Setting Up Your Document In MS Word

1. Setting up your document )

Margins

1. Layout>Margins>Custom Margins…
   
   

2. Enter the margins as follows:
   Top & Bottom = 2.3cm, Left = 4cm, Right = 2cm. Click ‘OK’.

If printing double sided,  select ‘Mirror Margins’. 

Page Numbers

3. Insert>Page Number>Plain Number
   
   

4. On the tab, Header & Footer, that appears, change the Header from Bottom to 1.2cm (so you can have more text on a page).
   
   

5. Select Cover Page. Choose a design you like (it’s generally best to keep it simple)
   

2. Formatting a document

Headings and styles

6. To create a heading for a new, top level section/chapter (e.g. abstract, literature review, methodology, etc.) select the Style Heading 1.
   For subheadings/subsections, select Heading 2.

See your document’s structure: View>tick Navigation Pane 

7.  To alter how a heading looks, right click it and select Modify…. Change the font, size, alignment, line spacing and spaces before/after.
   These changes will apply to all headers of that type.
   
   

8. For each heading to automatically increase in number, select the multilevel list button (near the bullet point list button). Either select the automatic option as shown, or Define New Multilevel List…
   
   

9. To add a recurring word (e.g. chapter, section, etc.), use the Enter formatting for number option. 

Quickly alter how headings look:
Design>Document Formatting

Page breaks

10.  To quickly start a new page: Insert>Page Break
    
    
    If you are inserting text which needs different formatting (e.g. data excerpt with line numbers):
    Layout>Breaks>Continuous>add text/excerpt
    At the end of the text/excerpt, add another Continuous break.
    
    

To paste text with no formatting
(so it matches the text in your document):
Home>Paste>Keep Text Only

Synonyms

11. If you want help thinking of a similar word, right click the word (no need to highlight it) and hover over the Synonyms option. 

If you want more options, select Thesaurus; a new menu will open.

Images

12. To insert an image: Insert>Illustrations sections.
    Choose what type of image you wish to insert.

Using lots of images or shapes together? Insert>Shapes>New Drawing Canvas.
Now it won’t affect the rest of the document!

13. To insert a caption attached to a selected
    image, right click>Insert Caption

Contents

14. To add a contents page: References>Table of Contents
    
    

15.  As we are using Headers/Styles, we can use an Automatic Table
    This does the hard work for us!

Before you finalise your document,
be sure to update your table of contents as Word does not update it automatically. 

References

16. You can use Zotero, Endnote or Mendeley with Microsoft Word.
    You cannot use Paperpile (it only works with Google Docs at the moment).

Help with reference management software

Help with styles of referencing

Word count

17. To check your word count, highlight/select the text you want to measure: Review tab>Word Count
    
    To quickly get the entire document’s word count, don’t highlight/select any text.

Spell check

18. To spell check the whole document, select Check Document/Editor button.

Use the ¶ button (Home>Show/Hide ¶) to see where spaces, paragraphs and page breaks are in your text. Click it again to remove the symbols.

3. Reviewing your document

Templates

Templates let you organise all the relevant settings you want pre-applied to documents (e.g. page layout, styles, formatting, tabs, etc.). You can then easily create a new document with all the same features based on that template. 

19.  To create a template: File>Save As>This PC>save it as a Word Template

20. Close the file and reopen the template. Every time you do this, it will create a new document – so you won’t accidentally save over what you’ve previously written.
    If you will use the template often, drag a shortcut to your desktop.

Track Changes

21. While editing and proofreading your document:
    Review>Track Changes
    
    

You can change how many alterations you see.
Try each of the different settings, starting with All Markup and see which you prefer.

22. To accept or reject a change:
    Right click word>Accept Insertion
    OR Reject insertion.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

Anonymising a document

23. To remove any personal information stored in the file data (e.g. before submission), use the Inspect Document function.
    File > Info > Check for Issues > Inspect Document > Inspect > Remove
    This does not remove personal data you have written in the content of the document. You are still responsible for following GDPR. 
    

5.  Microsoft Word Keyboard shortcuts

F12 = open ‘Save As’ menu

CTRL + S = save work

CTRL + C = copy what’s highlighted

CTRL + V = paste

CTRL + Z = undo 

CTRL + Y = redo 

CTRL + A = select all

CTRL + F = Find in document
(select down arrow to use ‘Find and Replace’)

CTRL + B = make selected text bold

CTRL + I = make selected text italic

CTRL + U = underline selected text

For further assistance and guidance:
Website: york.ac.uk/skills-guides
Email: itsupport@york.ac.uk