So you're writing an honors thesis or dissertation. Congratulations!
Many people are intimidated by the process of writing, editing, and defending a long paper. We in University Technology are here to make the formatting part of the process as stress-free as possible!
Backing Up Documents
The most important habit of all is backing up your thesis or dissertation as you write.
Back up your files in multiple places. This means storing a copy on the hard drive of your computer, on your Drew Network F: drive, on a "cloud" drive, and on an external piece of hardware such as a USB Flash drive or external hard drive. When you have saved changes to your thesis, save the changed document to all of the backup locations with the same name. It is extra work to create the backups, but it will save you a great deal of time should one file get lost or corrupted!
Directions for accessing and using the F: Drive.
Directions for using Google Drive
A non-Drew method for backing up your documents and accessing them anywhere is the website Dropbox. Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring your photos, documents, and videos anywhere and share them easily. This is done by syncing work to the site's cloud drive allowing for easy access across multiple devices (mobile, web, and desktop).
Starting to Write
One question you should ask your adviser before you start to write is whether s/he will want to see Word document files of specific sections of your thesis or dissertation throughout the process.
- If the preference is to see a PDF of specific sections, see below on using PDF-XChange Editor.
- If the preference is to be sent a Word document for different sections, we suggest saving a different file for each chapter.
- This means more files for you to manage, but will make formatting easier.
We provide templates to use in Microsoft Word with built in formatting styles. To download these templates and get more information on using them and the styles we've added, please see Drew Dissertation Information and Using Microsoft Word Templates.
- It is important to know that you must start working from this template before typing any text.
Specific Formatting Challenges
Margins
Here are links to Microsoft documentation on manually adjusting your page margins:
- Word 2007: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/change-or-set-page-margins-HP001226492.aspx?CTT=1#BM2
- Word 2010: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/change-page-margins-HA102350538.aspx?CTT=1#_Toc280363143
- Word 2011: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/mac-word-help/change-page-margins-HA102928594.aspx?CTT=1 (expand the section titled "Change the page margins for a whole document")
- Word 2013: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/set-page-margins-HA102850056.aspx?CTT=1#_Toc323305682
Page Numbering
Word has built-in functionality that allows you to create a "different first page", so that you can have a page number bottom center on the first page and top right on the following pages.
Having a different first page in each chapter can be done either by saving different files for each chapter, or by using section breaks. Please contact the University Technology Service Center at 973-408-4357 with any questions about these options.
Microsoft provides the following information on page numbers:
- Word 2007: Start page numbering on page 2 http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/start-page-numbering-on-page-2-HP001227657.aspx?CTT=1
- Word 2010: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/add-or-remove-headers-footers-and-page-numbers-HA010372690.aspx?CTT=1
- If you use different sections in a single document, this page may be useful: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/number-pages-differently-in-different-sections-HA101832542.aspx?CTT=1
- Word 2011: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/mac-word-help/add-or-remove-page-numbers-HA102928583.aspx?CTT=1
- Word 2013: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/add-page-numbers-HA102809692.aspx?CTT=1
Table of Contents
Footnotes
Sections
- Word 2011: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/mac-word-help/insert-delete-or-change-a-section-break-HA102929536.aspx?CTT=1
- Word 2013: Page numbering with section breaks http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/start-page-numbering-later-in-your-document-HA102841427.aspx?CTT=1
Using PDF-XChange Editor
To Send a Reader Part of Your Paper
To Combine Multiple Files into One PDF
(I might have already drafted a page for PDF-XChange Editor)