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Microsoft Word 2007

Consider this lab as CS 480 related tips for using Microsoft Word 2007. The contents contain enough information to get you started using Word 2007. Also included are tips for technical writing - many of these tips are required for the documents you produce in CS 480.

Word 2007 is part of the Microsoft Office family of software. Many of the Office 2007 applications, including Word, were re-written with a Ribbon interface and new file formats. It takes a little getting used to, but most would argue that it is an improvement.

The Hebeler labs have Microsoft Office 2007 available. Should you wish to use it at home, the latest version of Office 2007 is also available as a free trial download

The first two individual writing assignments in CS 480 require the use of Microsoft Word 2007. On the later CS 480 group writing assignments, your team should agree on the standard documentation format to use: either Word 2007 or Word 2003.

To learn more about Microsoft Word 2007, here are two links to Microsoft's web pages that contain useful information

As usual, a quick search with google will turn up many online resources.

Today's Learning Objectives

After today's class, you should be able to use Microsoft Word 2007 to

Improving the Quality of your Writing

One of the greatest gifts provided by word processors today is the built-in spell-checker. While not prefect, I shudder to think how my writing would be without the spelling check they provide.

All students know to use spell checkers, but many students do not take advantage of the other built-in tools to improve the quality of your writing: Grammar checkers and Readability Statistics.

Exercise 1 - Using Word's 2007 to proof a document

  1. Right-click and download to your U:\ drive the body contents of a sample project proposal submitted by a CS 480 student last year
  2. Use the Office Button to open the document in Word 2007
  3. Review the document and use Word 2007's proofing tools to correct spelling and grammar errors

Tips

References

Improve the formatting and style of your documents

Templates are word documents (*.dot or *.dotx) that you can use to apply boilerplate text, formatting, and styles to your documents. With group writing, it is the easiest way to apply a consistent look to all documents.

Typically you begin documents based on templates developed by others. CS 480 project teams may consider creating their own team document templates, based on existing templates, but customized according to the standards you develop.

Exercise 2 - Create a new Word 2007 document from the Business report template (Contemporary Design)

  1. Use the Office Button to create a new document from the online template Business report (Contemporary Design)
  2. Save your new document using the *.docx format
  3. Turn on Show/Hide paragraph marks to see more of the formatting

  4. On the Home ribbon, expand the Quick Styles gallery to examine the styles available
  5. Open the Apply Styles pane (Ctrl-Shift-S)to examine or apply styles
  6. Show the Styles pane (Alt-Ctrl-Shift-S)

  7. Open the Style Inspector pane to examine the styles applied
  8. Show the Reveal Formatting pane (Shift-F1) and check Distinguish Style Source option

Tips

Elements of Technical Documents

Long technical documents are generally divided into at least three separate sections:

  1. Front matter including a cover sheet, title page, abstract, table of contents, etc.
  2. Body of the document starting with an introduction section and ending with a conclusion section
  3. End matter including appendices, index, bibliography, etc.

Page numbering, if included

Exercise - Divide the document up into three sections

Note your page numbering. Unless you specify otherwise, sections begin a new round of page numbers.

References

Headings

Those familiar with HTML have come across the use of headings in a web page (h1, h2, ... h6). Word using heading styles in much the same way (Heading 1, Heading 2, ... Heading 9). Using headings in Word documents provide a number of benefits including

References

Table of Contents

Word can use the Headings to automatically generate and update a Table of Contents

  1. Click in the front matter section where you would like the table of contents to appear
  2. On the References ribbon, click Table of Contents and select Automatic Table 2

Check the contents of the table of contents and note the page numbering

Numbering Body Sections

It is considered a good idea to number each heading level in long documents so that when the document is being reviewed or is under discussion at a meeting, it's easy to refer to the relevant sections. For example, Section 2.3 ...

Word can use the outline-level setting for each style as the basis for the numbering hierarchy.

  1. Click in the first Heading 1 paragraph in the body section
  2. On the Home ribbon, click the Multilevel List button, and click the 1 Heading 1, 1.1 Heading 2, 1.1.1 Heading 3 item

Update the contents of the table of contents and note some problems

Update the contents of the table of contents and hopefully the problems have been fixed. We have applied direct formatting to these headings; in general, something to be avoided.

Modify a style

Let us modify the Heading 1 style to always begin sections at the start of new pages

  1. In the Apply Styles pane, Modify Heading 1
  2. Press Format button, select Paragraph, click Line and Page Breaks tab, and check Page break before

Tables

Adding captions to tables and figures in long documents has the same advantages as using headings with sections.

  1. On the Insert ribbon, add a 4 by 3 table to your document before subsection 2.1
  2. On the References ribbon, Insert the Caption "Table 1: My Table" above this table

Avoid Direct Formatting

As much as possible, avoid the use of direct formatting. Rather, apply styles to format the text.

Tips

References

Technical Writing Links