MS Word for Academic Writing

The course covers intermediate aspects of text and document formatting for the students’ academic papers. Topics covered include (see also the schedule for this course below):

* Essential formatting questions regarding ETD (electronic thesis submission) requirements
* Layout, margins, paragraph indents, AutoCorrect, printing settings, possible printing problems
* Footnotes, references in footnotes, continuing footnotes on next page, numbering pages and headings
* Working with master document and subdocuments, creating headings, and automatic table of contents

Course details

Level: Intermediate
Duration: 5 days
Requirements for pass: minimum attendance - 4 days
When the course is offered: see the list of courses for the current semester and/or the InfoSys

Course outline

Day 1:

• Page layout and display (margins, setup, paper size).
• Breaks: page, column and section
• Insert menu: footnotes and endnotes (move, copy - CTR&drag, change/remove note separators (view menu-footnotes), cross-referencing; page numbers and controlling pagination
• Headers and footers

Day 2:

• Basic formatting principles (font, font style, paragraph spacing, etc.); format painter
• Paragraph management: indentation (normal, first line, hanging indent), spacing, alignment, line and page breaks (widow & orphan control)
• Styles and style galleries (create, edit and customize you own formatting style)
• Use of tabs: structuring of data and text

Day 3:

• Dealing with lists: bulleted and numbered (simple vs. outlined)
• Bookmarks and hyperlinks
• Create and manage indexes (key-words and phrases) as well as table of contents for your thesis
• Use of tables: convert text into table, sort, split, merge. The “spill” option and use of table headings on multiple pages

Day 4:

• Dealing with graphics. Inserted pictures and Word-based graphics. The use of text boxes, shapes, WordArt; picture cropping and editing in Word. Alignment, wrapping, changing the grid
• Use of Excel charts in Word. Establishing links and updating them automatically

Day 5: ETD session:

• creating sample document covering ETD formatting requirements
• PDF conversion
• ETD server upload

Useful online resources:

Information on ETD - http://wiki.comp.ceu.hu/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Page
Basic use of MS Word site - http://www.internet4classrooms.com/on-line_word.htm
Extensive Word guide (includes FAQ, tutorial, suggestions) - http://www.word.mvps.org
Troubleshooting in Word - http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/troubleshooting.htm
Extensive MS Word FAQ site - http://www.addbalance.com/word/index.htm

NOTE: all links open in new windows.