Style-Formatted Documents: Setting Word For Optimum Work Environment

Style-Formatted Documents
Setting Word for Optimum Work Environment

No matter what computer you are at, there are certain settings that optimize Word for a
beginning to somewhat experienced user. Under Tools -> Customize -> Options, make
sure that these two choices are NOT checked:
Standard and Formatting toolbars share same row

Menus show recently used commands first
Notice on the toolbar the Paragraph mark (). You can toggle this on and off to find
where the ends of paragraphs are.
The "Ten Commandments" of document formatting using style

Using styles to set up a document is more effective than the usual course of action:
namely to just select text and assign a font to it and hit the Enter key for creating vertical
space in a document. Consider these advantages of assigning a preformatted style to
every paragraph in a document.
1. Document formatting is accomplished logically and consistently. In fact, using
Styles forces the document author to think about page design issues.
2. Using styles gives finer control over vertical spacing than using the Enter key
(carriage return), since one can set up fractions of lines.
3. Reformatting the document can be accomplished by modifying document
styles. This accomplishes two things. All appropriate paragraphs are reformatted
immediately, and needed changes are less likely to be overlooked.
4. The use of preset styles actually encourages the document editor to think
"outside of the box" when it comes to document design, because he or she
knows that changes can be immediately and quickly made to fit new demands.
5. If the headings in the document have been appropriately assigned to a heading
style, one can use the outlining feature of Word to easily reorganize a document.
style, Word automatically generates a table of contents with proper page
numbers. If later a page is added, the table of contents can be automatically
updated.
style, the document translates more correctly into a web page, if that is so desired.
8. Reformatting a document which is poorly formatted can be accomplished
efficiently.
9. Sometimes one is required to use a certain academic style, e.g. APA or MLA, in
formatting a document for submission for review. However, these formats are
neither the best for the sake of aesthetic appearance, readability or access
structure. In this case, dissemination of a document to different groups of
readers with different style requirements is easy.
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10. Better formatted documents will get you a better grade. (Probably, but we can't
rule out the possibility that a professor who is less informed about the correct use
of Word will grade you down for doing things correctly).
Of course, the "disadvantages" are that it is a less intuitive initial approach to document
formatting and requires a considerable investment in acquiring the new skills.
Using the Built-in Styles of Word.
Start a new blank document in Word.

Word has some or all of the following styles in use (available from the style
palette on the tool bar). You can see them in the pull down style palette on the
formatting tool bar.
o Default. This setting contains the underlying font, Times.
o Normal. Times 12 pt., English (US), Flush left, Line spacing single,
Widow/orphan control.
o Heading 1. Normal + Font: Arial, 16 pt, Bold, Kern at 16 pt, Space before
12 pt after 3 pt, Keep with next, Level 1
o Heading 2. Normal + Font: Arial, 14 pt, Bold, Italic, Space before 12 pt
after 3 pt, Keep with next, Level 2
o Heading 3. Heading 2. Normal + Font: Arial, 13 pt, Bold, Space before 12
pt after 3 pt, Keep with next, Level 3
Note these definitions:
o 'pt' stands for point. There are 6 picas in an inch and 12 points in a pica.
o 'Flush left' means the text is justified against the left margin.
o 'Kern' means that the space between certain selected letters is reduced
slightly so as to make the text more readable. An example is AWAY.
o 'Space before' is the space that is inserted at the beginning of the paragraph
with that style.
o 'Space after' is the space that is inserted at the end of the paragraph with
that style.
o 'Keep with next' is used with headings, so that they will not appear by
themselves at the bottom of a page.
o 'Widow/orphan control' is used with text paragraphs so that single lines
will not appear at the top or bottom of a page.
Choose Format -> Style. You will see the Style dialog box, shown in the figure below
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Take some time to familiarize yourself with this dialog box.
The Styles window, upper left, will show a list of available styles.
Immediately below the Styles winsow is a pop-up menu which can show three
things: Styles in use, All styles, and user-defined styles.
A Paragraph preview window, which shows the paragraph appearance for the
style selected in the Styles window.
A Character preview window, which shows the character appearance for the style
selected in the Styles window.
A Description of the characteristics of the Style selected in the Styles window.
Two buttons which allow the user to define a new style or modify an existing
style.
An Organizer button. We won't use this today, but it allows you to move styles
from one document to another.
An Apply button, which lets you apply selected changes before you close the
Styles dialog box.
It is worth noting here that if ever you want to use a built in style, such as, for example,
hanging indent, just put your cursor in the paragraph you wish to format, call up the Style
dialog box (Choose Format -> Style), select All styles in the List, and then find the style
you want and click on Apply. Once you have done this for one paragraph in a document,
that style will be added to the Styles in use
Body Text
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Word has a built-in style called Body Text. The point of the Body Text style is to format
a paragraph so that a) the text is readable and b) each paragraph is discriminated from the
surrounding text. In the days of typewriters, text was discriminated by a paragraph indent,
and sometimes by a space. If the document was double-spaced, then usually the only
discriminating mark was an indented paragraph. During the era of personal computers,
the standard formatting for body text has been evolving. The body text that is built into
Word reflects this evolution. For single-spaced text, the most common practice now is to
include an extra 6 points of space (half of a 12 point line) at the end of each paragraph.
Of course, when people are following other academic style manuals, such as APA, MLA
or Turabian, different body text formats will be in place.
The important point to realize about body text, is that most of the text in a document
should be assigned to that style. Then, if the occasion demands, the entire document can
be reformatted by redefining the body text style. We are now going to reformat the text of
this document.
Select All of the text by either choosing Select All under Edit or striking Ctrl-A.
For this to work properly, you must have your cursor inserted in the document.
First choose Default Paragraph Font from the pull down Style Menu. This is to
wipe out any non-standard text that was imported into the document.
Now type Body Text into the dialog box of the pull down Style Menu, and strike
the Enter key. Immediately, you should see all of the paragraphs in the document
add another 6 pts of space.
Headings and Title

We can't get very far in discussing the topic of headings without discussing the concept
of access structure. Misanchuk (1992, p. 97)) defines access structure as the "coordinated use of typographically signalled structural cues that help students to read texts
using selective sampling strategies." In plain English, then a heading is "a
typographically signalled structural cue." For example, Heading 2 uses all of these
typographical techniques to signal the reader: Arial font instead of Times, 14 pt instead
of 12 pt, 12 pts before the heading and 3 pts after instead of 6 pts after for body text. In
addition, it is bold and italic, to distinguish it from the two surrounding headings
(Heading 1 and Heading 3), which are only bold. Thus, the reader is immediately
oriented to the structure of the text and can use "selective sampling strategies" instead of
just reading straight through the text in a linear fashion.
Go through the document now and set the correct style for all the headings. Just put the
cursor in the text and select the level of heading from the Style pull-down menu.
You may or may not also want to key the Title to the appropriate style.
Removing Unnecessary Carriage Returns while Preserving Paragraph

Structure
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Please note, I have included under Course Resources the document Text Document for
Word Practice. You may download it and practice with it.
If some of you are entirely familiar with this process, then you may work on something
else. However, I am convinced that looking at some basic details of formatting a text
document is an essential grounding for our first exercise.
One way or the other, try to get a pure text document in MS Word. It is worth noting
that a paragraph may contain only one line of text or even a few words, as in a heading.
At the level of document formatting, the carriage return defines the paragraph, and each
paragraph carries a style, which may be modified or reassigned. Also, try to get a pure
text document that does contain at least one level of headings, but more ideally, two
levels of headings. Also having bulleted or numbered items, while not essential, would
be a plus.
Using the Search and Replace dialog box under Edit, convert the text document to a
document in which paragraphs are differentiated by style rather than by extra carriage
returns. (Using the Show/Hide Paragraph Mark tool on the toolbar, check your document
over carefully to see that it has the right characteristics we are looking for.)
The documents that are emailed to you from the library system will have carriage
returns at the end of each line and a double carriage return at the end of each
paragraph. Use this process to edit them
1. First, search and replace the double paragraph mark with a symbol that is
not contained in the document. Choose Replace All. (I almost always use
the vertical stroke mark [shift-backslash].) What this does is to mark
where the paragraphs in preparation for removing all the paragraph marks
at the end of each line.
2. Note: To get the paragraph mark into search, do the following. Click on
More. Choose Paragraph Mark from Special. Do it again: choose
Paragraph Mark from Special.
3. Now search and replace all the paragraph marks with a space. Choose
Replace All. (Caution: if there are bulleted or numbered lists in the
document, you need to mark them in some other way before you remove
the carriage returns. For example, you could put a double carriage return at
the beginning and end of each list, and then sort out the list elements
later.)
4. Finally, search and replace the vertical stroke mark (or whatever
distinguishing character you initially chose) with paragraph marks.
The documents that you create by copying and pasting text from the web may
only have double carriage returns at the end of each paragraph. These documents
are considerably easier to edit, because you only need to search and replace the
double carriage returns with single carriage returns.
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Now you have what we desire. A document in which paragraph marks are not used to
create vertical spacing, including visual paragraph definition. That is, your document now
contains only carriage returns to mark paragraph breaks, and no other carriage returns.
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Style-Formatted Documents

Setting Word for Optimum Work Environment

Standard and Formatting toolbars share same row

The "Ten Commandments" of document formatting using style

Using the Built-in Styles of Word.

Start a new blank document in Word.

Take some time to familiarize yourself with this dialog box.

Headings and Title

Removing Unnecessary Carriage Returns while Preserving Paragraph

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