Hi, Richard from WordifyScience here. Following our last formatting guide about tables of content, a number of people had more general requests about basic styles and formatting with MS Word. This is understandable if you are used to working in a different environment with other tools, or are new to the game of submitting papers. For help with planning and writing a thesis paper from scratch, see Sylvia's blog here.
If you have started your thesis, dissertation or manuscript already, the 7 tips for formatting with MS Word in this post will help you out and save you some frustration and valuable time.
Many people focus on the content, not the style, when writing a paper, and rightly so. However, to get your dissertation or thesis accepted, you will need to make it presentable and easy to understand – this is why journals and universities have detailed style guides.
To prepare your work for journal and university submission, you will have to meet the formatting and style guidelines, as these can be quite different for each institution. The guides are there for a reason and although some of the requirements may seem unnecessary or even odd, your work may suffer if it looks untidy as it is reviewed (first glance - negative bias); so you need to get the styles right for your work to even be considered and stand the best chance of being appreciated.
Here are 7 of the most important tips for formatting your thesis or dissertation:
#1 Set up Styles
Really, they save a ton of time and make formatting more simple
When you set up styles, you are able to apply many formatting changes in one go: this is easily the best way to save the most time. Define a style for each type of text that you will need to use - as a minimum, define styles such as body text (normal) and headings.
While setting the formatting for each style, I suggest you add each respective style to the style ribbon for quick access while you further work; this will save you valuable time when applying the correct format as you go or after you have drafted the text.
You can also remove styles you do not need or use from the styles pane, so that it does not get cluttered and confusing – I usually remove all styles except the ones that I need for my working document.
Equally, you can update the style later and apply this change to all text of that style; this is handy if you spot an inconsistency, for example in your level 1 heading, and need to update all of the text appearance of that style.
#2 Insert a Table of Contents (See expanded post here)
A Table of Contents (also abbreviated as ToC) is an automated field, and so you will be happy to know that you will not need to write it manually. MS Word uses the heading styles for your ToC, so all you need to do is check that the headings that you have set are included and remove the default ones if you are not using them.
Look in the references tab on the ribbon and select Table of Contents.
Note: be sure to update your ToC after you have finished all editing. Often, the page numbers will have changed as you add content, but will not show correctly in the ToC unless you update the ToC field. If you spot errors in the heading(s), do not change them in the Table of Contents, but make sure to change the headings at their respective location in the document, and then update the ToC again.
Make use of styles to create your ToC. Here you can use a predefined style or customize your own, using the settings.
If your thesis paper features tables and/or figures, you should also add a Table of Tables and a Table of Figures, respectively. These usually appear after the ToC, and to insert them, you can simply follow the same steps as for inserting your ToC – choose custom and then switch the table on the dialog box to Table of Tables or Table of Figures (for more instructions see my earlier blog post).
#3 Regular Saves / AutoSave and Version Control
We all only know too well what happens when we forget to save our work. So please, please use AutoSave - power cuts and accidents only seem to happen when you have made good progress and not saved your work. Irritatingly, Microsoft now requires the file to be saved in their cloud to use the autosave function, so I suggest to make a habit for yourself to save your work often by using the shortcut keys ctrl + s (for Windows) or command + s (for Mac) after every paragraph.
Additionally, you I recommend to regularly change the file name for your paper at the start of each session. This can be easily done by adding a suffix such as _v01 symbolizing version 01 (file name in this case for example myreport_v01.docx), or _v02 for your version 02 (file name then for example myreport_v02.docx). This will allow you to go back to earlier versions of your work, in case you lose content in your newest version or when you want to go back to earlier drafts of your work.
#4 Split View
When you need to refer back to a table/chart/text on another page, split view really helps. No more going backwards and forwards endlessly to review your data. This feature is tucked away under the view tab of the ribbon and it is possible to resize either window to suit your need.
#5 Track Changes and Comments
When you are collaborating on a document with other scientists or researchers, or co-authoring a paper, you will be exchanging a great deal of information and sharing a lot of the editing tasks. The MS Word Review function incorporates the possibility to include new comments or contribute/reply to existing comments under the review option on the toolbar ribbon.
Here you can add small or large comments without disrupting the main text; you can also reply to comments that other contributors or co-authors made, which is a good way of recording the progress made or highlight areas that need further review.
The other important option for you to use in the review tab is track changes. When you send your manuscript to a colleague or friend for review, be sure to have this feature turned on; that way MS Word will monitor all the changes made. When you get the document back, you will be able to review all changes made and have the choice to either accept or decline the amendments – which is giving you more control.
#6 Footnotes and Endnotes
An integral part of a good quality academic research paper is to cite scientific sources or references in the correct way. This can be done with the help of a reference software, such as for example EndNotes or Mendeley, or via the MS Word feature footnotes/endnotes.
Footnotes are generally used to add further explanations or comments to the text. For example, when you point to another website, you could add the source in a footnote, together with the date of when you accessed that source.
MS Word has these options under the references tab and these will add superscript numbers where they are inserted. The bonus here is if you need to move text around the numbers reorder themselves saving you the time of changing them manually.
In some fields, the use of footnotes can be seen as a bit outdated, as they can interrupt the flow of reading. In this case, endnotes may be the preferred option. However, scientific papers still use footnotes, as in that case Endnotes are reserved solely for the cited scientific references.
At WordifyScience, we always use specialist reference software for keeping track of our (clients') references. This way we are able to build reference libraries, which can save valuable time when working on multiple papers dealing with the same subject, in which case the same references can be reused without having to enter all of the information about them again.
#7 Equations
Almost all scientific dissertations or manuscripts will require the use of super of subscript text. Many will also need to include a few equations. Please do not try to type them manually as this messes with the line of the text and can do strange things to your text formatting; instead use the Equations tool in the insert tab.
This tool makes setting up equations a lot more convenient and has all of the brackets and indices that you may need. There are many more basic tools that MS Word provides; the ones featured here are just a few that beginners can get started with.
If you require any assistance with editing, formatting and proofreading, or to create an EndNotes library, please feel free to reach out to us here at WordifyScience to get some expert help, or visit our website to check out our PhD and Masters student services package, which is a favourite among our student community.
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