Oh Dave! Now

I spend a lot of my time at work proofreading, editing, and reformatting technical engineering reports created in Microsoft Word.  Some are close to 100 pages. When they get to me, they’re supposed to be close to final, “clean,” and nearly ready to submit to the client. The authors and project managers question why it takes so long to get past me. Answer: because they are a formatting disaster.

These engineers may be experts in geotechnical surveys, transit security, real estate acquisitions, etc. but never learned basic word processing (let alone English grammar) even though they word process every day. I sometimes forget that what are second nature shortcuts to me, who has taught courses in MS Word, are mysteries to the general population. So I would like to share five (5) basic word processing atrocities I encounter and how they can be avoided.

1. Using the space bar for centering headings

The space bar should only be used to 1) add spaces between words and 2) add one or two spaces after a period (but please, never more than two–you really should count, consistently. See number 3 below for a tip on how to see how many spaces you’ve typed).

To align headings—use the paragraph center alignment button, not spaces. Your other choices are left, right, and left and right justified. Simply highlight your heading and click on the center alignment icon on the formatting bar. Voila—centered perfectly between the margins (provided you don’t have left or right indents set up for that line—look at the ruler markers to confirm).

 

 

2. Using paragraph returns to create page breaks

No, no, no!  If you use paragraph returns to make page breaks, there is no guarantee that other people who read your document will experience the same page breaks. It’s a waste of your time. MS Word spaces text and pages depending on the active printer it detects, i.e., the printer that you have set as your default. Printers have different limitations on allowable margins plus how they interpret fonts. Even when using a standard font such as Times New Roman, from user to user you can witness spacing variations in the same document when opened on different computers.

One trick is to export your Word document as a PDF so when you send it off, people will see the same page breaks and spacing that you see on your monitor. If you send them the Word document, you never know what they’ll see. What was a 30 page document on your computer, may become a 33 page document on their computer.

In any case, instead of using several paragraph returns (the Enter key), click your cursor in front of the word that you want to start on a new page, and use the Insert command to insert a Page Break (or type CTRL-Enter instead of just Enter).

3. Deleting hidden formatting such as page breaks and section breaks

Our reports have multiple sections whose page numbering is independent. For example, the executive summary is numbered from page i to page iv.  The table of contents starts at TOC-i and then the main document body is numbered 1 to 22, for example. Then appendices are numbered A-1 to A-4, B-1 to B-3 and so on.

To set up sections with independent page numbering, you have to insert Section Breaks instead of Page Breaks. For detailed instructions, see the MS Office website. There are other reasons to insert Section Breaks. One section can be Portrait page orientation, another can be Landscape. You can also have different margins and headers and footers from one section to another.

My main complaint is when I spend time setting up Section Breaks and page numbering and then writers edit the document and unknowingly delete the Section Breaks, which deletes all of the formatting, and I have to do it all over again. The simple solution is to turn on Paragraph marks so you can see where manual breaks have been created. You can do so temporarily by toggling the Paragraph formatting button, usually on the standard formatting bar:  ¶

Manual page breaks, a single line across the page, look like this: 

Section breaks, a double line across the page, look like this:

  To delete either, select the whole line and type the Backspace or Delete key.

When you turn on the Paragraph formatting button, you’ll also see codes for spaces, paragraph returns, tabs that were keyed, etc.

4. Using spaces for indenting

Lists
Using the space bar to try and line up a list of words or numbers creates an inexact wavy mess. Word has default left-aligned tab stops set up, usually every half inch. At the very least, all you have to do instead of using the space bar to indent text, is type the Tab key and see what happens.

If you are creating a list, you can use Word’s Bulleted List or Numbered List commands and the indents are built in. In my opinion, the default indents are too much so I end up changing them but for the novice, you’ll get better alignment than you will ever get with spaces.

Beyond that you would need to learn how to manually set tab stops (left, right, centered, and decimal) on the ruler. This allows you to type the tab key once to line up text at 2 inches in, instead of typing the tab key four times to get to 2 inches.

Paragraphs

If you want to indent the first line of a paragraph, instead of typing the standard 5 spaces from typewriter days, indent by .25 inches. To do so, position your cursor in the paragraph, and on the ruler, use your mouse to grab just the top half of the marker on the left side. Drag the top marker (the first-line indent marker) to the quarter inch mark.

 

 

5.    Inconsistent formatting

I often find that indents, bold, etc. have been done one way in one part of the document and then slightly another in another part, even though the formatting should be exactly the same in both places. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel, and introduce inconsistencies, as you type along.  There are two easy ways to avoid repeating formatting steps.

First, you can copy an existing paragraph that already has the formatting you want, paste it into the new location, and then with the cursor, select the text and then type over it with new text.

Second, use Word’s cool Format Painter, which I use constantly.

To use it, first select and highlight the text or entire paragraph whose formatting you want to “copy.”  While the text is highlighted, click on the Format Painter icon (click once for one use of the formatting, double-click for multiple applications of the formatting).

Your cursor turns into a paint brush—drag the brush to paint over the text or paragraph you want to “paste” the format onto and release the mouse.

If you had double-clicked the Format Painter, it stays turned on and you can continue dragging and releasing over additional text and paragraphs. Caution: it will stay turned on until you click once on the Format Painter icon on the task bar.

These are a few basics to make word processing easier for you and less frustrating for your editors and readers. Word processors have a range of ways to format, from bad, to better, to best. I’ve given you enough information to go from bad to better.  For best, Word has much more sophisticated and complicated formatting options in its Styles and Templates features but most can get by without going into that detail. That’s what I get paid for.