page you're on. For additional information it's also helpful to go to view>thumbnails to see where you are in the document. | Whenever you find yourself in a bind, format>reveal formatting will show you exactly where you are and what formatting is being applied to the page you're on. For additional information it's also helpful to go to view>thumbnails to see where you are in the document. | ||
| − | + | {{stub}}__NOTOC__ | |
| − | == | + | ==Additional Help== |
*[[Page_numbering_with_a_preface_numbered_seperately_-_Word | Page numbering for Different Sections]] | *[[Page_numbering_with_a_preface_numbered_seperately_-_Word | Page numbering for Different Sections]] | ||
*[[Footnotes_and_Endnotes_-_Word | Footnotes and Endnotes]] | *[[Footnotes_and_Endnotes_-_Word | Footnotes and Endnotes]] | ||
Revision as of 21:18, 25 April 2011
Preformat your document before you start
Format a blank document with all the necessary components, sections, pagination, etc. This will save you much time in the long run. Also, using the format>tab feature at the beginning of each section, you can set appropriate (and consistent) tab stops for each section. Doing this before adding content can save time.
Don't copy and paste from another Word Document
This can transfer formatting to your current document and mess it up. It's hard to fix, but you can prevent it. Copy text into a text editor (notepad, textmate, etc.) to strip out the formatting. Copy it again from there, and paste it into your current document.
Excel data gotchas
Excel and Word play nicely together but beware you correctly paste excel spreadsheets and graphs into Word. You can copy and paste directly from excel to word, so creating a word table, but it won't look like Excel. You can inset the worksheet as an object from file, and paste it as an object into Word or link the spreadsheet into word. This has pros and cons. The pro is you can edit your excel spreadsheet and it will update your document. The con is if you move or delete one of the files, the word document can get corrupted and a pain to recover. To run less risk of corrupting your data, copy and paste the excel data or create an image first.
Additional Help: word to excel]
Use Reveal Formatting
Whenever you find yourself in a bind, format>reveal formatting will show you exactly where you are and what formatting is being applied to the page you're on. For additional information it's also helpful to go to view>thumbnails to see where you are in the document.
