Difference between revisions of "Thesis Formatting for MES"

Revision as of 21:53, 25 April 2011

These tips are based on the MES Thesis Handbook and former students's suggestions to help MES students build and format their thesis. These use Microsoft Word 2007, other versions may vary. Feel free to contribute other solutions (even using different editors such as open office)!

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 clashing formatting and mess up your current document. 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

Excel and Word work together but copy-and-pasting from excel to word creates a word table without Excel style. For Excel style, go to Insert->Table->Excel Spreadsheet, and paste data into the spreadsheet that pops up.

Use Reveal Formatting

Things go wrong? Format>reveal formatting will show you exactly where you are and the formatting of the current page. Also, view>thumbnails shows where you are in the document.

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Additional Help

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 This can transfer clashing formatting and mess up your current document.  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====
-Excel and Word work together but beware when pasting excel data into Word.
+Excel and Word work together but copy-and-pasting from excel to word creates a word table without Excel style.  For Excel style, go to Insert->Table->Excel Spreadsheet, and paste data into the spreadsheet that pops up.
-Copy-and-pasting from excel to word creates a word table, but without Excel style.  For Excel style, go to Insert->Table->Excel Spreadsheet, and paste data into the spreadsheet that pops up.
 ====Use Reveal Formatting====
 Things go wrong? Format>reveal formatting will show you exactly where you are and the formatting of the current page.  Also, view>thumbnails shows where you are in the document.