Ted CopelandIntelligent Electronics Systems

Human and Systems EngineeringCenter for Advanced Vehicular Systems

URL: http://www.cavs.msstate.edu/hse/ies/publications/seminars/msstate/2006/copeland_word_tutorial/

Microsoft Word Tutorial

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Introduction

• This website was created because of some discrepancies in the writing of conference papers.

• It contains sections describing the correct way to format a document’s headings, abstract, main body, equations, references, and footnotes.

• Various screenshots of dialog boxes and sample text are included in the tutorial to increase ease of use.

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Main Page

• The first page of the site explains the need for consistent formatting of documents in IES.

• It also describes the use of the Styles and Formatting pane in reformatting a document for IES use.

• I included a link to Microsoft’s Office Assistance site if further guidance is needed.

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Headings

• This page stresses the importance of using IES Headings in documents and the stair-stepped pattern in which these headings are used.

• It contains a link to a mini-tutorial on the use of the Bullets and Numbering tool.

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Abstract

• The abstract is a brief explanation of the research being presented in the document. It should quickly and accurately describe the main ideas of the paper.

• Many conferences require the abstract to follow a specific style.

• If there is no standard, however, it is appropriate to use the IES First Paragraph style.

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Body

• This is the point at which the rest of the tutorial comes into play.

• In composing the body of the paper, the writer is not just writing about her research. References and cross-references must be made, and figures and tables need to be inserted and floated to appropriate places.

• Links to cross-referencing and creating text boxes are included.

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Equations

• This page explains the creation of equations using Microsoft Equation 3.0, as well as the cross-referencing of equations using bookmarks.

• While researching the use of bookmarks, I found it somewhat difficult to produce the result I wanted with the procedure given by Microsoft. I came up with a system that works, even though it may be a little unorthodox.

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Figure and Table Captions

• The most important instruction on this page is the one that states that both figures and tables must be placed in text boxes for easy relocation.

• This page also contains a mini-tutorial on the use of the Microsoft Graph Chart utility. Although I reasoned that most graphs are generated outside of Microsoft Word, I included it for the sake of completeness.

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Referencing and Cross-Referencing

• This page is the longest in the tutorial, because it is one of the most important. Cross-referencing is a fundamental aspect of research papers.

• Along with the instructions on cross-referencing, this page has the mini-tutorial on Bullets and Numbering. I included it here because the references at the end of the paper are often numbered, and using field numbering is the best way to cross-reference.

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Footnotes

• Footnotes, like references, are difficult to describe because every conference has a different style. This page explains how to create a text box, which is standard for all footnotes.

• It contains a mini-tutorial on superscript and subscript text that is linked to the cross-referencing tutorial.

• The included example footnote is meant only as a visual aid and not as a blueprint.

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References

• Microsoft Office Assistance. 16 Feb. 2006 <http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/default.aspx>.