Guidelines for the Use of the School of Computing Report Template
Jon Kerridge
Submitted in partial fulfilment of
the requirements ofNapierUniversity
for the Degree of
Any Degree Requiring a Report or Dissertation
School of Computing
May 2007
Authorship Declaration
I, <insert your full name>, confirm that this dissertation and the work presented in it are my own achievement.
Where I have consulted the published work of others this is always clearly attributed;
Where I have quoted from the work of others the source is always given. With the exception of such quotations this dissertation is entirely my ownwork;
I have acknowledged all main sources of help;
If my research follows on from previous work or is part of a larger collaborative research project I have made clear exactly what was done by others and what I have contributed myself;
I have read and understand the penalties associated with Academic Misconduct.
I also confirm that I have obtained informed consent from all people I have involved in the work in this dissertation following the School's ethical guidelines
Signed:
Date:
Matriculation no:
PLEASE NOTE that in signing this page you are aware of the consequences of doing this fraudulently as explained at
Data Protection Declaration
Under the 1998 Data Protection Act, The University cannot disclose your grade to an unauthorised person. However, other students benefit from studying dissertations that have their grades attached.
Please sign your name below one of the options below to state your preference.
The University may make this dissertation, with indicative grade, available to others.
The University may make this dissertation available to others, but the grade may not be disclosed.
The University may not make this dissertation available to others.
Contents
1Basics of Microsoft Word Document Templates
1.1Creating A Document Based Upon a Template
1.2Accessing the Styles
1.3Paragraph Marks and Paragraphs
2Headings and Captions
2.1Heading 1
2.2Heading 2
2.3Heading 3
2.4Heading 4
2.5Creating Contents List
2.6Other Headings
3The Use of the Other Available Styles
3.1Codeword
3.2Listing
3.3The Numbered Style
3.4Bulleted Points
3.5Indented Paragraphs
3.6Figure Fonts
3.7Normal
3.8Changing a Style
4Typical Structure of A Report
4.1Chapter 1
4.2Chapter 2
4.3Middle Chapters
4.4Penultimate Chapter
4.5Last Chapter
List of Screen Shots
Screen Shot 1 Showing the Format Tab and the Styles and Formatting Window
Screen Shot 2 Selecting the Menu to Create Contents Lists
Screen Shot 3 The Index and Tables Dialogue Window
Screen Shot 4 The Caption Dialogue Window
List of Listings
Listing 1 A First Listing
Listing 2 Another Listing
Acknowledgements
Many people have contributed to the development of this template including; Hazel Hall, Uta Priss, Alison Crerar, Alistair Lawson and Frank Greig.
1
1Basics of Microsoft Word Document Templates
This chapter introduces the basic concepts of Microsoft Word document templates. Such templates are contained in files with the extension .dot.
The advantage of using document templates is that the structure of a document can be specified from the outset without having to remember the formatting that has been undertaken previously when style changes are made by using the menu bar. This ensures that the document is consistently styled. If you do want to make changes then the style is changed once, which then modifies all instances of the same style throughout the document.
Template files are normally located in special folder of such templates in the C:\Document and Settings\ folder structure. However in some installations, such as the University’s network they can be stored elsewhere. In this case it would be best to store the template folder in the same folder as you are going to create the document so that any changes made to the template are correctly saved.
This document uses the ReportTemplate.dot template and as such NO format changes have been used from the menu bar by selecting a word or phrase and applying an individual style or font change. Thus the font change used above to differentiate the name of the template file uses the style codeword, more of which later.
1.1Creating A Document Based Upon a Template
Simply double-click on the name of the template file and a new document will be opened with the name Documentn to which the styles available in the template file are automatically available. The file can then be saved in the normal manner with a more suitable name. You will find that the created document already contains some text, some of which you will need to alter and other which can be removed.
Alternatively, you can use the document Basic Document Using Template.doc that contains all the required sections including correct pagination of the main body of the report with the later sections of the report unnumbered. You will have to remove some of explanatory text in order to use this document, but it is probably the quickest way of creating your report.
1.2Accessing the Styles
The styles are accessed by clicking on the Format menu tab and then clicking Styles and Formatting. A window to the side of the document will be opened showing all the available styles and formatting, as shown in Screen Shot 1.
The Label for the caption is generated automatically and can then be used to automatically create a List of such captions in the Preface to the report. The numbers associated with the Label are automatically organised by Word.
The Label for the caption is generated automatically and can then be used to automatically create a List of such captions in the Preface to the dissertation. The numbers associated with the Label are automatically organised by Word.
Screen Shot 1Showing the Format Tab and the Styles and Formatting Window
1.3Paragraph Marks and Paragraphs
At no point in this document, apart from within the initial preamble to the dissertation, has an additional paragraph mark (¶) been inserted by pressing the enter key. The spacing between paragraphs is defined within the paragraph styles. In particular, the styles ensure that section headings will not be separated from the first paragraph of the section to ensure that the section heading does not appear at the foot of a page with the start of the paragraph at the top of the next page.
The style for a chapter heading always starts the chapter on a new page and automatically inserts the space at the top of the page.
In the same way the first paragraph of a section or chapter is automatically allocated the style Ordinary Paragraph. Subsequent paragraphs in the section are also allocated the style Ordinary Paragraph, which ensures the spacing between paragraphs and the indentation of the first line of the paragraph. This occurs as soon as the enter key is pressed.
2Headings and Captions
The heading styles are used to automatically number the chapters and sections within the dissertation. Word keeps a record of the structure and will automatically number the section according to the heading style used.
If a new heading is inserted, including a new chapter (Heading 1), then all the chapters and sections are renumbered automatically. The template only contains numbered headings giving up to four levels of nesting. It is suggested that no reprt should use more levels of numbering because it suggests that the structure of the dissertation has become too complicated.
The use of each of the heading styles is described in the following sections.
2.1Heading 1
This is used to indicate the start of a chapter. This style was used to create the heading for this chapter above. Heading 1 is not followed by a (sub)section number.
Heading 1 automatically starts the chapter on a new page a little way down from the top of the page.
2.2Heading 2
Provides the first level section within a chapter and was used to create the heading for this section. The paragraph style following a Heading n is always Ordinary Paragraph.
2.3Heading 3
Heading 3 provides a sub-section level of numbering and was used to create the following subsection that contains no useful text.
2.3.1A Sub-section Within Section 2.3
Its first paragraph.
And another paragraph.
2.4Heading 4
Heading 4 provides a sub-sub-section numbering capability as shown below. Heading 4 should be used sparingly.
2.4.1A Sub-section
A first paragraph
Section will appear automatically at the top of the following page if there is insufficient space for the heading and its first paragraph at the bottom of the current page.
2.4.1.1A Sub-sub-section
Its first paragraph
2.5Creating Contents List
A Contents List can automatically be created from the Headings used in the document and it automatically determines the page upon which each heading occurs.
Screen Shot 2Selecting the Menu to Create Contents Lists
Screen Shot 2 shows the Insert tab menu used to access this capability. On clicking Index and Tablesin Referencesthe dialogue window shown in Screen Shot 3 is displayed. Select Table of Contents and adjust the Show Levels to 2, otherwise the level of detail within the generated list will be too great. The cursor must be at the place where the contents list is to be placed, usually under a heading.
It will be noticed in Screen Shot 3 that another tab is available for Tables of Figures. This dialogue can be used to create the lists of dissertation elements such as Figures, Tables, Screen Shots and any other captioned component within the document. Such lists appear in the first part of the dissertation prior to Chapter 1. Captions are described in section 2.7.
2.6Other Headings
Within the report preamble that comprises everything before Chapter 1 a different heading format called Preface Heading is used. This style creates a heading but because it is not based on any of the Heading n styles will not appear in any contents list.
Screen Shot 3The Index and Tables Dialogue Window
Captions can be created automatically for different types of document elements, such as Figures, Tables, Equations, Screen Shots, Images and code Listings. The template already has some of these created but in specific cases you may have to create your own caption label.
Screen Shot 2 also shows how the Caption capability can be accessed and on selecting that option the dialogue window shown in Screen Shot 4 is opened.
Screen Shot 4The Caption Dialogue Window
Screen Shot 4 shows the dialogue prior to inserting the rest of the caption shown above. Other labels are selected by opening up the Label choice box. Similarly, new labels for captions can be created by clicking the New Label button.
The caption for Screen Shots has been centred using the style Style Caption + Centered. This style can be used for other caption labels that require centering.
A caption is normally located to the left hand margin.
3The Use of the Other Available Styles
This chapter describes the other styles available in the template. You may need to create other styles specific to your dissertation. This can be achieved by clicking the New Style button in the Styles and Formatting window. This will not be discussed further in this document.
The template contains a number of standard styles, such as Footer and Header that have special use within a document and are automatically inserted by Word when particular document elements are utilised. Note that page numbers are automatically appearing in the document and start with page 1 as the first page of Chapter 1. These numbers will appear in any Contents List.
The pages within the Appendix are not numbered because you may include pages produced from other sources and to have a continuous numbering scheme makes this problematic. An appendix may contain another document that is separately numbered such as a user manual or design document. To achieve this, the document is split into a number of sections that have their own headers formatted accordingly. If you delete any of the section breaks within the document this functionality will be lost.
The template system automatically adds a new style if you alter an existing style by means of toolbar modifications. This has the advantage that the styles can be reused subsequently. Thus Ordinary Paragraph + Centered was used to center each of the screen shots in the document.
3.1Codeword
The style Codeword is used to change the font of a word so that it can be appreciated to have a special meeting that should be obvious from its context.
3.2Listing
The Listing style is used to create a numbered list of lines in a font that equates to a console window of a program listing. Thus it is useful for including code snippets and so that you can refer to line numbers in the associated description. Copy the code or other similar text into the document, select all the lines and apply the 01 Listing style. Each line will be individually numbered. Subsequent use of the style will continue the numbering from its last use.
3.2.1First use of Listing
The following code has had the 01 Listing style applied and its is designed so that such listings do not get split over pages
01Class myClass implements CSProcess {
02}
Listing 1 A First Listing
3.2.2Second Use of Listing
The following code lines have had 01 Listing applied; notice that the line numbers are generated automatically and in sequence.
03def l = [ 1, 2 ]
04outChannel.write(l)
05def inList =inChannel.read()
Listing 2 Another Listing
We can see that in the preamble these listings have been presented in a List of such listings.
3.3The Numbered Style
The style 1. Outline numbered is used to create numbered lists as follows:
1.first point
2.second point
3.and so on.
The numbering will continue from a previous list so you can always select the first element in a new numbered list, right click and choose Restart Numbering
3.4Bulleted Points
The style Bulleted can be used to create a set of bullet points as follows:
- Point 1
- Point 2
- Use these sparingly!
3.5Indented Paragraphs
If you want to indent a paragraph, say for a direct quotation of some text then the indented ordinary style provides a simple means of achieving this capability and is designed to align and justify the left hand margin with ordinary paragraphs.
“Thus this could be seen as a quotation that is more than can be fitted within the sentence structure and the indented ordinary style provides this capability” (Source)
Subsequent paragraphs are then likely to follow on and these will be ordinary paragraphs that make the quotation stand out. There is no need to italicise the quote because it stands out naturally.
The aim of formatting is to use the minimum number of styles so that the reader is not confused by a multiplicity of styles that detract from the message that you are trying to give the reader of your dissertation.
3.6Figure Fonts
The two Figure Fonts can be used to format text in drawings made using the draw package in Word.
3.7Normal
The style Normal is used as the basis for defining all other styles. Change Normal and all the other styles will change. In other words be conscious of the effect you might have.
As a general rule do not use Normal for any text that you type in!
3.8Changing a Style
If you select one of the styles you can click the choice button and this will bring up a set of options, including the places where the style has been used. In particular you can Modify a style. Changing a style in this way will change all occurrences in your document. If you click the Add to Template box then the change will be made in the template as well.
4Typical Structure of A Report
A report will comprise a number of chapters, some of which have a well defined content and others of which are specific to the type of project being undertaken. Section 1.4 of the Project Handbook gives broad guidance as to the required content. This chapter tries to convey the likely content of specific chapters, though in some cases, due to the nature of the project there will be deviation from this outline.
4.1Chapter 1
Chapter 1 provides the introduction to the project and the problem that is being solved. It gives a motivation as to why the problem is an interesting one to solve. It gives the general aim of the project and the specific measurable objectives that will be addressed during the project process. The last section of this chapter will briefly describe the content of each of the subsequent chapters.
4.2Chapter 2
Chapter 2 provides the background context to the project. Depending upon the project this will comprise critical reading and evaluation of appropriate material and how it has influenced the work that will be described in the next few chapters
4.3Middle Chapters
These chapters describe the bulk of the work undertaken and the process that has been adopted to achieve the objectives specified in chapter 1.
4.4Penultimate Chapter
This chapter discusses the achievement in terms of the original aims and objectives. This chapter may well reflect on the achievement in terms of what others have achieved in a similar area.
4.5Last Chapter
Critically reflects on the project process in terms of what was done, when and why and how, with hindsight, the process might have been improved. It might also identify any areas for further work.
References
Insert references here using a standardised Reference Style (e.g. APA. See the yellow handout or
Appendix
Insert content here and for each of the other appendices, the title may be just on a page by itself, the pages of the appendices are not numbered, unless it is a document that is internally numbered. Ensure that you use the Appendix Heading style for each of the Appendices otherwise they will appear in the Contents List and will be inconsistent as they are not numbered.