Phil WillersSchool of Computing
CONTENTS
1. Introduction......
1.1. Page Breaks
1.2. The Page Setup Window......
1.2.1 Changing Margin Sizes......
1.2.2 Paper Orientation......
2. Inserting Clip Art......
3. Tables......
3.1 Deleting Rows and Columns......
3.2 Adding Rows and Columns......
3.3 Merging Cells
4. Page Numbers......
5. Headings......
5.1. Table of Contents......
5.2 Section Breaks......
6. Conclusion......
1
Phil WillersSchool of Computing
1. Introduction
This booklet describes some advanced facilities of Word 2003 that may be found useful when producing reports. It is assumed that the reader has understood the appropriate parts of Introduction to the School’s Computer Networks, which includes an introduction to Word 2003.
That introduction explained how to get the Standard and Formatting toolbars to appear underneath each other and to get all options shown when a menu item is clicked. You are advised to do that for each new Word document (click on View, Toolbars, Customize and check that the first two items are ticked). Also, it is best to see documents in Print Layout rather than Normal view (click on View, Print Layout).
There are many Word facilities not described in this booklet. To learn more, consult an appropriate text from the University library or try using Word’’s help facilities.
1.1. Page Breaks
Word produces page breaks automatically according to rules that usually prevent a single line of text from appearing at the top or bottom of a page. Occasionally, you may want to force the start of a new page.
With the cursor positioned at the place where the page break is to occur, click on Insert (on the menu bar) and, from the drop-down that appears, click on Break. The following window should appear.
To see forced page breaks in Print Layout view, the icon on the standard toolbar that shows paragraph markers etc. must be on. [A forced page break can be removed by clicking on it and pressing the Delete key.]
1.2. The Page Setup Window
1.2.1 Changing Margin Sizes
The top, bottom and sides of each printed page have “white space”. To adjust the size of these margins, click on File (on the menu bar) and then on Page Setup.
The Page Setup window will then appear, containing three ‘pages’. Ensure that the Margins page is selected.
Changing the values in the Top, Bottom, Left and Right boxes (by clicking on the arrows) will affect the margins around each printed page.
1.2.2 Paper Orientation
Pages can be printed with the text in Portrait or Landscape orientation. In Portrait orientation, the length of each page is greater than its width (as in this booklet). In Landscape orientation, printed pages are rotated so that they are wide but short.
To change the paper orientation, get the Page Setup window (as above). Portrait orientation is currently selected. To change, click on Landscape.
2. Inserting Clip Art
An extensive picture gallery is available in Word. Before inserting any picture, position the cursor at the start of a blank line where the picture is to appear. Then, click on Insert, Picture, Clip Art to get a pane on the right.
At the top of that pane is the following. In the Search for box, type a suitable keyword for the type of picture you want, and then click the Go button.
For example, suppose you want a picture of a computer. Typing computer into the box, many alternative pictures are made available:
Once you have found a suitable picture, click on it and it will be placed at the position of the cursor. The Clip Art pane can now be closed (by clicking on its cross).
If the picture is not the right size, click on it and a border will appear containing eight ‘blobs’. Pointing the mouse at any blob, the mouse shape becomes a double headed arrow. Using Click & Drag, the picture can then be made smaller or larger. Clicking anywhere in the document off the picture removes the border and blobs.
The picture can be centred by clicking on it and using the Center icon (on the Formatting toolbar). To move the picture down, click on it and use Format, Paragraph to adjust the Before spacing.
3. Tables
Word makes it easy to create a table of the following form.
Date
/ Opponents / Venue14 August / Newcastle / Home
21 August / Arsenal / Away
25 August / Fulham / Away
28 August / Crystal Palace / Home
11 September / Birmingham / Home
18 September / Everton / Away
To create a table, the required number of columns and rows have to be decided first, e.g., the above table has 3 columns and 7 rows. [Columns and rows can be added or deleted later.] Then, position the cursor at the start of the line where the table is to appear, click on Table (on the Menu bar), then click on Insert. In the sub-menu that appears, click on Table, and the following window will appear.
With the number of columns set to 3 and the number of rows set to 7, the following (blank) table is produced.
A table consists of cells that can contain any of the usual keyboard symbols (text, numbers, etc.). To type into a cell, click on that cell and type. To move between cells, use the mouse or press the tab key. Do not press the enter key. [If you do press the enter key, click on the Undo icon straightaway.]
To practice, you may like to create the table showing football matches on the previous page. If you do that, the table will not look exactly the same because the columns may be wider and the headings will not be in bold type. To adjust the column widths so that they are “just right”, click anywhere in the table and then click on Table, Autofit, AutoFit to Contents.
To get the headings in bold type, use the mouse to swipe the first row of the table and click on the Bold icon (on the Formatting toolbar).
3.1 Deleting Rows and Columns
To delete a row, click anywhere in the appropriate row and click on Table, Delete, Rows. A column can be deleted in a similar way.
3.2 Adding Rows and Columns
To add a row, click in the previous or following row, and then click on Table, Insert to get the following options.
A column can be added in a similar way.
3.3 Merging Cells
Suppose that a row is to be added to the top of the table, containing a centred title across all three columns. Add the row using the procedure described in Section 3.2 (start by clicking in the current first row). Then, click on Table, Merge cells and the lines separating the columns will disappear in that row.
The title can then be typed. With the title centred and in larger font, the final table may be as follows.
MFC Fixtures 2004-2005Date
/ Opponents / Venue14 August / Newcastle / Home
21 August / Arsenal / Away
25 August / Fulham / Away
28 August / Crystal Palace / Home
11 September / Birmingham / Home
18 September / Everton / Away
The lines around a table can be removed by right clicking on the table, and selecting Borders and Shading from the menu that appears. Having changed the setting, the table may not look any different on the screen – click on the Print Preview icon to see the effect.
4. Page Numbers
In Introduction to the School’s Computer Networks, it wasexplained how to produce page numbers using the Header and Footer dialogue. Page numbers can also be produced by clicking on Insert (on the menu bar) and then on Page Numbers, to get:
Click on the Print Preview icon to check that the page numbers will be visible when the document is printed. If the page numbers cannot be seen in Print Preview, the size of the footer has to be increased. Click on File, Page Setup and ensure that the Layout page is selected as follows.
5. Headings
This document has 3 types of headings - chapter headings (such as 1. Introduction), section headings (such as 1.2 The Page Setup Window), and sub-section headings (such as 1.2.1 Changing Margin Sizes). Word refers to a chapter heading as being a “Heading 1”, refers to a section heading as being a “Heading 2”, and refers to a
sub-section heading as being a “Heading 3”.
It was stated in Introduction to the School’s Computer Networks that:
“It is generally best to just type the text at first, and then, format the document. Formatting as text is typed is likely to result in problems because Word usually carries forward the formatting from one paragraph to the next.”
This advice also applies to the creation of headings. In other words, don’t worry about creating headings until you have finished typing your document.
To create a heading, click anywhere in the appropriate line, and then click on the Style drop down (on the Formatting toolbar) to get:
Headingsmust be created in this way if you want Word to produce a Table of Contents.
5.1. Table of Contents
When producing a large document (such as this one), it is a good idea to have a Table of Contents on the first page, showing the headings together with the corresponding page numbers. This can be done easily in Word, but there is no point doing it until the document is regarded as “finished”. A Table of Contents is not updated automatically if changes are made to a document. To produce a Table of Contents, the headings must have been created as described above.
A Table of Contents is produced as follows.
- Whilst holding down the Ctrl key, press the Home key. This will position the cursor at the very start of the document.
- Produce a Page Break (see Section 1.1), and do Ctrl, Home again to get you to the top of the blank page that is now at the start of the document.
- Type the word CONTENTS (or similar) and press the enter key twice.
- Make sure that the line containing the word CONTENTS is not formatted as a heading. Format that line in bold type with large font size (e.g. 14pt) and centred.
- Position the cursor at the start of the blank line afterCONTENTS.
- Click on Insert (on the menu bar), then on Reference and finally on Index and Tables, to get a window with four pages. Select the Table of Contents page.
- Setting the Show levels box to 1 will just produce chapter headings in the table of contents. Setting this box to 2 will produce chapter headings and section headings. Setting this box to 3 will produce all three types of headings. Having set the Show levels box, click on OK.
After a short delay, the Table of Contents will appear. If it looks rather cramped, then the paragraph spacing should be adjusted. Click to the left of the first line of the Table of Contents, so that it is all highlighted in black, and use Format, Paragraph, etc. to increase the paragraph spacing.
If changes are made to a document, resulting in the Table of Contents having to be updated, click to the left of the first line (so that it is highlighted), and repeat steps 6 and 7 above.
5.2 Section Breaks
To have the pages containing the Table of Contents numbered using Roman numerals (e.g. i, ii) and the pages containing the main text numbered using Arabic numerals (3, 4, etc.), a Section Break has to be inserted between the Table of Contents and the main text. Position the cursor at the very start of the main text, and click on Insert, Break to get:
With the cursor anywhere before the Section Break, click on Insert, Page Numbers to get:
Don’t click on OK. Instead click on the Format…button on this window to get:
6. Conclusion
This booklet has demonstrated how to use some advanced features of Word 2003 that should be useful when writing formal reports. Page breaks can be used to ensure that each chapter starts on a new page and Tables can be used to display results in an organised manner. Changing the paper orientation may be useful for producing “special” pages to appear in an Appendix, and the contents of chapters 4 and 5 enable a Table of Contents to be produced.
A formal report would not normally include Clip Art. However, the pictures available in Word may be useful when designing the front cover of a report.
Don’t get too pre-occupied with the appearance of a document. Some people spend far too much time tinkering with their documents to no real effect. For assessments, you may be penalised for awful presentation (such as being handwritten with loads of crossing outs), but you will be primarily assessed on content.
And finally, it is unforgivable to have typographical errors in a word processed report. Use the Spelling and Grammar icon (on the Standard Toolbar) to check for errors, but don’t automatically accept every change suggested by Word because it may be using American spellings. If you are not sure how to spell a word, use a dictionary to determine whether you or Word is correct.
1