Using Microsoft Word 2007 for Academic Papers

Using Microsoft Word 2007 for Academic Papers

By Michael D. Morrison

Copyright 2012 Grace Communion Seminary

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Table of Contents

The Page Layout Tab

Font

The Paragraph Menu

Paragraph Icons

Styles

Editing

The Insert Tab

Spelling Check and Review Tab

The View Tab

The References Tab

The File Menu

Checklist for Academic Papers

About the Author

Grace Communion Seminary

Ambassador College of Christian Ministry

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Page Layout

Microsoft Word is the most popular word-processing program. It is capable of doing many things, and because of that, it is complex, sometimes difficult to use — and sometimes it does things we didn’t ask it to. However, after we learn how to control Word, it will make the process of preparing papers much easier. We will find that it can do things we’d like it to – we just need to learn how to use it.

These instructions are written for Word as it was in 2007. Most but not all of the instructions are good for later versions as well.

For beginnings, some of what we say will be too complicated. For more experienced users, some of what we say will be too simplistic. So feel free to skip the parts you don’t want. But if you think something is too complicated, you might want to skim it anyway, just so that you’ll know that such things can be done, if you ever need them. Store it away for a later day.

Our focus in this document is for academic papers. The default settings in Word are designed for business use, and academic papers require different settings. So we need to learn how to change the settings in Word.

Paper size

Academic papers (for U.S. schools) should have 1 inch margins all around, on 8½ x 11 inch paper. Depending on where you obtained your copy of Word, your paper size is probably already correct. But your default margins are likely to be incorrect. Here’s how to change it. We will illustrate it with images from Word 2007 for Windows. Word 2010 is similar in most cases.

1. In the upper left corner of your screen, click on the tab that says Page Layout. We have circled it in the half-size picture below:

2. Then you’ll see a ribbon of images (icons) that can do different things for you. Here’s what you’ll see:

3. Then click on Margins, and another menu will drop down:

4. Click on Normal. It is interesting that Microsoft thinks that 1 inch margins are normal, but they did not choose that as their default. After clicking on normal, you are done – for this document. However, if you would like all of your documents in the future to have these margins, then you need to change your default settings. To do this, instead of clicking on Normal in step 3, you need to click on Custom Margins.

5. A Page Setup window will appear. (Another way to get this Page Setup menu is to click on the tiny icon in the Quick Access toolbar at the very top left of the page):

Here’s what the Page Setup menu looks like:

6. In the Page Setup menu, type in 1 for all four margins, and then click on Default" at the bottom of the window. Word will then ask you if you want to change the default settings. Click Yes.

Page size

1. If you need to change your paper’s page size, here’s how. After clicking the Page Layout tab, then click on Size:

2. Click on Letter.

3. If you need to change your default paper size, click on More Paper Sizes, at the bottom of the drop-down menu:

4. A Page Setup Window will appear. Here it is:

5. Type in the size you want, and then click on Default. Just as with the change of margins, Word will ask you if you want to change the default. Since you do, click Yes.

Columns, breaks, header/footer options

Last, we will briefly mention some other items in the Page Layout menu:

• Orientation: For almost all purposes, use Portrait. That is the default setting, so you shouldn’t have to change it.

• Columns: Academic papers rarely use columns, so unless there is a special need, use the default of one column.

• Breaks: This is one way to cause the next line to start at the top of a new page. (The keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Enter also does this.) This can be useful if you want the works cited section (also known as a bibliography) to always start at the top of a page. It is also useful for longer papers, such as a thesis, in which you have several chapters, and you want each chapter to start at the top of a new page.

(Many people put in extra paragraph returns (Enter) until they have forced the text to a new page. But if they later make edits to the text above and change the number of lines, then they have to go back and adjust the number of extra paragraph returns. Having an automatic page break simplifies this.)

• Line numbers: Don’t use.

• Hyphenation: You may have the program hyphenate words at the end of a line, or you may leave automatic hyphenation off. Either one is OK.

• Headers and footers. There is a different place to insert a header or footer (text that automatically appears at the top or bottom of every page), but Page Layout is the place to control certain parts of