thesis writing in word

8/2/2019 Thesis Writing in Word

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2 0 0 8 , S t u d e n t L e a r n i n g C e n t r e , C e n t r e f o r A c a d e m i c D e v e l o p m e n t ,

T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f A u c k l a n dW W W : h t t p : / / w w w . s l c . a u c k l a n d . a c . n z

E m a i l : s l c @ a u c k l a n d . a c . n z

C O M P U T E R S K I L L S D E V E L O P M E N T P R O G R A M M E

THESIS WRITING IN WORD


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2008, Student Learning Centre, Ce nt r e f or Ac ad em ic De ve lo pm en t ,T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f A u c k l a n d

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Contents

WORD 2003 VERSUS WORD 2007 .......................................................................... 2

STYLES .............................................................................................................................. 3

Working with Styles .................................................................................................................... 3The Styles group and Styles window ......................................................... ........................................ 3

Modifying Styles ................................................................................................... ............................. 4

Creating New Styles .......................................................................................................................... 5Displaying Style Names in Your Document .................................................................................. 5

OUTLINE VIEW .............................................................................................................. 6

CAPTIONS ........................................................................................................................ 6

Adding a Caption ......................................................................................................................... 6Cross-referencing ........................................................................................................................ 7

Creating List of Figures/Tables .................................................................................................... 7

DISPLAYING A LANDSCAPE PAGE AMONG PORTRAIT PAGES ....................... 8

CORRECTING YOURSELF ............................................................................................ 9

AutoCorrect ................................................................................................................................ 9

Spelling, Grammar, and Language ............................................................................................. 10REVIEWING FEATURES ............................................................................................ 10Comments ................................................................................................................................. 11

Inserting Comments ....................................................................... ................................................. 11Viewing and Modifying Comments ................................................................................................. 11

Deleting Comments .............................................................. ........................................................... 11

Tracking Changes ...................................................................................................................... 12

Turning on Track Changes ............................................................................................................... 12Displaying Tracked Changes ............................................................................................................ 12

Reviewing Tracked Changes ............................................................................................................ 13

Turing off Track Changes ................................................................ ................................................. 14

Printing with Tracked Changes ........................................................ ................................................ 14

AUTO-SUMMARISING A DOCUMENT ................................................................... 15 ENDNOTE REFERENCES ........................................................................................... 16

Word 2003 versus Word 2007

There are substantial differences between Word 2003 and Word 2007 regarding the

locations of commands outlined in this handout. This document has been written to suit

only Word 2007. A helpful reference of locations of Word 2003 commands in Word

2007 can be found at

http://office.microsoft.com/search/redir.aspx?AssetID=AM101938681033&CTT=5&Ori

gin=HA100625841033.
http://office.microsoft.com/search/redir.aspx?AssetID=AM101938681033&CTT=5&Origin=HA100625841033http://office.microsoft.com/search/redir.aspx?AssetID=AM101938681033&CTT=5&Origin=HA100625841033http://office.microsoft.com/search/redir.aspx?AssetID=AM101938681033&CTT=5&Origin=HA100625841033http://office.microsoft.com/search/redir.aspx?AssetID=AM101938681033&CTT=5&Origin=HA100625841033http://office.microsoft.com/search/redir.aspx?AssetID=AM101938681033&CTT=5&Origin=HA100625841033


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Styles

A style is a set of formatting characteristics bundled together to ease formatting,

maintain consistency, enable you to build tables, and allow you to change the look of

your document quickly and easily.

When you apply a style, you apply a range of formatting characteristics in one step

instead of several. If there were headings throughout your document, which were Arial,

16pt, bold and centred, you could create a style called Heading 1 which contains all of

these characteristics.

Microsoft Word has a range of predefined styles for your use, or you can create/modify

your own. Take some time to think about the structure of your thesis and which styles

you will need. Below are a few examples:

Heading 1: Arial, 16pt, centred, bolded

Heading 2: Arial, 14pt, left aligned, bolded

Heading 3: Arial, 12pt, left aligned

Text: Times, 12pt, justified

Quote text: Times, 10pt, ital ici sed

There are four types of styles which you can create and apply:

Paragraph style

Character style

Table style

List style

Working with Styles

The Styles group and Styles window

The Styles group on the Home tab contains a pre-defined Quick Style set as shownbelow:

You may select any of the existing styles to format selected text. More styles from the

Quick Styles gallery are shown when you click the More button .


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You can bring up the Styles window by clicking the arrow inthe bottom right corner of the Styles group.

To apply a style to existing text, just select your text, andclick one of the styles in the Styles group or the Styleswindow.

Modifying Styles

Under certain circumstances, you

might want to change the

attributes of a style in a Quick

Style set:

Using the Modify menu:

1. Right-click the style (from

the Styles group or theStyles window) that youwant to change and then

select Modify2. The Modify Style window

will appear. Modify the

format of the style and

choose the options you

require.

Using the Update to Match Selection menu:

1. Find a piece of text that is formatted as you wish your style to appear (or

format a piece of text specifically for this purpose).

2. In the Styles group or the Styles window, right-click the style that you want tochange and then select Update [The Style] to Match Selection.


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Creating New Styles

New styles can be created in the following steps:

1. In the Styles window,click the New Style

button ( ).

2. The Create New Style

from Formatting

window will appear.

3. Modify the name,

select a style type,

select a style to base

on, and format your

new style as required.

4. Click OK.

Displaying Style Names in Your Document

Style names can be displayed in the Outline and Draft views in Word 2007. To switch tothe Outline/Draft view, select the View tab and then select Outline/Draft view. Todisplay style names, follow the steps below:

1. Click the Office Button ( ) and then the Word Options button.2. In the Word Options window, select Advanced.3. In the Display section, change the value of the Style area pane width in Draft

and Outline views to be a number greater than 0, e.g. 2.5 cm (if this isntwide enough when you return to your document, drag the line wider with your

mouse cursor).

4. Click OK. The names of the styles used in your document will now appear

down the left-hand side in the Outline/Draft view.5. You can adjust the width of the style area by dragging on the vertical line that

separates the two areas until you have reached the width you require.


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Outline View

Though most of use work in Print Layout view when working on a document in MS Word,

the Outline view is especially useful when revising and editing your document.

To switch to the Outline view, choose ViewOutline.In Outline view, the look of your screen will change dramatically and may look slightlyunusual.

An Outlining toolbar will have appeared at the top of your screen, which you can use to

show different levels of headings, promote/demote heading levels, and restructure your

document by dragging and dropping sections to a new location. Move your mouse over

the buttons in turn to find out the function each performs. Outline view can be used to

good effect for writing skeletons of documents, in which details can be added later.

Captions

A caption is a label for an object in your document e.g. Figure 1, Table II. It also

includes text that defines what the object is e.g. Map 1. South Island of New Zealand.

Adding a Caption

To add a caption, follow these steps:


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1. In the Captions group of theReferences tab, click InsertCaption. The Caption windowwill come up:

2. Choose your label type. If the

label type is not available,

choose New Label and create

one.

3. If you would like to change the type of numbering, or introduce Chapter

numbers into your captions, Click Numbering.

4. Type your text into the Caption box.5. Click OK.

If you insert a caption, MS Word will automatically increment the caption count.

However, if you delete a caption you will need to update the field codes. This can be

achieved by selecting the entire document Ctrl+A, and then pressing F9 on the

keyboard.

Cross-referencing

Captions can be cross-referenced. Put

your mouse cursor on where you want to

insert a cross-reference. On the

References tab, in the Captions group,click Cross-reference, and then select thedesired reference type and reference text

from the Cross-reference window.

Creating List of Figures/Tables

If you have used captions within your document, MS Word can generate lists based on

the captions for you automatically. MS Word draws on the Captions used within your

document. These lists can be easily updated if the structure of your thesis changes. It

can also be used as a navigational aid as it places links within your document.


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Creating a List of Figures/Tables is very similar to creating a Table of Contents. To

create a List of Figures/Tables:

1. Choose References Insert Table of Figures . This brings up the Table ofFigures window

2. If you would like to modify the format of the list, choose Modify3. Once you have chosen all of the required settings, click OK

When MS Word generates table of contents or lists, it will

create links within your document. You can hold the

Control key and click either a title or a page number and

you will automatically jump to that location in the

document.

If you would like to update a list of figures/tables, right

click on the list and choose Update Field.

Displaying a Landscape Page among Portrait

Pages

You may want to use a landscape page in the middle of all portrait pages in your

document, especially to show a big picture or chart. MS Word allows you to do that if

you use a section break to separate the page you want to be landscape from the others

that you want to be portrait. Follow these steps to create a landscape page:

1. Insert your mouse cursor in the location where you want a landscape page.


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2. Click Page LayoutBreaks, and click Next Page under Section Breaks to inserta section break and start the new section on the next page

3. Click the arrow in the bottom right corner of the Page Setup group on the PageLayout tab, this will bring up the Page Setup window

4. In the Page Setup window, select Landscape, make sure This section isselected in the Apply to box, and click OK

5. Insert another section break at the end of the page you want to be landscape

(follow Step 2 again)

6. In the new section, set the page orientation back to Portrait (follow Step 3again)

Correcting Yourself

AutoCorrect

If you have words or phrases that you type on a regular basis, you can use the

AutoCorrect feature to set Word to recognise abbreviations of them and replace them

with the full word(s). You can access 'AutoCorrect' from the Office Button ( ) WordOptions Proofing AutoCorrect Options type the abbreviation in the 'Replace'option and the full string in the 'With' option. Ensure that the abbreviation is not a word

you would usually use.


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Spelling, Grammar, and Language

While these features are no substitute for thorough proofreading, they are incredibly

useful. Make sure that the language is set appropriately for your discipline's

requirements (probably NZ English). The 'Language' option is accessible from the OfficeButton ( ) Word Options Popular Language Settings. You can select alanguage to be the Primary editing language, i.e. default editing language for all

templates.

You may also like to modify the grammar check slightly to suit your style of academic

writing. For example, depending on your discipline, you may or may not wish Word to

pick up on sentences written in the passive voice. To modify the grammar check, go to

the Office Button ( ) Word Options Proofing. In the When correcting spellingand grammar in Word section, you will see an option for 'Writing Style' choose from

one of the provided style options, or click the Setting button to specify exactly whatyou wish checked.

Reviewing Features

MS Word has a number of reviewing features that will assist you (and others) in

making changes to your documents. Theses features include the ability to add

comments and keep track of any changes that are made to a document. In order to

preserve the layout of your document, MS Word shows some mark-up elements in the

text of the document while others are displayed in balloons that appear in the margin.

The following section outlines these features.

Reviewing features can be accessed from the Review tab of the ribbon in MS Word.

When working with comments (and certain other features) the initials or name of the

reviewer will appear. This allows you to keep track of who made each comment. The

name that appears will be the name that MS Office has recorded for the user of the

software, but this will not always be correct. To change the name that appears:

1. Click the Office Button ( ) and then the Word Options button.2. In the Word Options window, select the Popular tab .3. In the User name and Initials boxes, enter the name and initials you wish to

appear in comments.

Note that this user information is used by all MS Office programs.


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Comments

Commons are similar to post-it notes and can be used for your own thoughts (or some

elses, such as a proof-reader or supervisor).

Inserting Comments

To insert a comment:

1. Select the text you want to comment on (or click at the end of the text).

2. Choose ReviewNew Comment.3. Type the comment text in the command balloon that appears.

4. When you have finished typing your comment, click back into the main text of

your document to continue as normal.

Viewing and Modifying Comments

To view and/or modify a comment:

1. If the comments are not visible in the document,

choose Review Show Markup, and selectComments.

2. Click inside the comment command balloon.

3. Modify the text as required.

4. Click back inside the main text to finish working

with your comment.

Deleting Comments

To delete a single comment:

1. Click on the comment you wish to delete.

2. Click ReviewDelete from the ribbon.

To delete all comments in a document:


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1. On the Review tab, click the arrow under the Delete button.2. Choose Delete All Comments in Document .

To delete comments from a specific reviewer(s):

1. Click ReviewShow MarkupReviewers2. Ensure that only the reviewer(s) you wish to delete is selected.

3. Choose Review, click the arrow under the Delete button, and click Delete AllComments in Document .

Tracking Changes

When MS Word tracks changes to a document it marks text to indicate that it has been

altered in some way. This can be very useful if you want to make changes to a

document, but do not want them to be final. It is also useful if someone is proofreading

or editing your document for you. As the writer, you can go through the changes one at a

time and accept or reject them as required.

Turning on Track Changes

To turn the Track Changes feature on, from the ribbon, choose Review TrackChanges. Note that your document will look exactly the same until you begin to type.As you begin to type and edit your document, MS Word will identify any changes made.

Some will be displayed in the text of your document, while others are displayed in

balloons that appear in the margin. An example is:

Displaying Tracked Changes

Once tracked changes have been made, they can be displayed in a number of different

ways:


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Final Showing Markup: Shows formatting changes in balloons andinserted/modified/deleted text are shown in the text. Displays how the

document would look if formatting changes were accepted.

Final: Displays how the document would look if all changes were accepted.Original Showing Markup: Shows formatting changes in balloons andinserted/modified/deleted text are shown in the text.

Original: Shows the original document i.e. displays how the document wouldlook if all changes were rejected.

To modify the way that changes are displayed, click the

Display for Review box on the Review tab and select thedisplay of your choice.

MS Word cannot always display the complete text of a tracked change or comment in a

markup balloon. To see these items, and to see items such as inserted or deleted

graphics or text boxes, display the Reviewing Pane. This can be displayed by clicking on

the Reviewing Pane button on the Review tab.

Reviewing Tracked Changes

If markup is not already displayed in your document, from the Review tab, choose ShowMarkup.To view each item in sequence:

1. Click the Next ofPrevious button on the Review tab.2. Click Accept or Reject as required.

To accept all changes at once:

1. Click the arrow below the Accept button on the Review tab.2. Choose Accept All changes in Document .

To reject all changes at once:

1. Click the arrow below the Reject button on the Review tab.2. Choose Reject All changes in Document .

To review items by a specific reviewer:

1. Click ReviewShow MarkupReviewers2. Ensure that only the reviewer you wish to review is selected.


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3. You can now process each reviewers comments using one of the methods

described above.

To accept/reject changes in the document itself:

1. Right click somewhere inside the change.

2. From the pop-up menu that appears, choose Accept or Reject as req uired.

Turing off Track Changes

To turn the Track Changes feature off, select the Track Changes button again from theReview tab.

Printing with Tracked Changes

It is possible to print with or without your tracked changes showing. It is also possible to

print a list of your changes. To do so:

1. Click the Office Button ( ) Print.

2. In the Print what area of the Print window, click on the drop down menu andselect either Document (no changes will be printed), Document showing markup(changes will be printed along with the document) or List of markup (prints yourchanges only) as required.


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Auto-Summarising a Document

The AutoSummary Tools are very useful in that they generate summary of your

document based on the content.

The AutoSummary Tools

can be shown on the

Quick Access Toolbar.

To add the AutoSummary Tools onto the Quick Access Toolbar:

1. Click the Office Button ( ) Word Options Customize.2. Select All Commands from the Choose commands from box.3. Locate the AutoSummary Tools from the left column, and click the Add>>

button to added to the right column.

To summarise your document:

1. From the Quick Access Toolbar, click AutoSummary ToolsAuto Summarize.


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2. In the AutoSummarize window, select your preferred type of summary, and in

the Percent of original box, select the level of detail to include in the summary(A higher percentage means including more details in the summary).

3. If you don't want AutoSummarize to replace your existing keywords and

comments, clear the Update document statistics check box.

4. Review the automatically created summary to make sure it covers the key

points of your document, revise it when necessary.

EndNote References

You may use EndNote with MS Word to easily and quickly cite references and create

properly formatted citations and bibliography in your document. We recommend you

enrol for an EndNote workshop from the Student Learning Centre or the Library. The

SLC EndNote resources are available online at

http://cad.auckland.ac.nz/index.php?p=endnote .
http://cad.auckland.ac.nz/index.php?p=endnotehttp://cad.auckland.ac.nz/index.php?p=endnotehttp://cad.auckland.ac.nz/index.php?p=endnote

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