Creating Research and Scientific Documents Using Microsoft Word

Book description

Research fuels innovation—and with this focused guide to Microsoft Word, you can help increase your team’s collaborative power and effectiveness, and bring new research to life. Writing proposals, reports, journal articles, theses, and other technical documents as a team poses unique challenges, not the least of which is consistent presentation and voice. You must also manage the formatting and accuracy of figures, equations, and citations, and comply with the style rules of external publications. In this book you’ll learn from the authors’ extensive experience managing the authoring and publication of technical content, and gain specific practices and templates you can apply right away.

  • Focuses on the unique challenges of writing and producing documents in an academic or commercial R&D setting

  • Demonstrates how to use Microsoft Word to increase the quality of collaborative document preparation—including formatting, editing, citations management, commenting, and version control

  • Includes downloadable templates that help automate creation of scientific documents

  • Offers best-practices guidance for writing in teams and writing in the scientific genre

  • Table of contents

    1. Title Page
    2. Copyright Page
    3. Contents
    4. Foreword
    5. Acknowledgments
    6. Introduction
      1. Who this book is for
      2. How this book is organized
        1. Terminology
        2. Symbols and notations used in this book
        3. Formatting of menu operations
        4. Formatting of keystroke operations
        5. Formatting of notes
        6. Formatting of good examples
        7. Formatting of bad examples
      3. Errata
      4. We want to hear from you
      5. Stay in touch
    7. Chapter 1. Using templates in Word 2013
      1. Word 2013, templates, and you
        1. A minor but necessary distinction
      2. Why use templates?
        1. Never start at the beginning
        2. Important fundamental concepts
      3. Basic elements of templates
        1. Headings
      4. This is a section heading
        1. This is a mid-section heading
        2. Tables
        3. Figures
        4. Equations
        5. Literature citations
      5. Basics of effective template use
      6. All about styles
        1. Using styles
        2. Creating and modifying styles
        3. The Style Inspector
        4. The Reveal Formatting pane
      7. How to work with templates
        1. Step 1: Find a template for your document
        2. Step 2: Copy existing elements into new locations
        3. Step 3: Edit the elements
        4. Step 4: Cross-reference the elements
      8. How to create elements in a document
      9. How to make headings
      10. How to make figures
        1. Make a new figure element
        2. Edit the new figure element
      11. How to make tables
        1. Make a new table element
        2. Edit the new table element
      12. How to place equations
      13. How to insert cross-references
        1. Headings
        2. Figures
        3. Tables
        4. Equations
      14. Recap
    8. Chapter 2. How to design templates
      1. How to organize and format your document
        1. Create headings and divide your document into sections
        2. Adjust page dimensions and margins
        3. Choose the appropriate number of columns
        4. Choose a color scheme
        5. Choose a font scheme
        6. Use page numbering and other header features
      2. How to adjust default styles to match requirements
      3. How to create generic headings
      4. How to insert a generic figure
      5. How to create a generic table
        1. Create a generic table
        2. Use the Border Painter tool
        3. Create a table style
      6. How to create a generic equation
        1. Create a generic numbered equation
        2. Create a cross-reference to an equation
      7. How to place generic gray text fields
      8. Common template design errors
      9. Recap
    9. Chapter 3. How to work with headings
      1. How to create and cross-reference headings
      2. How to alter headings
      3. How to use numbering and multilevel lists
      4. How to set borders, shading, and special formatting
      5. How to make headings work with fields
        1. Create front matter
        2. Control page numbers
        3. Insert a table of contents
      6. How to create and format back matter
        1. Create appendices
        2. Create indexes
      7. Use bookmarks for limited tables of contents
      8. Common formatting mistakes in headings
      9. Common stylistic mistakes for headings
      10. Tips and tricks
        1. Collapse headings
        2. Maintain the table of contents until the last moment
        3. Alter the automatic spacing before and after headings
      11. Recap
    10. Chapter 4. How to work with figures
      1. How to conceptualize figures
      2. How to choose a figure layout
        1. Avoid using text boxes
        2. Using table-based layouts
        3. Inserting figures using inline layouts
      3. How to create figures with table-based layouts
        1. Create a single-figure table-based layout
        2. Create a dual-figure table-based layout
      4. How to create inline figure layouts
        1. Create a single-figure inline layout
        2. Create a dual-figure inline layout
      5. How to cross-reference figures
      6. How to alter figure captions
      7. Common formatting mistakes in figures
      8. Common stylistic mistakes in figures
      9. Tips and tricks for figures
      10. Recap
    11. Chapter 5. How to work with tables
      1. How to create tables
        1. Create a table style
        2. Create a table without a table style
      2. How to use the built-in table styles in Word 2013
      3. How to cross-reference tables
      4. How to alter tables
      5. How to import tables from external programs
      6. Common typesetting mistakes
        1. Prevent tables from running across multiple pages
      7. Common stylistic mistakes in tables
        1. Omitting units and variable names in table headings
        2. Placing units in cells rather than in row or column headings
        3. Using too many borders in a table
        4. Choosing type font size that is too small
        5. “As shown in Table 1...”
        6. Using meaningless or repetitive captions
        7. Placing captions at the bottom of the table
      8. Tips and tricks for tables
        1. Orphan control
        2. Table positioning
        3. Cross-referencing remote tables
      9. Recap
    12. Chapter 6. How to work with equations
      1. How to create equations in Word 2013
        1. Create an equation with the equation editor
        2. Get started
        3. Insert an equation or insert a symbol
        4. Use the math tab
        5. Incorporate math structures
        6. Enter algebraic expressions
        7. Modify math spacing
        8. Make selections in math zones
        9. Create advanced equations in Word 2013
        10. Create and modify matrices
        11. Create accents
      2. How to use MathType to create and edit equations
      3. How to cross-reference equations
      4. How to alter equations
        1. Switch from single to dual columns
        2. Switch from standard to dual numbering
      5. Tips and tricks
        1. Use mathematical bold, italic, and sans serif
        2. Create equation arrays
        3. Modify equation alignment and breaking
        4. Include typographical niceties
        5. Create prescripts
        6. Use math context menus
        7. Use the Math Input Panel
        8. Use the math graphing calculator
        9. Interoperate with other programs
        10. Use and modify math autocorrect
        11. Insert an equation shortcut
        12. Keyboard shortcuts in MathType
        13. Convert equations from MathType to TeX/LaTeX
        14. Enter TeX or LaTeX directly
        15. Function names
        16. Miscellaneous symbols
        17. Arrows
        18. Binary and operational symbols
        19. Accent marks
      6. Common formatting mistakes for equations
        1. Sloppy centering and justification
        2. Inconsistent variable sizes
        3. Using different fonts in equations and in text
      7. Common stylistic mistakes for equations
        1. Incorrect cross-referencing
        2. Forgetting to define variables
        3. Using subscripts and superscripts incorrectly
        4. Using confusing bookmark names
        5. Bookmarking the parentheses next to the equation number
        6. Ambiguous display of units and use of incorrect units
      8. Recap
    13. Chapter 7. How to work with citations
      1. How to choose a citation management suite
        1. Why use a bibliographic database?
        2. Choice of software
      2. How to use the built-in citation manager in Word 2013
        1. Set up the interface
        2. Cite references
        3. Share a database
        4. Construct a citations section
      3. How to use EndNote
        1. Set up the EndNote interface
        2. Add references to EndNote
        3. Cite references by using EndNote
        4. Share a database with other EndNote users
        5. Maintain compatibility with BibTeX
      4. What about Reference Manager?
      5. How to format references
        1. Answers
      6. Exercises
        1. Exercise 7.1
        2. Exercise 7.2
      7. Recap
    14. Appendix A. Becoming a Microsoft Word 2013 power user
      1. How to personalize the Word 2013 ribbon
      2. How to set up Quick Access Toolbar shortcuts
      3. How to use keyboard shortcuts
      4. Other useful tricks
        1. Warning when saving or printing a file with track changes
        2. Using special characters and non-breaking spaces
    15. Appendix B. About STREAM Tools
      1. The definition stage
      2. The preparation stage
      3. The writing stage
      4. The completion stage
    16. Appendix C. File template for a single-column report or paper
    17. Appendix D. File template for a double-column paper
    18. Appendix E. File template for a thesis, book, or long report
    19. Appendix F. IEEE template with STREAM Tools enabled
    20. Appendix G. NIH template with STREAM Tools enabled
    21. Index

    Product information

    • Title: Creating Research and Scientific Documents Using Microsoft Word
    • Author(s):
    • Release date: October 2013
    • Publisher(s): Microsoft Press
    • ISBN: 9780735670433