Word Processing for Technical Report Writers

WORD PROCESSING for TECHNICAL REPORT WRITERS

WORD 6 VERSION

Peter McInally

Translated to Farsi by Taghi Vahidi
February 2001
 

Table of Contents

1. INTRODUCTION
The main product of geologists, engineers, translators and other professionals is its written reports, so it is essential for all professional staff to be proficient in word-processing. This guide is designed to help. It is irreverent, opinionated and designed to be less boring than the average computer book. It was going to be called “Technical Typography”, but I couldn’t spell this.

There are many common deficiencies in technical and management reports prepared by typists and professional staff alike. These include:
 

	•	Format of documents - it is clear from the appearance of documents that word processors are not being fully or correctly utilised and documents are not standardised for format, layout, fonts or styles. The end result is that each report has a different look and feel, and there are significant differences in different parts of the same document.
	•	Problems with multiple use of the space bar, incorrect use of tab spaces and failure to use non-breaking spaces between values and units. Failure to use macros to automate repetitive tasks and to make them consistent.
	•	Table of contents is prepared manually and often is incomplete.
	•	Traceability - there is no means of identifying the electronic files used in making reports. This does not meet the requirements for a Quality Assurance system, and prevents re-use of work.
	•	Spelling - a high number of typographical errors detracts from the effect of any report.
	•	Units - the SI system is generally applied, but inconsistently and incorrectly. A professional must correctly use the engineering and scientific units of his profession.
	•	Tables - these are poorly formatted and seem to create problems in presentation.
	•	Drawings and illustrations - these are inserted into the documents by cutting, pasting and photocopying. This looks poor and makes it difficult to reproduce the document and impossible to hold a complete master copy in electronic format.
	•	Captions and references are not standardized. Some items are titled and referred to, others are not titled, and some are referred to repetitively.
	•	Use of numbers in reports is inconsistent. In some cases a number is inserted as “5” and in other places as “five”, etc.
	•	Appendices - where computer printouts are inserted in the back of the documents these have a range of styles and are often inconsistent, even within the same report.

This document is designed to introduce concepts and principles and to improve understanding of the use of Word to the point where professional and secretarial staff can make informed and intelligent use of this basic tool.

Most users learn the software by rote and never understand the principles which have been followed by the authors. The problem with this approach is that unexpected things can happen and then the normal user is unable to resolve the problems which arise. In many documents we find evidence of forced formatting, where the typist attempts to defeat problems in the software by manually formatting text, repeated use of the space bar etc. This can be avoided if you are prepared to briefly consider some points on how the software works. If you can understand how it works, then you can work with it. Otherwise you will be forced to work against the software.

This has been customized for Word 6, which is a very good version of Word. Word 6 is almost identical to Word 7, which is known as “Word for Windows 95”. The only real change at this stage was the introduction of long file names. Word 6 is still limited to eight alpha-numeric characters, plus the file tag. However, you should note that Word 97 is faulty software, and should not be used. Three versions of this software have been released by Microsoft and these are called Word 97, Word 97 Serial Release 1 (SR 1) and Word 97 SR 2. if you come across a copy of Word 97 you can find which version it is by clicking on Help, About Microsoft Word, and reading the top line of the drop-down menu. If it says Word 97, then all of the numbering functions (numbered headings, page numbers, numbered captions and Table of Contents) do not work. If it says Word 97 SR 1 then half these functions work. If it says Word 97 SR 2, then 90% of the numbered functions work - but only about 90% of the time.

So, if you are using Word 6 then do NOT upgrade to Word 97. Learn to use Word 6 first and if there is a good reason to upgrade your software, then go directly to Word 2000, which does seem to work.

2. USING WORD PROFESSIONALLY
Microsoft Word often appears to be difficult and illogical. Many users waste considerable time fighting with the software in order to produce their work. There certainly are problems in using this modern and comprehensive package, including:

 

	1.	The manuals appear to have been written either by the persons who wrote the software (who therefore cannot see any problems in using it), or by non-technical writers.
	2.	The on-line Help system generally will tell you how to do something, but only if you first know exactly what you want to do.
	3.	There are lots of complex features - most of which are not necessary for technical writers.
	4.	The features required for preparation of technical reports are hidden away deep in menu boxes.
	5.	There are too many ways to “force format” a document, so that it looks OK - until you change a few words, change the printer or insert a line or two.

In reality 99% of users actually need to know only about 10% of the features of the current versions of Word, and these basic parts are simple and easy to use, - if we bother to understand the software. This document deals only with the parts of Word that are regularly used by engineers and planners to prepare technical reports and correspondence and does not include parts of the software package which are not used in report preparation. So if you want to know everything about Word then buy a big thick book and spend your holidays reading it. if you want to know the practical essentials, the read on.

2.1 DRIVING WORD
There are two parts to every word processor document - the text and the control codes. The control codes are the spaces, tabs, paragraph markers and the automatic fields which generate page numbers, dates, etc. Many users operate the software seeing only the text. This is like trying to drive a car by looking only at the road and ignoring the traffic signals. It may temporarily increase your speed but it is sure to end in disaster - because you are only seeing half the picture and have relinquished control of the document.

On the toolbars at the top of the screen there is a symbol “ ¶ ” which looks like a backwards “P”. If you position the mouse pointer over it, a label appears “Show/Hide”. This is the switch to show or hide the control codes within the document. Every professional user of Word needs to drive the package using the control codes, so that they are in control of the format, layout and behavior of the document, as well as the words.

When you work on the word processor, always click on this symbol and turn on the codes. This is essential. Failure to do this is the single greatest cause of problems in preparation of word processor documents. Do not drive blind. As a technical author you need to generate both the words and the control codes which dictate the behaviour of the document.

Finally. If you find yourself doing repetitive tasks in a word processor, then you probably are using it wrongly. If you ever hit the space bar twice, or use more than one tab, then stop and think. If you frequently use the space bar more than twice, then please stop, shut down the computer, and do not restart it until you have finished reading this guide!

2.2 THE FUNDAMENTALS OF WORD PROCESSING
Word is based on two fundamental concepts - styles and templates. If you understand what these two expressions really mean then you can start using Word in an intelligent manner. It is these two facilities which make a word processor different from an electric typewriter. Failure to use both of them in every document you produce reduces your expensive computer to a glorified typewriter.

2.2.1 Style
Style is not “style” in the sense of a manner of writing. It is nothing to do with a particular way of writing and could better be described as “text type”, “text specification”, “different types of text” or “a particular type of text”.

In a report we use different types of text to do different jobs. The headings, subheadings, headers, footers and captions all look and behave differently. In any word processor each type of text has a series of pre-defined properties and is referred to by a name. These names are things like “normal” text, “Heading 1” text, “Bullet list” text, “Caption” text, “Table of contents” text, etc.

Each different type of text used in the document is described as a “style”, and each style can be pre-defined by the software writers, redefined by the user, or it can be a completely new style defined by the user to suit his needs.

So a style is a particular type of text, defined in terms of the properties of the text, the position of the text on the page, and the space between the section of text and the next piece of text.

A style is applied to each paragraph. A paragraph is all the text between two “Enter” commands. A style cannot be applied to individual words within a paragraph, but individual words can be manually formatted to alter their appearance, using facilities such as underline, bold or italic text.

Each style is specified in terms of the font type, font size, text spacing, system of numbering, alignment of the text, space between paragraphs, and other properties. The specification of each style also includes the name of the style which will follow it. For example, the specification for a sub-heading may say that the next paragraph will be “normal” text, so as soon as you hit “Enter” to start the next paragraph, the style for the next paragraph will automatically change to the “normal” text style.

Style is so fundamental to Word that the box at the top left hand side of your screen shows the style of the current paragraph at all times. Look at the box at the top left hand side of your screen, below the menu commands. It (probably) says “normal”. This means that anything which you type will be in the “normal” style. The box indicates the style of the text at the current position of the cursor. As you move the “I beam” cursor around the document and click to position the flashing vertical cursor within a section of text, this box will show different styles.

If you click on the little button at the right hand side of this box then you will see list of named styles which are in use in the current document. These are simply titles for different types of text, each of which has different properties assigned to it. These properties have been set by Microsoft, but you can change them if you like and you can make your own styles. You can make a style called BigText, a style called FaxText, or a style called AhmediNormalText.

However, before attempting to change the default styles or to make new ones, lets try to understand what styles are and how they work.

2.2.1.1 Exercise 1 - Selecting Pre-defined Styles
On your computer start a new document and type “Chapter heading”, Enter. Then select the text (by highlighting it with the cursor) and push and hold the “Ctrl” key and then hit the “c” key, so as to copy it. Then push and hold “Ctrl” and hit “v”, to paste it. Repeat the paste operation another two times in order to make four copies of this text in a list like this:

Chapter heading
Chapter heading
Chapter heading
Chapter heading

Now go into the first paragraph by positioning the cursor anywhere in this line of text and clicking once. Then move your mouse to the Style window (the box at the top left of your screen), and click on the little arrow symbol to obtain a list of all styles which are available in the current document template (which was loaded when you created the new file).

Try selecting different styles, checking what happens to the selected paragraph each time. Exactly what happens depends on the current setting of each style on your machine.

I have done this on my machine. For clarity I have indented the results:
 

	3. CHAPTER HEADING
	This is what I get when I select style “Heading 1”.
	3.2	CHAPTER HEADING
	This is what I get when I select style “Heading 2”.
	3.2.1	Chapter heading
	This is what I get when I select style “Heading 3”.
	Chapter heading
	This is what I get when I select style “normal”.

So, the same text can look and behave quite differently depending on the style you assign to it.

If you don’t get automatic heading numbers appearing when you select any of the heading styles, then you need to tell the software that you want it to number headings automatically. Do this by clicking on “Format”, “Heading numbering”, and selecting one of the numbering formats.
 

	Figure 2-1 : Activating numbered headings

Try all of the styles listed on your computer and see the differences. Some number headings, others automatically number lists, and some are in different fonts.

The styles called Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3 etc., number headings with successive levels of number. But only if you have firstly told Word to number headings. The reason for this is that in some documents you may not want the headings numbered - but you may still want them to appear automatically in the table of contents, and to do the other things we want headings to do - such as stay with the following paragraph of text, be left aligned, appear as larger text, etc.

We tell the software to number headings by selecting “Format”, “Heading Numbering” and then defining the style of numbering we wish to use.

2.2.2 Exercise 2 - Defining a New Style
In order to fully understand the concept of “style” we will define a new style. We will call this style “Mystyle”, and we will use it to make blocks of text centred on the page, in 14 point Arial font with double line spacing. We will tell Word that when we finish using this style we want to leave a space of 18 points and then revert to “normal” style for the following paragraph.

 

	Figure 2-2 : Making a new style

Go to Format, Style (because we are going to set the format for a style), then select New. Word suggests a name for this new style called “Style1”. Change this to “Mystyle”. Then change the bottom of the four boxes to “normal”, so that when we finish using “Mystyle” Word will revert to the “normal” style. Leave the other two boxes so that the style applies to paragraphs and is based on the normal style. These settings mean that if the cursor is positioned anywhere within a paragraph and “Mystyle” is selected, then the whole paragraph will be set in that style. “Based on normal” means that all of the text parameters of the normal style will apply, unless you specifically change them in defining this new style. So “MyStyle” starts with the normal text settings, and you then modify them where you require changes in appearance and behavior.

Now go into Modify on the right hand side of the box. Then Format, then Font and set the parameters for the font to 14 point Arial, then click on OK, then select Format, Paragraph and set the paragraph parameters such as indents, double line spacing, text alignment etc. Then OK. This will bring you back to a screen which has Apply at the top right. Click Apply to apply the style to every paragraph which has been named as “MyStyle” in the current document.

This process demonstrates the meaning of style by defining a new style. You can set any of the formats and then save this style for future use. If you want to use this style in other documents in the future, then you click the little box at the bottom left of the second menu box - which is titled “Add to Template”. If you do this then the next time you go “File”, “New” to start a document, this defined style will already be stored and can be selected by name. If you do not click this box then this new style will only be available in the current document.

If you click Add to Template in the little box at the bottom of the menu box, then any changes you make to the style will be applied to any other documents which are made in the future using this “template”. The concept of a template will be explained in a later section.

2.3 TRICKS WITH STYLE
We can use style to determine how text behaves, as well as how text looks. This can be very useful in simplifying the layout of a document and to remove dangerous forced formatting (the awful “tab”, “tab”, “tab”, the dreadful “space”, “space”, “space” and the disastrous “Page Break”).

For example, we want to write a document in which every chapter will start on a new page. This can be done by using Heading 1 style as the chapter heading, and modifying the style.

Type “Project Outline”. Then with the active cursor (i.e., not the mouse pointer, but the flashing, active cursor) located anywhere within this paragraph, select Heading 1 in the style box at the top left of the screen, then:
 

	1.	Select Format, Style, Modify, Format, Font and set font to Arial 18 point bold, all caps,
	2.	Then select Format, Paragraph, Indents and Spacing, and set the spacing to 12 points before and 12 points after,
	3.	Then click onto the Text Flow menu and select Page Break Before and Keep With Next.

This will mean that every time you set the style of a piece of text to Heading 1, it will set the heading to the top of the next page, and all subsequent Heading 1 styles will automatically flick to the top of a page as the document expands.

This method of using “Format, Paragraph, Text Flow, Keep Together, Keep With Next” feature is the only safe way of keeping text together. Never use a forced page break (Ctrl + Enter) because this causes huge problems during subsequent editing of a document. If the margins, fonts or text are altered then the forced page break often results in one or two lines appearing on a page, followed by a large blank space. To keep text together, tables intact and on the same page, headings or captions (such as table headings) with the following text, you always select the relevant piece of text, then go to format “Format, Paragraph, Text Flow, Keep Together, Keep With Next”. Never use repeated space bars to push the text to the next page and do not use forced page breaks. Do it properly at the outset and enjoy the benefits later.

Text Flow, Keep Together, Keep With Next can be used for a variety of tasks such as keeping captions with tables, preventing tables splitting across two pages and for any similar tasks where we need to keep text together. In most versions of Word there is a bug in Keep Together, and just clicking Keep Together from the Text Flow menu will not prevent the paragraph from splitting across two pages. So we always have to use Keep Together plus Keep With Next. This bug is in Word 6, Word 7 and Word 2000. But Bill Gates is still the richest man on the planet, so I’m not saying too much in case I ever meet him in the pub.

2.4 ADVANTAGES OF STYLE
There are many significant advantages to using styles. These include:
 

	1.	You can redefine the style of the whole document by modifying the style of any paragraph. If you select a Normal paragraph and change any element of the style definition, then this will affect EVERY paragraph of the same style, and any paragraphs which are formatted in a style which is dependent on this style.
	2.	You can generate automatic table of contents.
	3.	You can edit the document in Outline mode.

2.4.1 Changing the Style of the Document
The layout, appearance and behavior of a whole document can be changed almost instantaneously by redefining one or more styles. For example, if I select Format, Style, Modify, Format, Font, and select Times New Roman, 12 point, then the text of this whole document changes. The Normal text becomes Times New Roman, 12 point, and the headings all become Times New Roman text, plus the additional specifications previously defined for each style - larger fonts, bold, capitals etc. This is because all of these styles have been created as “based on“ Normal. So when the Normal text style is altered, the basis of all dependent styles also changes. Automatically, instantaneously and totally consistently.

2.4.2 Generating Automatic Tables of Contents
The second major advantage of using styles In a document is that tables of contents can be generated easily, accurately and immediately.
Take a small document which must include headings which are defined as Heading 1, 2, 3 etc. Go to the start of the document and select “Insert, Index and Tables, Table of Contents”, then define how you want the table of contents to look by selecting a suitable pre-defined format, and selecting suitable options from the boxes. Most of these are obvious. The “Show levels” box selects the lowest level of headings you want to appear in the table of contents. If you set this to “2” then you will have Heading 1 and Heading 2 in the table of contents - regardless of whether you have used two or four levels of heading in the document.
 

	Figure 2-3 : Defining the Table of Contents

Click on OK and your table of contents will be generated and will appear at the top of the document. It will take a few seconds to generate, as it has to search the whole document looking for each of the specified levels of headings. For this reason the table of contents does not update every time you type a word, so do not be concerned if you insert a new subheading and do not see it in the Table of Contents on the screen. However, the Table of contents is automatically updated every time you close the file, and every time you print the file.

The table of contents normally is put into a separate section so that it does not mess up the page numbers by including itself in the numbered range. Sections are explained later.

2.4.3 Outline View
If you write a document using Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3 etc., and with text defined as Normal or some other style, then you can use Outline mode to edit or reorganize the document.

Open a suitable document, or make a small document with some headings and some text. Then select the View menu. Click on Outline. From the toolbar which appears select 1, to see only the Heading 1’s, 2 to see Heading 1’s plus Heading 2’s, 4 to see Heading 1’s, 2’s, 3’s and 4’s. Select All to see the text as well as the headings.

Re-select 1. Now select the last heading listed in the document, then click on the upward arrow. Repeat this. Every time you click this section moves up one. If it was Section 4, then it will be moved to Section 3, Section 2, etc. As it moves, all of the text, sub-headings, tables, figures, drawings etc., move with it. Click on “View, Page Layout” to see the full text and to check this.

Return to View, Outline, and practice moving sections up and down so that you can completely reorganise a document at the click of the mouse button.

You will soon learn that the hidden headings and text MOVE with the relevant exposed heading, but all displayed headings remain stationary and the selected heading (and its text) moves up or down relevant to the displayed headings. So if you want to move whole sections, display only Heading 1’s, but if you want to move sub-sections display the lowest level heading you want to move.

This feature is mainly used for editing the document, but it can also be used to find a section of the document and move to it. Select Outline mode, and select 3 to display Heading 3’s and upwards. Select any heading in any section and then select View, Page Layout. When the screen changes back to the normal Page Layout mode, you will be in the section you selected.

2.5 STYLES YOU SHOULD USE
The styles you must define for normal technical writing are:
 

	•	Normal - the main text in the report.
	•	Headings 1, 2, 3 and 4.
	•	Header text and footer text.
	•	Captions.
	•	Bullet lists.
	•	Numbered lists.

Word has in-built bullet lists and numbered lists but do not use these. The icons on the tools bars include a bullet list and a numbered list, but in fact these are merely Normal text with a number or a bullet added at the front. These may be OK for casual users, but they are not good enough for serious writing, as we need to control all aspects of the appearance of these lists, not merely accept Microsoft’s generic variety.

For example, we probably want a bullet list indented, possibly from both margins. We probably want to specify the space before and after each entry. We may want to specify that lists always stay together etc. So we do not adopt the primitive bullet and number list which is triggered by the icons on the tool bar, but we define a style to suit our own requirements. We do this using Format, Style, New, BulletList, etc. We associate the bullet list style with Alt+B, and the numbered list with Alt+L. we often want to convert some style text to Normal, so we associate this style with Alt+N.

2.6 THE END OF STYLE
Finally, style is at the end.

The codes which define the style are “stored” in the end of paragraph marker. The “¶” marker which signifies where the paragraph ENDS is the one which defines the style for the paragraph, NOT the “¶” marker BEFORE the start of the paragraph. The code which defines the style of the paragraph is associated with (or stored in) the paragraph marker, ¶.

¶

This is a paragraph, because it lies between two of the “¶” paragraph markers. The last “ ¶ “ defines the style of this paragraph.¶

It is important to understand this if you are to remain sane. Unless you understand this then the behavior of the word processor will often be inexplicable and frequently will be infuriating.

Make a paragraph using normal text style, followed by another paragraph in the style called Heading 2. I have included the paragraph symbols for clarity.
 

	This is my text paragraph. ¶
	¶
	1.1 THIS IS A HEADING 2 HEADER¶

Now, delete the paragraph marker between the two paragraphs (the normal text and the heading) and see what happens. The normal text goes crazy. It all becomes capitals and bold. “Why? What have I done? What is going to happen next?!!! .........”

The reason is obvious, if you think about styles. The text and the heading are no longer separated by a paragraph marker, so they have become one paragraph and the style of that paragraph is defined by the last paragraph marker. This is the one which is associated with Heading 2. So all of the text and the heading have now become Heading 2 style.

Don’t panic. Just go to Edit, Undo Typing and this will reverse the last action and restore the text and heading.

Alternatively, go to the start of the heading and put a paragraph marker in (by hitting Enter with the Show/Hide facility switched on), then redefine the first paragraph as Normal (put the cursor anywhere inside that paragraph, then click on the style box and select “Normal”).

2.6.1 Remember
 

	1.	Style is just a convenient way of defining and selecting different layouts for PARAGRAPHS.
	2.	If you select a style, then it applies to the whole of the current paragraph.
	3.	You can select a style before you start typing, or afterwards. The effect is exactly the same.
	4.	The definition of the style lives in the paragraph marker (¶) which occurs at the end of the paragraph. If you delete this marker then you delete all of the style information and the paragraph will take on the style from the very next paragraph marker.
	5.	You can change the style of any paragraph by placing the cursor within that paragraph, and selecting any style from the little box which is displayed at the top left of the screen.
	6.	If you don’t use style then you are confined to 10% of the power of the software. Failing to use style is like buying a BMW without knowing how to change gear. Refusing to use style is like buying a BMW and refusing to change gear.

 
2.7 HEADERS AND FOOTERS
All documents should have appropriate headers, footers, to identify the work, insert page numbers, and show the name of the file which has been used to generate the printed report.

To insert headers and footers select View, Headers And Footers. A small toolbar will appear, and the cursor will be in a box showing the header, with the document text showing in faint grey. Type the header. Use Normal style and then select it and manually set it to 10 point Bold, or use Format, Style, New to define a new style called HeaderText or similar. Use the tab ruler at the top of the screen to set the width of the header to match the page (by pulling the half arrows across). Click on the ruler at any position to insert a tab position, then drag it to the precise place you want text to align. Double click on any tab marker on the ruler and you can delete it, make it left aligned, right aligned, or centre aligned. Set the right side text position by defining a right tab position at the edge of the page.

To insert a line between the header and the report text, come into the last line of the header and hit Enter. Then select Format, Borders and Shading, and select the style of line you want and then indicate the bottom line on the box. This will make a line below your header text, with a blank line between this and the text on the page. The same technique can be used to put a line above the header. Make sure you have the Show/Hide facility switched to Show, in order to see the paragraph markers during this operation.

Now click on the leftmost symbol on the Headers and Footers toolbar in order to change between the header and the footer.

Type the footer data, using new styles you define, or in Normal text, 9 point, or different sizes for each row.

Insert the file name in the footer. The file name is inserted using a field. A field is an automatic entry which is generated and updated by the computer. It is automatic text and cannot be overtyped. There are about 60 types of fields in Word. These include automatic page numbers, the number of pages in a document, the date etc.

To insert the file name and the full path (the location of the file on the source disk) position the cursor on the left hand side of the footer and select Insert, Field, and in the left hand box, which shows the fields by category, select Document Information, then in the right hand box, select File Name. We could stop here, but we will select a couple of options to alter the format of the file name, and to show the full file path. Select Options, and then Title Case, then click on Add to Field. Now select the Menu box labelled Field Specific Switches. There is probably only one option “/p”, which will add the path name to the file name. Click this, click Add to Field, then OK and OK on all subsequent menus. This will insert the full file name in the footer. On my machine this looks like: D:\Guide2Reports\RepPrep.Doc. The precise format will depend on the folder structure you have established on your PC and the location of the file you are working on.
 

	Figure 2-4 : Insert. Field menu box		Figure 2-5 : File Name, Options menu box

You can then select the automatic file name (by dragging over it with the mouse) and set the font size, make it bold, italic or whatever you desire.

In general the file name should be kept small and should not be highlighted. Its purpose is simply to enable you and other staff to find the source file for any report (or letter, fax or contract, etc).

On my machine the fields inserted in documents always show up as shaded text like:
 

D:\Guide2Reports\RepPrep.Doc

This is useful so we can see that this is a field (and therefore cannot be deleted), and to differentiate it from text which is generated from the keyboard. This facility is switched on using Tools, Options, and selecting Always in the Field Shading box. Fields cannot be deleted by backspacing, but can be deleted by manually positioning the cursor within them and deleting, or manually selecting the whole field and deleting it.

When you are in the Options box, do NOT click on “Show Field Codes”. This will show the computer’s code, instead of the result. If we switch on “Show Field Codes” then our file name will show the actual code the computer uses to produce the result, like - {FILENAME \* Caps\p \* MERGEFORMAT }. This is of no use to man and is only of interest to computers, so do not use it.

Using these methods, I have generated an automated footer, as shown in Figure 2-6. The top left line is typed by the author, “Page” is typed, but the numbering is automatic and is inserted by clicking on the # symbol. The date can be typed, which prevents it changing, or automated by clicking on the symbol which represents the pages on a desk calendar. The file name MUST be automatic and generated using Insert, Field, File Name etc. This means that it will change if you alter the location of the file on your hard disc, print it from a floppy disc, or transfer it to another machine.
 

You can insert a company logo into the header or footer, provided you have it in a suitable electronic graphics file format, simply by inserting a frame, and then copying and pasting the graphic into this frame.

2.8 TEMPLATES
We have seen that a type of text has a style, consisting of the definition of the font, spacing etc. A type of document also can be named and a set of attributes describing that type of document can be defined. The definition of the format of a document, including the paper size, margins widths, line spacing, default font type, pre-set headers and footers and pre-set text styles etc., is the document template.

Templates are saved as file type Dot, e.g. “Normal.Dot”, “Letter.Dot”, “ProjectReport.Dot”, “EnviroReport.Dot” or “RevCostEst.Dot”, etc. When you select File, New you will see a list of the defined document types which are available on your machine. Each of these is a template.

A different display will come up on almost every machine, depending on how it has been configured. On many machines the templates are the original demonstration examples loaded by Microsoft. A typical example is shown in Figure 2-7. In fact these are useless for most users and you need to make your own templates for all the documents you will normally write. Then you should delete the examples which are supplied with the software.
 

	Figure 2-7 : Document Templates

When you select File, New and then Template, you can create a template by defining every aspect of the structure, appearance and behaviour of the document. You can save this template with any descriptive name (e.g. ProjectReport) and the next time you select File, New, this name will be included in the list of document types or templates.

When a file is created from a template (by selecting File, New, Document) and then saved, it is automatically saved as a document, not as a template file. Word automatically makes this a document file of the “.Doc” type, such as “MazGeol1.Doc”, “FaxMine1.Doc”.
 

	Figure 2-8 : "File New" Menu Box

We could define a document template called “Letter”. This definition could include the paper size, the margins, the position of the page numbers, and all of the text styles which you could conceivably use in a letter, such as “Address” (this could be set to align on the right hand margin), “Normal”, “Header” and “Footer”.

To create a template select File, New, and click Template in the box at the bottom right. Then select “OK”.

A blank document opens and then you make the necessary modifications, additions and deletions to define a template for a new type of document. These could include setting the size of the paper to A4, defining the text styles you want to be able to use, setting the layout so that the text is located at the top of the page, or at the centre of the page (for a cover etc), show heading numbers, define the language as English UK etc:
 

	1.	Set the page margins and other page layout options by selecting File, Page Set-Up, Margins, Paper Size, Layout etc.
	2.	Create and modify styles for different types of text which you will use in this type of document. This can be done in two ways: Typing several characters at the top of the page and then using Format, Style, New to define a series of styles. Once you are finished you can delete the text before saving the document, so that it is blank and the cursor is at top left.
	3.	Define headers and footers, using appropriate text styles.
	4.	Switch on Heading Numbering using Format, Heading Numbering.
	5.	Set the spelling to UK English by selecting Tools, Language, English (UK).

From the File menu, choose Save and provide a file name at the prompt. NISCOFax, TabasLetter, ProReport, GeolRep, Memo etc are suitable names. XXX or MyFile are not suitable template names.

Word saves the new template. The next time you select File, New, you will see this template listed, as shown in Figure 2-9. Each template has a generic header, footer, layout, fonts and styles defined to suit the particular type of document. So if I select PJMReport it has a heading on the left, but blank spaces for the report title on the right, etc.

It is so easy to make templates for all of your reports that you should wipe out all of the templates supplied with the software and write a full set of your own templates.

The easiest way to do this is to make one using File, New, Template, with all of your styles in it - the main font, the page layout, automatic footers etc., etc., then save it. Then re open it, make all necessary alterations and amendments to suit another type of document, and then save it again, making very sure you use File, Save As, assign a new descriptive name, and specify File Type as *.dot, so it is saved as a template file, not a *.Doc document file.
 

	Figure 2-9 : Templates on my machine

Many people seem to think that templates are too hard, so they make new files by taking an old file with a suitable format (fax, letter or report), save it with a new file name, wipe out all of the text and start again. This works - in the same way that you CAN start a fire by rubbing two sticks together. But this is a job for cavemen, not modern, sophistocated types like us!

Templates are what professional writers use. Modifying old documents and then continually fighting to get a report to look right is the approach of amateurs.
 

	Figure 2-10 : Creating a folder for templates

Practice making some templates. Start by making a special folder to store them. This allows you to keep track of your templates, and has the great advantage that you no longer have to suffer seeing the long list of useless templates supplied by Microsoft. To create a special folder for your templates, go into Windows Explorer in Windows 95 or 98, or File Manager in Windows 3.1, and use File, New, Folder to create and name a new folder such as D:\WordTepl, D:\WordTemplates or any other folder name (if you have Windows 95 or higher version, which support long file names). Once you return to Word, select Tools, Options, File Locations, select the row which says User Templates, then select Modify, and type the full path of the folder you have created, e.g. D:\PJMTemplates. Now, whenever you select File, New a list of all the template files stored in this location will appear.

The same process is used to make Word save a document file into a specified folder. First the folder has to exist, or be created. Then use Tools, Options, File Locations and select the top option - “Documents”, then click on Modify and change the default location for file saving and retrieving to this folder. You can save to other locations by using File, Save As, and specifying another folder for selected files, but the word processor should be set so that most files are saved automatically to the current folder.

2.9 WRITE A MACRO
Word champions use really advanced features called macros. “Macro” is an odd word, so clearly these must be extremely complicated! No they are not. Even a geologist or a mining engineer can write macros.

Now, we will write a macro.

Put in two paragraphs which we want to stay together and never to become separated on different pages.

This is the first paragraph.
This is the second paragraph.

Now, select the two text paragraphs by high lighting them. It doesn’t matter if you don’t get the whole lot - as long as you start the highlighting somewhere in one paragraph and finish somewhere in the other paragraph.

Now, select Tools, Macro. Then type the name of the macro into the box at the top left. Name this one “Together”. Then select Record and then select the Keyboard option. This means that the macro will be run by using a combination of keys. This will normally consist of the Ctrl key or the Alt key, plus one other, e.g. Ctrl+E, Alt+R. It generally is best to use Alt+something, because Word has a collection of in-built macros (which are also called “Short-cut keys”). These all use Ctrl+something as the key stroke. For example, Ctrl+C = Copy, Ctrl+V = Paste, Ctrl + X = Cut, etc.

So use Alt+K for this macro - “K” for “Keep-together”, so that you can remember it. Now select Record. The computer will now record all keystrokes and mouse operations until you tell it to stop.

Select Format, Paragraph, Text Flow, Keep Together, Keep With Next. You will see a Recording symbol alongside the cursor and two symbols at the top, left side of the screen. Select the Stop button (not the “X” symbol) to finish recording.

Now you can keep any blocks of text together simply by selecting them, then hitting Alt+K.

Select another two paragraphs and then hit Alt+K. With Show/Hide switched on you will now see a little black square alongside each paragraph, which is the control code for keep together, keep with next”.

You have now made and run your first macro. Join the experts!

This is the ONLY safe way to make text stay together. Never use multiple “Enters” or spaces to force paragraphs to the next page, and do NOT use CTRL+Enter to create a Page Break as this solves one problem, but generally creates the next one.

2.10 SECTIONS
A large document often needs to be broken into sections. Sections are used where we want a difference in layout in different parts of a document. This is necessary where we need to insert a page in landscape format, change headers for each chapter of a report etc.

To make a new section, use Insert, Break, Section Break, Next Page. This will break the document, starting with the next page. To change the hearers or footers in the new section, click on that section, then select View, Headers & footers. Now select the fourth symbol from the left, which is Same As Previous. This is a toggle switch, which makes the headers the same as the previous, or not the same as the previous header, each time it is clicked. If the header is the same as the previous one, then the dashed box surrounding the header will have “Same as Previous” at the top right hand side. Click on the button again and this text will disappear and the toolbar button will show as depressed. Click on it and it will show as raised, and the text on the header margins box will disappear and the header will be the same as the previous one.

Make the header in the new section not the same as previous and modify any properties you desire, such as a new chapter title.
 

	Figure 2-11 : Setting page numbers

The same process is used to customize footers in new sections. Most of this is obvious, but if you want to set page numbers in a multi-section document you use Insert, Page Numbers, Format. This allows the chapter number to be inserted before the page number, and for the page numbers to continue from the previous section (e.g. if we have to insert a single landscape page into a chapter to insert a table), or to start again from one - if it is a new chapter.

Before inserting a section put two or three Enter commands at the end of your document, then come up one Enter, and then insert the new section. This is necessary to allow you to move into the new section and start typing.

2.11 AUTOCORRECT
One extremely useful feature of Word is AutoCorrect. This is particularly useful for technical writers as we often have to repeat long and complex names and expressions.

AutoCorrect allows you to define codes. When you type one of these codes and then hit the space bar, it is changed to the corresponding text. For example we can tell the word processor to change any occurrence of “BEP” to “Bina Expansion Project”, or RS to “Rope Shovel” etc. To use this facility select the Tools menu and select AutoCorrect. Type a code (they are case sensitive) and then the words to replace it, then click on Add to add it to the permanent list of automatic replacements, then OK. Now whenever you type that code the replacement text will appear as soon as you hit the space bar.

You can delete or change entries readily, so you can afford to put lots of words into the AutoCorrect facility - both to simplify typing, and to correct common typing mistakes, including those which can be overlooked by the spell checker - things like “manger”” instead of “manager” or “ben” instead of “been”.

2.12 TABS
The tabs facility in Word is not perfect. In fact it is not very good. In fact it is hopeless. But we have to live with it, so we need to learn about it.

The Tab facility is on the keyboard just above the Caps Lock key. This works by predefining a series of tab stops and tab types across the page (this is done in the document template). Then every time you hit the Tab key the cursor will move to the next tab stop and adopt the defined tab type.

The tab types are:
 

	•	Left - the text will start at the tab position and appear to the right, so the text is left aligned.
	•	Right - the text will start at the tab position and appear to the left, so the text is right aligned.
	•	Centre - the text will start at the tab position and then spread in both directions - centred on the tab stop.

There are two other types - “decimal” and “bar”, but these are not commonly used, so worry about them later. When you are 73 years old should be soon enough.

To set tab stops and types you need to be able to see the ruler across the top of the screen - select View, Ruler. Now, position the cursor in a paragraph of text and then click on the ruler at 3, 5, 7, 10 and 13 cm marks. As you click a black “L” shape will appear. This shows that in the selected paragraph tab stops have been set at each of these positions, so every time you hit the tab key, it will move the cursor to the next defined position.

To change the tab position for the current paragraph you can drag them along the ruler. If you put two tabs in the same position on the ruler, then one of them is deleted.

Alternatively you can double click on the ruler and enter the Format, Tabs menu. In this you can select any tab position and delete it, change its type, or insert a new tab at a defined position.

One problem you will frequently encounter is documents which have too many tab positions. As the tab positions are too close together, people start to use two, three or eight tabs to align text.
 

	Figure 2-12 : Removing multiple tab characters

To get rid of these in a document which has been poorly typed, you can use Edit, Replace, Special, to replace two tab characters with one tab character. Repeat this until you get “0 Replacements” appearing. This will mean that any text in the whole report which used to be separated by two or more tabs is now separated by one tab.
 

	Figure 2-13 : Setting tab types

The second stage in the operation is to set the tab spacing to something reasonable, so that text separated by a single tab will appear as distinct, aligned columns. To do this hit CTRL+Home key, to go to the first character in the document. Now push and hold Shift to start selecting. Now push and hold CTRL and hit the End key to go to the last character in the document. This will select everything between the start and the end of the text. Now click on the ruler at every position you want a tab. If you want different types of tabs, then use Format, Tabs to open the menu, select the tab you want to change, and select the type of tab you want. This will show on the ruler, as well as in the menu box.

If you want to have different tabs within one document than you select the part of the document you want to change (the paragraphs) and use the ruler or the Format, Tabs menu to alter them.

On the ruler you will also see the symbols which define the position of the left and right hand ends of the text area. These can be altered by selecting the whole document, and then dragging the arrow markers, or by selecting one or more paragraphs and dragging the arrow markers. If you select the little box on the bottom of the left hand marker, then both arrows move together. If you drag the top arrow, then this will indent the first line of the Paragraph. If you drag the bottom arrow only, then the start of the paragraph stays still and the body of the paragraph is indented.

If you want to select the tab positions and tab types for headers or footers, you first select View, Headers and Footers, then select the whole header, then set the tabs as required. The click on footer, select the whole footer and repeat the process.

So, tabs are relatively simple as long as you remember that changes apply only to the current paragraph, or selected paragraphs. So if you want to change the tabs throughout a document then you must select the complete document. If you want to change the tabs on one page, then select all of the paragraphs on that page.

3. HOW TO PUT A DRAWING INTO A WORD DOCUMENT
Many technical and business reports are greatly improved by inclusion of drawings to clarify ideas, illustrate application of principles, and to break up the mass of text. Most computers have a drawing package loaded. This is Power Point, which is one of the parts of MS Office. You need to learn to draw with this package. There is a rudimentary drawing package built into Word, but this is an inferior product and it is considerably more efficient to use the drawing package in Power Point and then to copy the drawing into Word.

3.1 STAGES IN PROCESS

The process in Word Version 6 is:
 

	1.	Insert frame
	2.	Define the position and size of the frame.
	3.	Copy the graphic in Power Point, then switch to Word.
	4.	Paste graphic inside frame.
	5.	Put a border around the GRAPHIC.
	6.	Put a caption within the frame, but outside and beneath the area of the graphic.

It is important to realise that you are dealing with two areas - the area of the frame and the area of the drawing. The area of the frame will show as a wide zone of lines with eight handles when you click inside it. This is the area which is “reserved” for graphical uses. The second area is the area of the drawing or object - i.e. the size of the thing which you import, which can be bigger OR smaller than the frame area. The drawing area is defined as a thin solid line, with eight handle markers, when you click within it.
 

	1.	Insert a frame at the point and in the area you want the drawing to appear. Do this with Insert , Frame.
	2.	Position and define the frame. Select frame so handles show, then go Format, Frame. The safest option is to tie the frame to a position on the page. If you tie it to a paragraph it walks around the document and creates blank spaces when printing and general chaos when adding or subtracting text. At bottom right of box, select Vertical Position Relative to Page, Lock Anchor, then define the position on the page. 2.9 cm is the top of most pages. Do not use margin as the anchor, as if you change the header or footer the drawing will print over the margin. (This is just another of those jobs that Microsoft haven’t quire got around to fixing - after ten years of Word!)
	3.	Once you have the frame in the right position, by a bit of trial and error, select the horizontal position. Do this relative to MARGIN, then left, or centre. The distance to text is the horizontal distance only. If you want to increase space below the frame, select the frame and pull down on the bottom centre handle.
	4.	Set the width of the frame on left hand side of the box.
	5.	Go into PowerPoint. Find the drawing as a slide in a slide show. Make sure that it does not have a hand-drawn frame or a caption. Remove these if they are present on the drawing. Select the area you want, then click. Then CTRL + C to copy into the Windows clipboard.
	6.	Then minimize Power Point and go to Word. Put the cursor inside the frame you have already made and click, so it gets a shaded edge to show frame is active. Then CTRL + V to Paste contents of clipboard into the frame.
	7.	Put a border around the graphic element. Do this by clicking inside the graphic so the solid outline and handles appear. then use Format, Border, then Box and select 1.5 line thickness.
	8.	Then select Insert, Caption, and Figure 1,2,3,4 etc. will appear. Type ONLY the name for the figure. Then if you insert another frame they all will re-number automatically.
	9.	The size of the resultant figure will adjust to suit the defined width of the frame, so be careful to set the width correctly, but never mind the height.
	10.	To re-size a frame , click on the frame outline, NOT on the graphic inside the frame which will select the drawing. Then drag and drop on the frame handles - corners and middle of sides and top/bottom.
	11.	To re-size drawing inside the frame, click on drawing area to get object handles for the graphic and drag to decrease size of drawing, without affecting the size of the frame.
	12.	To remove a figure click within the graphic area to select it, then use DEL key. Then select the frame and DEL again.
	13.	Alter distance between this text and frame by Format, Frame, Vertical, Distance To Text, And Horizontal, Distance To Text commands. Remember this acts on the FRAME and not the GRAPHIC area.

The illustrations below show how a drawing created in Power Point can be inserted into a document, at any required size, at any desired position.

The characteristics of the drawing are set by defining the format of the frame. Click on the frame, and then Format, Frame. This allows you to define the position, distance to text etc., of the frame.

The location of a frame within a document is defined by a little “anchor” symbol, which appears when Show/Hide is correctly switched on AND the frame is selected. This shows which paragraph is the anchor point for the frame. You can move a frame to another paragraph by dragging and dropping, or you can define the nature of the anchor point so that the figure stays in the same place regardless of moving the text, etc. This is done using Format, Frame and testing the meaning of each of the options presented in the box.
 

The anchor appears only when you select the associated frame. If you have a frame in a document and find you cannot delete a paragraph marker, then this probably is a paragraph which has a frame anchored to it. Select the nearest frame and you probably will see an anchor appear alongside the paragraph marker :
 

Once a frame is inserted and positioned than you can alter the size and shape of the graphic simply by selecting it and dragging it. However, if you drag the graphic so that part of it extends outside the frame, then you will see only the part which is inside the frame. The frame is a “reserved space”. The rest of the document is available for text entry, but the frame is reserved for other things - drawings, photographs, clip art (which normally should never be used in a professional report), or other text, which you want to separate from the body of the report.
 

3.2 INSERTING CAPTIONS ON FIGURES
Once you have a figure inserted with a drawing or other graphic, you need to insert a caption to explain its meaning. To do this select the graphic by clicking anywhere on it and then go to the menu and select Insert, Caption, and follow the prompts. Select Numbering box if you want to alter the numbering, for example, to include the chapter number in the caption.

3.3 FIGURE REFERENCES
The general rule in technical writing is that each figure must be referred to in the text, but only once. So do not put in a figure if you don’t refer to it, and don’t have three statements all saying “see Figure 3.4”. If the illustration is titled Figure 3.1 etc., then the text reference should refer to it as Figure 3.1 etc., not figure 3.1, or Fig 3.1. All figure references MUST be inserted using Insert, Caption, and captions must never be numbered by hand.

You can automate cross-references so that they will update if you add or delete figures this by using Insert, Cross Reference, but only AFTER you have inserted a caption. If you select Insert, Cross-Reference, you can select Tables, Figures and some other choices. You then will see a list of the Figures etc., which are in the document, and you select the one you want to reference. Then select the second option for form of reference, so that it says Figure 1-1 etc., not the whole caption.

4. NUMBERS IN REPORTS
The general convention in technical writing is that all numbers between zero and ten are written in text, and all numbers larger than ten are typed as numbers. There are exceptions - for example mixed numbers and text should be avoided. Do not write “.. from five to 56”, for example. But using numbers in text looks sloppy. This is 1 thing that you should avoid.

5. UNITS IN REPORTS
Technical workers use the SI system of units. The SI unit system of units is an internationally accepted system which defines the physical units of measurement and their usage. This is a formal, defined system which has been developed to avoid confusion and inefficiency. Clearly it would be confusing if you decided to call an orange an apple, or that the number 12 should be spoken as the word “eight”. There are many obvious advantages in understanding and communication if we all agree on a precise system of units and then abide rigorously by these definitions.

The advantages of having a rigorous system of units are obvious, but there appears to be a general lack of understanding of the logical basis of the SI system of units. As a result it is common for individuals to make up their own unit systems, or to take wild guesses as they go along.

Hopefully these notes will spell the demise of errors such as the “Kw”, the “v”, the “gj”, the “Joule” and the “mT”.

5.1 POSITION OF UNITS
A unit is a descriptor which qualifies a quantity. So there must be a space between the number and the unit, as in “10 zebras”, “12 apples”, “10 tonne” or “10 t”, not “10zebras”, “12apples”, “10t”, etc. Thus “5 km” is significantly different from “5km”. One is a unit, the other is as inexplicable as “fivekilometres”. There must be a space between the numerator and the unit and this must be a non-breaking space, as explained in Section 5.4.

5.2 SI NAMING CONVENTIONS
There is considerable confusion regarding capital letters in unit names. Is a kilowatt abbreviated as kW, KW, kw or Kw?

There is a very simple way of remembering whether a unit is written with a capital or in lower case.

When units are written in full they are always lower case.

So “pascal”, “watt”, “volt” and “kilometre”.

When a unit is abbreviated it is written with a capital only if it is named after a person.

So...
 

	•	amps are named after Ampere, so are written as “5 amp” or “5 A”
	•	volts are named for Voltaire, so “5 volt” or “5 V”
	•	hertz are named after Hertz, so “5 hertz” or “5 Hz”
	•	watts are named for Watt, so “5 watt” or “5 W”
	•	pascals are named after Pascal, so “5 pascal” or “5 Pa”
	•	joules are named after Joule, so “5 joule” or “5 J”
	•	newtons are named after Newton, so five newtons is written as “5 newton” or “5 N”.
	But, meters are named for the standard meter, not after Mr Meter, so “5 meter” or “5 m”. Grams are also an arbitrary unit of mass, so “500 gram” or “500 g”, not 500 G. The metric tonne (1000 kg) is not named after anybody, so it must be abbreviated as “t”.

5.3 MULTIPLIERS
Most units are prefaced by a multiplier. The accepted multipliers are defined as either upper or lower case and the cases are not interchangeable. The definition of common multiples is :
 

	Factor	Prefix	Symbol
	1015	peta	P
	1012	tera	T
	109	giga	G
	106	mega	M
	103	kilo	k
	102	hecto	h
	10	deca	da
	10-1	deci	d
	10-2	centi	c
	10-3	milli	m
	10-6	micro	μ
	10-9	nano	n

The difficult one to remember is mega or million. However, a millimetre is written as “mm”. So the small “m” is assigned to “milli”, or one thousandth, so it cannot also be used to represent 1 million. So if “milli” is “m” then million must be M. As M also stands for mega or 106 it is clear that we should use Mt for million tonne.

Note the convention: When written in full all quantities are lower case, so ”gigajoule”, “kilometre”, “centimetre” and “megapascal”. When written in abbreviated form the case of the multiplier becomes important. So
 

	kV, not KV or Kv.
	MV, not mV.
	kVA, not KVA.
	kW not KW.

Note also that the mN is 10-3 newton or 1 millinewton, while the MN is 106 newton or 1 meganewton, so it is important to use the correct case.

Also note that there is no space between multipliers and the unit name. For example, the kilometer (“thousandmetre”) is written as “km”, not as “k m”, the kilogram is written as “kg”, so the megapascal is written as MPa and not as M Pa.

So “1 million tonne per year” should be “1 Mt/yr” and not “1 mt/yr” or “1Mt/yr” or “1 M t/yr”.

5.4 KEEPING UNITS AND NUMBERS TOGETHER
It clearly is a big advantage if the quantity and the units stay on the same line. For instance, “5 Mt”, is better than split units which often occur in reports, such as “5
Mt”.

There is a simple way to keep the units and the quantity together. This is called the “non-breaking space”. It can be used by typing the number then holding down Ctrl + Shift simultaneously, keeping them down, then hitting the Space bar.

This should be used between all numbers and their units, because you never know if it will end up near the end of a line as the document grows.

It is also possible to use non-breaking hyphens for words which are hyphenated, but which you do not want to split between two lines. Shift + Ctrl + hyphen does this.

5.5 REPLACING SPACES IN REPORTS
If you are editing a report and find that numbers and units are separated by ordinary spaces, rather than non-breaking spaces then you can rectify this easily.
 

	Figure 5-1 : Replace function

Select Edit, Replace. In the top box type 0 followed by a space, making certain that there is NO space BEFORE the 0. Then select Special, and find Non-Breaking Space. This will replace the space between all zeros and the following unit with a non breaking space. Then repeat this to replace 1 space with 1 non-breaking space, then repeat for 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. This is such a useful tool that it would be a good idea to write this as a macro, store it on Ctrl + R or some similar key, and then you will be able to take any document and convert all of the normal spaces between numbers and units into non breaking spaces in seconds. This will impress your friends, give you something to talk about at the Computer Nerds Convention, and save you hours of work.

Select Tools, Macro. Type a name, such as ReplaceSpaces, then select Record, click on the keyboard symbol and select Ctrl+R as the assigned keys. Now select Edit, Replace, 0 Space With 0 Non-Breaking Space (inserted using Special), click OK, wait until it says x replacements have been made, click OK. Now change the 0 to a 1 on both lines in the box, click OK, and OK. Then change the 1 to 2 and repeat etc. After you reach 9 you can stop. Click on the “Stop Recording” button, or go to Tools, Macro, Stop Recording.

Now you can replace the spaces between any number and any unit throughout a whole document simply by pressing Ctrl + R.

Hopefully this will also remind you that even quite advanced macros are very easy to write - even for normal people.

6. TABLES FROM EXCEL
All complex tables should be made in Excel and copied into Word. Excel is an extremely powerful program, but it can also be used to prepare numerical data in table format, and to automatically sum it etc.

Work in Excel and when you have finished and checked the table, delete any blank rows, then select the whole table with the cursor, hold down the CTRL key and hit C (CTRL+C = Edit Copy). Now go to the place in your document where you want the table to appear and hit CTRL+V to paste it in.

To format the table go to Table, Select Table, and you can then operate on the whole table to set column widths using Cell Height And Width, Column, AutoFit. Set the table in the middle of the page by using Cell Height And Width, Rows, Centre. If you have previously defined a text style for tables (style TableText or similar name), then you can click on the style box and set the text to this style. If you want the table to stay together as a single block then select Format, Paragraph, Text Flow, Keep Together, Keep With Next. Then you can use Format, Borders And Shading, Borders to put lines on the table, Format, Borders And Shading, Shading to set the colour and shading of the table etc.

When you have finished the formats which apply to the complete table, you can click on a cell in the top row to de-select the complete table, then select the top row and make it bold, then do the same for the bottom row, if it contains totals etc.

Put a caption on the table by using Insert, Caption, and selecting Table, and make sure the style definition includes Text Flow, Keep Together, Keep With Next.

Because we deal with tables a lot, it is worth writing a macro to automate these processes. With a little trial and error you will be able to write a macro and assign it to Alt T (or another key combination), which will allow you to insert a table, then put the cursor anywhere inside the table, and hit Alt + T, which will then set every aspect of the table format using the parameters you have previously set. Define a style for table text before writing this macro.

6.1 TABLES IN APPENDICES
In many reports we need to include calculations and spreadsheets as appendices. These are best printed directly from Excel, but the headers and footers must match the report, the material must be printed using the same type face and every page must be traceable.

In order to simplify this process it is possible to alter the settings on the default Excel template which is opened whenever you start to make a new spreadsheet.

This is done by making a “AutoTemplate” workbook which has the headers, footers, layout and fonts which you prefer for most of your work. If the header has the file name and sheet titles then it is possible to trace the document.

The process is simple. In Excel:
 

	•	Click on Help
	•	Type “AutoTemplate”
	•	Select “create an AutoTemplate for new workbooks”
	•	Follow the instructions…

In order to get every page on the workbook to have the same format e.g. the filename + sheet name in the header, the date + page number in the footer, all set to 10 pt Arial etc. etc., we need to select every page in the spreadsheet before setting the formats.

To select every page in the workbook:
 

	1.	Move the cursor to Sheet 1, the first sheet in the workbook.
	2.	Hold down SHIFT and click on the sheet name tab of Sheet 1.
	3.	Use the right-most of the four arrow symbols at the bottom of the spreadsheet screen to move to the last page in the workbook.
	4.	Hold down SHIFT again and click on this sheet name tag.

This will select all pages between Sheet 1 and the last page in the workbook. Now set page margins, headers and footers etc., by using Page Set-up, Margins, Custom Header, Custom Footer etc., to put the file name, sheet name and other data onto all pages.

Finally, before you save the new template you must de-select the sheets, and return the cursor to Sheet 1, cell A1, so that when you start any new spreadsheet the cursor will be in the first cell of the first sheet. Do this by using the left-most of the four arrow symbols to return to Sheet 1, then hold down the SHIFT key and click on this tag. The other sheet tags will return to the original grey color and these are no longer selected. Then use CTRL + Home to put the cursor on cell A1, then Save the file using Save As with the special name “Book”, with file type “template”, in the correct folder. This may be C:\MSOffice\Excel\XLStart, but it depends on the configuration of your computer and the location of software.

Once you have done this all pages will print with similar style headers and footers and with the same fonts and layouts.

7. CONCLUSION
It is possible to use a word processor in two ways - by setting the format yourself, like you would on a typewriter, or by learning how to use it as a computerised writing and document preparation tool.

If you are prepared to spend six or seven hours learning how to use Word then you can start to prepare better documents, to write faster and to make report preparation easier. Unless you do this then there will be an obvious limit to the quality of your reports and any informed reader will be able to see the signs of amateur use of the word processor.

Lack of skill in using a word processor can reduce excellent material to a poor report. Expert use of the word processor can make even poor material look good. Obviously we are aiming to produce excellent material and to present it to a matching level.

There are many more facilities included within all word processors, but this document attempts to outline the minimum number of features which will enable you to produce reports of the highest quality - quickly, efficiently and consistently.