Tag: Microsoft Word

Do You Make One of These Common Mistakes with Footnote Spacing?

Reading time: 4 minutes

Style manuals often require that footnotes be single spaced but have a blank line between them.1

This is true for SBL style if you’re a student.2 It’s also true if you use Turabian.3

You can insert this blank line a few different ways. Unfortunately, two of the more common ones can have undesirable side effects.

How Not to Space Footnotes

The two ways to space footnotes that might be most apparent are to:

  1. Enter an extra paragraph after each footnote or
  2. Format each footnote paragraph to insert extra space after it.

But each of these methods has downsides. These can cost you additional time if you want to avoid a mess at the bottom of a page.

What’s Wrong with Extra Paragraphs

If you decide to space your footnotes by inserting a new paragraph after each one (e.g., by pressing “Enter”), you can end up with a few different problems.

First, you have to manually enter the new paragraph after each footnote. So if you forget one, it won’t be there.

Second, your extra paragraph can move from after the last footnote on a page to above the first footnote on the next page.

This happens when there’s too much text on the page where the note starts to accommodate the full note and the extra paragraph that follows it. When this happens, you get an extra blank line that shouldn’t be there between the footnote rule and the first footnote on that next page (see below).

Third, Word uses a “continuation rule” whenever a footnote comes over from the bottom of one page to the next. By default, the continuation rule runs the full width of the page rather than just the first few inches.

So if your blank paragraph comes over from one page onto the next, you’ll also see the continuation rule when you shouldn’t. You’ll then get something that looks like this.

Fourth, in order to avoid these issues, you have to pay attention to the spacing after each footnote. As you edit, you may need to manually insert or remove extra paragraphs to avoid the problems they create.

All of this takes time and attention away from much more significant things you could be focusing on instead.

What’s Wrong with Formatting Each Footnote

You’re probably familiar with single or double spacing within a paragraph. But Word also allows you to insert extra space before or after a paragraph.

You can do this from the paragraph formatting dialog box. Footnotes are no exception.

You can even add spacing to all your footnotes at once with this method if you click into a given footnote, select all the footnotes (e.g., Ctrl+A), and then add the appropriate number of points after the footnote paragraphs.

If you space your footnotes using this method, you’ll get a lot fewer problems than you will with entering extra paragraphs.

In particular, Word will know that the extra space “attaches” only to the bottom of a footnote and so won’t allow just an extra blank line to roll over to the top of the footnote section on a following page.

The main downside of adding spacing via the paragraph dialog box is that your extra lines apply only once you’ve formatted each footnote paragraph individually.

In large part, you can avoid this being a problem by formatting your footnote to include extra space after them only in bulk when you think you’re finished editing.

But even then, if you continue editing and insert a new footnote, you’ll need to format that footnote as well.

So this method improves on the first but still requires you to “babysit” your footnotes more than you really need to.

Conclusion

In short, either of these common ways to space footnotes can get you a blank line between notes in a document.

They just require more hassle and cajoling than they’re worth.

Thankfully, there’s a better way to space between notes. This involves editing the style that drives those notes’ formatting in the first place.

Tired of fighting with Word? Want to be done with frustrated hours fussing over how to get the formatting you need?

My new guide shows you how to bypass all of this so you can let Word work for you while you focus on your research.

Get the Guide

Garrett Thompson (PhD)

For students in any graduate program, mastering the full range of available research tools is crucial for efficient and consistent productivity. Dr. Stark has mastered these tools—the most important of which is Microsoft Word…. Students eager to take their work to the next level would do well to follow Dr. Stark’s in-depth guidance.

  1. Header image provided by Fabien Barral. ↩

  2. See the Student Supplement for The SBL Handbook of Style, §3.3. ↩

  3. See Manual for Writers, 9th ed., §16.3.4.1. ↩

What You Need to Know about Editing Tables of Contents Styles

Reading time: 4 minutes

So you’re creating a dynamic table of contents in your document and want to format it as described in the Student Supplement for The SBL Handbook of Style.

You know you need to use styles to get the table of contents formatting to “stick.” But how?

If you’ve used heading styles, prepared an initial table of contents, and taken stock of what formatting needs adjustment, you can edit the relevant style in just 3 steps.

1. Open the “Styles” panel.

I’m assuming here that the formatting you need to change is what I’ve described.

If you need to make other adjustments, you can use the same principles described below to make those other changes too.

To start, go to the “Home” tab, and click the arrow in the lower right corner of the “Styles” section to show the styles panel.

2. Start to modify the “TOC 1” style.

Scroll in the alphabetical list of styles until you find the entry “TOC 1.”

Right click this listing, and choose “Modify….”

You’ll then see the “Modify Style” dialog box where you’ll need to make two changes.

2.1. Make “TOC 1” display in all capital letters.

First, go to “Format” (bottom left corner), and choose “Font….”

You’ll then see the “Font” dialog box.

Under “Effects” in the bottom third, find the option for “All caps,” and check this. Then click “OK.”

2.2. Give “TOC 1” a dotted line leader.

Then you should be back to the “Modify Style” dialog box. Here, go to “Format” again, and this time, choose “Tabs….”

Assuming you’re using the 1-inch left and right margins that the Student Supplement specifies on 8.5-inch wide paper, enter “6.5” in the “Tab stop position” box.1

Then, under “Alignment,” choose “Right.” And under “Leader,” choose the second option for a dotted leader (……). Then click “OK.”

You’ll then see the “Modify Style” dialog box again.

If you need an extra blank line between each heading in your table of contents, edit this now by going to “Format.” Then choose “Paragraph…,” and change the spacing after the paragraph to 12 points. Then click “OK.” You’ll need to repeat this process on the style for each heading level in your table of contents (i.e., “TOC 2” through “TOC 9”).

Decide whether you want to use this modified TOC 1 style in other documents in the future.

If so, choose “New documents based on this template” at the very bottom of the dialog box.

If not, simply leave the default option “Only in this document” selected.

Then click “OK.”

3. Refresh your table of contents.

The font for the primary headings in the table of contents may change immediately. But to see the dotted line leaders, you’ll need to refresh the whole table.

To do so, right click inside the table, and choose “Update Field.” Then, choose the “Update entire table” option, and click “OK.”

Conclusion

Voila! You should now have a table of contents in your document that

  1. Follows the formatting required by the Student Supplement,
  2. Updates as you update your document, and
  3. Doesn’t need to take any more of your time with adjustments as you finalize your document.

Congratulations, and I hope you enjoy the time and attention you get to invest elsewhere now that you don’t have to manage your table of contents any more.

Tired of fighting with Word? Want to be done with frustrated hours fussing over how to get the formatting you need?

My new guide shows you how to bypass all of this so you can let Word work for you while you focus on your research.

Get the Guide

Garrett Thompson (PhD)

For students in any graduate program, mastering the full range of available research tools is crucial for efficient and consistent productivity. Dr. Stark has mastered these tools—the most important of which is Microsoft Word…. Students eager to take their work to the next level would do well to follow Dr. Stark’s in-depth guidance.

Header image provided by Kaitlyn Baker

  1. 8.5 inches, less one inch for each margin (left and right) means that the inner edge of the right-hand margin is 6.5 inches from the inner edge of the left-hand margin. ↩

What You Need to Know about Formatting Tables of Contents

Reading time: 4 minutes

You can pretty easily get Word to generate a table of contents that automatically updates with your document.1

But if you need to follow some special formatting for the table, like in the Student Supplement for The SBL Handbook of Style, it’s less clear how to do that.

If you simply format the table directly, your formatting will get lost the next time the table updates.

The key to make the formatting “stick” is modifying the styles that drive the table of contents.

1. Take stock of how your table looks now.

If you followed along with my process for inserting a table of contents, you may initially see something like this:

The casing for each line of the table of contents will be as it is in that heading.

You won’t have any line leaders, and your page numbers will be listed straight down the right margin.

2. Take stock of how your table should look.

If this is how you’re table of contents looks, you’re in the ballpark. But you still need a few minor changes to get what the Student Supplement asks for (§3.2).

That is, in the table of contents, when you have

  • Primary headings, you need the headings in all caps and a dotted line leader between the heading and the page number.
  • First-level subheadings, you need the headings indented three spaces from the left-hand margin.
  • Second-level subheadings, you need the heading indented three more spaces (six total) from the left-hand margin and so on with subsequent levels of subheadings.2

3. Identify what formatting you need to adjust.

From our example table of contents above, you’ll just need to change the primary headings’ casing and line leader format.

Depending on how you have the rest of your document formatted, you may also need to change the line spacing in your table of contents so that it’s double spaced as the Student Supplement requires.

But the Student Supplement’s “three spaces” of indentation is essentially equivalent to the 0.15 inches.

This distance is the indentation that Word applies to these subheadings by default. So you shouldn’t need to adjust this indentation at all.

Conclusion

If you try to apply formatting directly to any of these portions of your table of contents, your formatting will be lost when your full table is refreshed.

Fortunately, each level in your table of contents has a specific style associated with it that controls how that level in your table appears.

So all you need to do to change the formatting of a given heading level in your table of contents is to edit the corresponding style.

  1. Header image provided by Kaitlyn Baker. ↩

  2. To me, it seems that this practice is most in keeping with the Student Supplement’s intent. Otherwise, it won’t be clear in the table of contents where second-level subheadings come underneath first-level subheadings in the paper. The headings in the table of contents will both be indented by the same amount. But this is what the example in the Student Supplement §3.2 shows. The Student Supplement doesn’t give further information about indenting third- through fifth-level subheadings in a table of contents. Presumably, therefore, these would be indented underneath second- through fourth-level subheadings. Consequently, I am interpreting the example in the Student Supplement §3.2 as slightly awry and the intention as being to have second-level subheadings indented three spaces more than first-level subheadings. I’ve written SBL Press to confirm this interpretation but have yet to hear back as of this writing. ↩

Turn the Tables of Contents over to Word

Reading time: 2 minutes

You may have created tables of contents manually in the past. But Microsoft Word can create tables of contents where the headings and page numbers update along with your document.

When to Include a Table of Contents

If you’re writing for publication, you’ll likely not need to create a table of contents that corresponds to your manuscript.

But especially if you’re a student, you might find yourself needing to produce a table of contents.

For instance, the Student Supplement to The SBL Handbook of Style asks that you include a table of contents if you are writing a long essay of 15 pages or more (§2.7).

Or for your thesis or dissertation, you’ll also likely need to include a table of contents.

Why to Let Word Manage Your Table of Contents

In any of these cases, creating and managing a table of contents by hand can be a nightmare.

You’ll need to replicate in the table of contents any edits you make to your headings or any changes that alter the page numbers for those headings.

You can save some of this effort by doing your table of contents at the end of your writing process.

But it’ll be much easier still if you simply let Word handle the whole table of contents from the start.

And let’s face it—you didn’t start writing up your research so that you could devote time to having a flawless table of contents.

So any time and effort you can save in preparing a table of contents will be a bonus.

If you allow Word to do this all for you, you can then put your time and attention into something more meaningful than manually formatting headings, indentations, line leaders, and page numbers.

Conclusion

If this sounds good to you, you’ll want to check out this step-by-step guide for exactly how to produce a dynamic table of contents.

The process isn’t hard. So take a read through it, and start turning your tables of contents over to Word.

Tired of fighting with Word? Want to be done with frustrated hours fussing over how to get the formatting you need?

My new guide shows you how to bypass all of this so you can let Word work for you while you focus on your research.

Get the Guide

Garrett Thompson (PhD)

For students in any graduate program, mastering the full range of available research tools is crucial for efficient and consistent productivity. Dr. Stark has mastered these tools—the most important of which is Microsoft Word…. Students eager to take their work to the next level would do well to follow Dr. Stark’s in-depth guidance.

Header image provided by Kaitlyn Baker

How to Format Headings with Styles in Word

Reading time: 5 minutes

In Microsoft Word, a “style” is essentially a collection of one or more pieces of formatting information.1

Using styles can be a great way to ensure consistent formatting across a document. Styles are especially helpful when you use them to format your headings.2

Here are 4 simple steps to start leveraging styles in your headings.

1. Identify the heading format requirements your style authority has.

If you’re a student writing for class, you’ll want to consult your school’s and professor’s requirements.

If neither of these authorities mandates a heading style scheme for you, you’ll get your heading styles from the Student Supplement for The SBL Handbook of Style.

In that case, you’ll format your headings as follows:3

Primary heading: centered, all capital letters, long titles single-spaced

First-level subheading: centered, bold, capitalized headline style

Second-level subheading: centered, capitalized headline style (no bold)

Third-level subheading: on left margin, bold, italics, capitalized headline style

Fourth-level subheading: on left margin, capitalized headline style (no bold or italics)

Of course, if you’re not writing for a degree program you’re enrolled, you might be writing for a journal, a book publisher, or someone else.

In those cases, you’ll still want to be sure to consult your style authorities in the proper order.

For more on this and other important points, see my free e-book, Secrets of SBL Style: What You Need to Know That Hides in Plain Sight.

2. Decide which Word styles to use for which heading styles.

Word comes preloaded with heading styles numbered 1 through 9. So I line them up with heading styles like those above as follows:

Authority StyleWord Style
Primary headingHeading 1
First-level subheadingHeading 2
Second-level subheadingHeading 3
Third-level subheadingHeading 4
Fourth-level subheadingHeading 5

But you might prefer to align the styles differently.

For example, you could create a new style in Word (e.g., named “Heading Primary”) and then use the built-in “Heading #” styles only for subheadings. (But I don’t recommend this because it can complicate using heading styles to create a table of contents.)

A first-level subheading would then use Heading 1, a second-level subheading would use Heading 2, and so forth.

3. Modify Word’s style formatting to match your authority’s requirements.

Next, you’ll need to modify each Word heading style to match the formatting your style authority requires.

You can do this in several ways. I find it’s easiest to:4

1. Go to the Home tab, and find the “Styles” section. You should see an arrow in the lower right corner of the section. Click this to expand the section into a panel.

Steps to open the styles panel from the Home tab

2. Scroll down the styles panel until you find the first heading style you want to edit. The panel lists styles in alphabetical order.

3. When you find the style, right-click it, and choose “Modify.” You’ll then see the “Modify Style” dialog box where you can specify how you want that heading style formatted. So for instance, if you’re following the examples I’ve given above, you’ll modify the Heading 1 style to be centered, use all capital letters, and have single spacing.

4. After you’ve gotten the style formatting as you want it, decide whether you’ll want to use this same style formatting in other documents based on the same Word template. If so, choose the “New documents based on this template” option at the bottom of the “Modify Style” dialog box.

5. Click “OK” to save the style formatting you’ve specified in the “Modify Style” dialog box.

4. Use Word’s heading styles in your document.

To use the heading styles you’ve built in your document, simply

1. Highlight some text in your document. Then choose the appropriate heading style from the Styles menu. Or,

2. Choose a style from the Styles menu, and then type your heading text.

After your heading, you can then use the “Normal” style or another one you’ve crafted for after a heading to format that paragraph appropriately.

Conclusion

Using styles to format your headings will help ensure your headings are consistent with one another.

Via the navigation panel, you’ll be able to see easily if you have any sections with only one subheading.

You’ll also be able to quickly generate a properly formatted, dynamic table of contents that updates with the rest of your document.

So if you haven’t given much attention to Word’s heading styles in the past, give them a try, and start making things easier on yourself and your readers.

Tired of fighting with Word? Want to be done with frustrated hours fussing over how to get the formatting you need?

My new guide shows you how to bypass all of this so you can let Word work for you while you focus on your research.

Get the Guide

Garrett Thompson (PhD)

For students in any graduate program, mastering the full range of available research tools is crucial for efficient and consistent productivity. Dr. Stark has mastered these tools—the most important of which is Microsoft Word…. Students eager to take their work to the next level would do well to follow Dr. Stark’s in-depth guidance.

  1. Header image provided by rupixen. ↩

  2. And if you ever need to turn styles into direct formatting, you can do that pretty easily also. ↩

  3. Student supplement for The SBL Handbook of Style §2.6. ↩

  4. Here, I’m assuming you have a current version of Word via Office 365. These instructions are based on v16.0.12430.20046. They should work on other recent versions as well. But you’ll notice greater differences in the process if you have an older version of Word. ↩

How to Quickly Number Pages for Long Essays in Word

Reading time: 4 minutes

The guidance about page number placement in the Student Supplement for the SBL Handbook of Style is clear enough. How to achieve this placement in Word is anything but.

This process is even a bit more obscure for long essays (15 pages or more) than it is for short ones (14 pages or less). For long essays, the Student Supplement asks that you include a table of contents (§2.7).

Fortunately, once you know how to paginate a short essay, it’s not difficult to tell Word how to properly format your page numbers in the table of contents for a long essay.

1. Introduction

If you don’t already know how to quickly format page numbers in a short essay, you’ll want to read more about that before continuing here.

If you already have your title page and the body of your essay, you can easily go back and insert a table of contents between the two.

But if you haven’t yet started writing the body of your essay, it will help if you have created your title page before following the steps here to create and paginate your table of contents.

2. The Steps

2.1. With an Essay Body

If you already have your title page and at least the first part of your essay body set up for a short essay as I’ve described and you want to insert a new table of contents section,

2.1.1. Go to Home > Paragraph > Show/Hide ¶ to make things a bit easier. Or you can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + *.

2.1.2. Place your cursor at the end of your title page immediately before the existing Section Break (Next Page) you already have.

2.1.3. Go to Layout > Breaks > Section Break > Next Page to insert another section break immediately before this one. In this new blank section, you can then add your table of contents now or finish paginating the section first.

2.1.4. Double click into the footer of the first page in your table of contents section.

2.1.5. Insert a page number by going to Page Number > Bottom of Page > Plain Number 2, which should show a preview of a page number in the bottom center of the page.

2.1.6. After you add the page number, highlight and right click it. Then, choose Format Page Numbers.

2.1.7. In the Number Format dropdown box, choose the “i, ii, iii, …” option (i.e., lowercase Roman numerals). Click OK.

2.2. Without an Essay Body

On the other hand, you may want to set up your table of contents section before you start your essay body in the workflow I’ve described.

If so, just follow the steps above for the table of contents immediately after you create your title page (3.1.1).

Then pick up with the rest of the rest of the workflow (3.1.2–3.3). The only change will be that, with step 3.1.2, you’ll place your cursor at the end of the last line of your table of contents rather than your title page.

2.3. Additional Front Matter

In some cases, you might have additional front matter besides just a title page and table of contents (e.g., an abbreviations page; Student Supplement, §2.3).

Other front matter elements don’t need their own sections in Word because they’ll use the same pagination as the table of contents.

In these cases, you’ll simply need to insert a page break after a given front matter element like a table of contents (Layout > Breaks > Page Break). That way, you can start your new front matter element on its own page.

The page break will then allow the page numbering you’ve already set up for that section to apply to the page(s) that the new front matter element occupies.

Conclusion

It can take some getting used to. But knowing how to properly set up page numbers for long essays in Word can save you a great deal of time and frustration figuring it out by trial and error.

How have you normally set up page numbers for tables of contents and other front matter in Word?

Header image provided by Patrick Tomasso

Tired of fighting with Word? Want to be done with frustrated hours fussing over how to get the formatting you need?

My new guide shows you how to bypass all of this so you can let Word work for you while you focus on your research.

Get the Guide

Garrett Thompson (PhD)

For students in any graduate program, mastering the full range of available research tools is crucial for efficient and consistent productivity. Dr. Stark has mastered these tools—the most important of which is Microsoft Word…. Students eager to take their work to the next level would do well to follow Dr. Stark’s in-depth guidance.