Scholarly Life of a Committed Technofile

One of the benefits of using a robust word processor like MS Word, but also try it with other programs, is the various formatting tools available to you. Before submitting final versions of documents, consider using some of the following features to make your document easier to read.

• Page set up/formatting—Make sure your document is properly formatted (specific margins, etc.) by checking on its set up. Go to “file” then “page set up.” On the “margins” tab you’ll want to check your margins and page orientation. On the “layout” tab you may want to check your headers/footers options.
• Pagebreaks—If you need to start material on a new page (you should never have dangling sentences/paragraphs at the top of the page), use a pagebreak instead of hitting the enter key a bunch of times. You can usually insert a pagebreak by going to “insert” then “break.”
• Paragraph formatting—Instead of indenting your paragraphs by hitting the tab key, consider indenting them all systematically. Go to “format” and “paragraph.” Under “special” select the “first line” option. This will indent the first line of all your paragraphs. Similarly, when doing your full bibliographic citations, try using the “hanging” option (also under special). This will make all of the lines, after the first line, indent in (just like both MLA and APA citations styles dictate).
• Headers/Footers—If you want to include either headers or footers in your document, do not try typing them in at the top or bottom of each page. Instead, go to “view” and “header and footer.” This will allow you to type what you want in each header/footer only once. Notice that you can include page numbers. Instead of putting each number, select the little page icon with the “#” (number symbol) on it.
• Styles & Formatting Taskbar—Finally, if you start having longer, more complex documents, with lots of formatting involved, consider having the “Styles & Formatting” taskbar open when you work. First, go to “view” and click on “task pane.” Once the task pane opens on the right hand side of the screen, click on the top of the task pane and select the “styles and formatting” option. Not only does it allow you to easily format elements in your document, but it also keeps track of all the formatting options you have used.