Tips for Word Template Users - Most Common Corrections Required
- PASTING INTO TEMPLATE
- If you are moving text into a Word template, paste in without formatting and then use the built-in Styles to format the text. This will keep formatted text from changing the template styles.
- Make sure body text throughout document is 1.5 line spacing rather than double spaced. Captions should be single spacing.
- Turn on formatting symbols so you can see all tabs and returns, especially returns at the top of pages. Also turning on "gridlines" in the View menu will help you see the margins and especially where text or figures go into the margins and need to be reduced in size.
- HEADINGS & SUBHEADINGS
- Using Styles for heading/subheading formatting also helps to automatically populate the Table of Contents. Styles will make your job easier when you add, delete, or move content so that updating the Table of Contents is just a few clicks of the mouse.
- Chapter titles that show in the document as all capital letters but do not show in the Table of Contents as all caps were not typed in all capital letters (even though the chapter heading style shows it in all caps). If this happens, go back to the chapter and retype the title in all caps and then update the Table of Contents - it should show as all capital letters then.
- Make sure chapters and major sections start on a new page.
- CAPTIONS
- Use the Add Caption function for captioning Tables and Figures to allow you to auto-populate the List of Tables and List of Figures. Likewise, using this function will allow easy updating when Figures and Tables change page numbers.
- Table captions are always above the table and figure captions below the figure.
- Tables or figures that continue to the next page because they are longer than 1 full page need to have continuation notation at the top of subsequent pages (Table 1, continued, etc.).
- Where a table or figure and its caption do not fit on a page together, the caption should be alone on the preceding page, centered vertically as well as horizontally on the page, and the table or figure on the following page. Captions for figures should not split to the next page.
- REFERENCES
- Utilize the numbering function to format references at the end of chapters or end of the document with a hanging indent (number at left margin with consistent indent of subsequent lines where all text lines up at a half inch in from the margin)
- Choose the "add after" setting in the Paragraph menu to add a little extra space between each reference to aid readability rather than adding a return between references.
- Make sure references do not split between pages - move a split to the next page. Wait to do this as one of the last editing steps because changing one reference or edits to body text could cause splits down the line - especially in chapter references as they do not usually start on a new page.
- LANDSCAPE PAGES
- The template gives involved instructions for numbering landscape pages using section breaks and this has worked well for students for years. Instructions here.
- If you are unable to make the instructions in Word work (especially students using Word for Mac), you can make the changes in the final PDF of your document if you are sure you have no other changes to make. Find instructions here to change page number in your PDF final copy.