How to Use Templates

These instructions explain how to use Microsoft Word^® template files. TTI Communications has created a number of templates based on sponsor requirements and deliverable type. Templates by sponsor are listed in the sidebar on this page.

Placing and Calling Template Files

You can put the template file in your template folder and call it up using New on the File tab. If you prefer, you can open the file directly and save it as a regular document under a new name. Either way should work fine. Putting it in your template folder will make it handy to get to the next time you need to use it.

To place the template file, you can simply copy the file into your template folder. The tricky part is to find out where Word stores templates on your machine. To find your template folder, use the Options choice in the File tab, choose Advanced, and then click the File Locations button (under General). The User Templates item will show you the folder where your template files are stored. You can create a folder within that folder, and it will show up as a tabbed section when you choose New on the File tab.

Using Styles

Template files contain styles for most of the formatted items you will need to create your report. You can change style characteristics to meet your specific needs and preferences. Using styles gives you several benefits:

Styles provide consistent formatting from item to item in your document.
Styles make it easy to change the formatting of similar items wherever they occur throughout a document.
Styles are crucial to creating an automatically generated table of contents and other lists.

Once you get familiar with using styles, you will determine your own preferred method of applying them to text. Most people feel the easiest way to get started using styles is to type a segment of text (line, paragraph, or caption) and then go back and choose the style. You can choose the style on the Home tab, or you can click the expansion box on the Styles section of the Home tab to open the Style window. The Style window shows the style of the selection where your cursor rests. At the bottom of the window, the Options button allows you to select style viewing options. Selecting “In current document” and “Alphabetical” decreases the number of styles shown and makes them easy to find.

Once you apply a style, it will continue until you change styles (unless you specify a following style in your definition—you can find out more about that using the Word help feature). For example, if you block a paragraph and apply the style Body Text, you can continue typing in that style until you need to change to a different style (say, a heading).

Modifying Styles

If you don’t like the font, size, etc. we’ve used in the template, you can change them. Just be sure to check your sponsor’s requirements.

Follow this procedure to change the style in the list of styles:

On the Home tab, in the Styles gallery, click the square in the lower right to get the Style pane to open.
Right-click on the style you want to modify and choose Modify.
In the Modify Style dialog, change the attributes for font, paragraph, etc.
Click OK. Word will change the appearance of that style throughout the document.

You can also change the style to match the attributes of selected text in the document:

On the Home tab, in the Styles gallery, click the square in the lower right to get the Style pane to open.
Select the text that you want the style to look like.
Right-click on the style you want to modify and choose Update [Style Name] to Match Selection. Every occurrence of this style will now look like the text you selected.

Chapter Numbers and Titles

If you want your chapter number to appear on a separate line from your chapter title, use Shift + Enter to create a soft return at the end of the line rather than using the Enter key by itself. You can use the same technique to break the title into multi-line segments if it is long. That way, the chapter number and chapter title will appear on the same line in the table of contents.

Use the style described in your specific template for the chapter heading. Type the chapter title in initial caps only, not all caps, so it will show up correctly in the table of contents.

Heading Levels

Use the heading styles described in your specific template for the different heading levels. Type headings in initial caps only, not all caps, so they will show up correctly in the table of contents.

Using Section and Page Breaks

When you begin a new chapter (or section that needs right-hand placement), insert a section break using the next-odd-page option (Layout/Breaks/Odd Page). When you use the next-odd-page option, you will not see a blank even-numbered page on your edit screen, but you will see it in the Print Preview screen. If you insert section breaks for other reasons, you may need to break to a next page (Layout/Breaks/Next Page) rather than an odd page, such as when you create a section for landscape graphics.

When you create a new section, make sure the page numbering continues from the previous section. In most cases, you will want headers and footers, which include page numbers, to keep the Link to Previous designation.

Avoid using hard returns and page breaks to force text, tables, or graphics to a new page. Instead, use the Keep Together function of paragraph formatting (Home/Paragraph/Line and Page Breaks/Keep Lines Together). Avoiding unnecessary page breaks will keep you from having unexpected formatting problems if you need to make revisions that affect pagination. If you need to check the type of break you have, click the Show/Hide button (¶) on the Home tab.

Placing Endnotes

We recommend endnotes for source citations, but check your sponsor’s requirements. To use endnotes, place italicized endnotes in parentheses before the closing punctuation of the sentences citing your source. To insert an endnote, choose References/Insert Endnote. To cite a previously entered endnote, choose Insert/Cross-reference.

Adding Appendix Sections

If your report uses endnotes, Word will automatically place them at the end of the document. They will follow all other information, including appendix sections. Some sponsors, on the other hand, require that appendices appear following the reference section. To resolve this dilemma, place appendix sections in a separate file and begin the page numbering manually. That means you will need to type the appendix numbers and titles into the table of contents manually (or cut-and-paste them from one document to the other if automatically generated in your appendix). You will also need to put appendix figure and table caption titles into the lists if you choose to include them (check your sponsor’s requirements).

Checking Spelling

Because this templates sometimes use form fields, Word will sometimes set entered text to “no proofing” and it will not be included in spell check procedures. To avoid this situation, reset the language of your file before you spell check. You should have to make this change only once after you have entered the information in the form fields.

To change the language of your file, follow these steps:

Select/highlight the entire file (using Edit/Select All or Ctrl + A).
Go to the Review tab and select Language and then Set Proofing Language.
Select English (U.S.).
Clear the boxes “Do not check spelling or grammar” and “Detect language automatically.”

Once you set the language to include all sections of the file, your spell checker should work normally.

Generating the Table of Contents and Other Lists

The Table of Contents, List of Figures, and List of Tables will automatically generate based upon certain styles, such as the Figure Caption style for the List of Figures.

To generate the table of contents in the template, place your cursor on the sample one already created in the template. Right-click and choose Update Field, or hit F9. When the dialog box appears, choose Entire Table. Repeat the process for other lists.

After generating the lists, check them to make sure all headings appear at correct levels and are correctly capitalized. This check gives you the opportunity to verify that you have used appropriate heading styles for each item. Make any necessary changes and then regenerate the list. You can format lists by inserting line returns, etc. for appearance. If you add formatting after the list is generated, you will need to repeat those changes each time you update using the Entire Table option.

If you make revisions that do not alter headings, you can update the lists using the Page Numbers Only option. The Page Numbers Only option will not alter formatting changes.

Placing Graphics and Tables

Most graphics and tables will place correctly simply by inserting them into the document and formatting characteristics such as position and wrapping style. For most sponsors, all graphics and tables must follow their callouts in text. Do not place the caption of a table or figure inside a box because the automatic generation feature for lists does not recognize items within boxes.

Make sure that figures and tables are properly centered or left aligned, depending on sponsor requirements. You may need to remove the indent by selecting “Clear Formatting” from the style menu.

Landscape Placement

Tables and figures should not extend outside the set margins. Larger tables or figures will require landscape orientation. If a table or figure needs to use landscape orientation, the captions should also use landscape orientation. Tables and figures, their captions, and any related notes can be placed on a landscape page. No other text (e.g., headings and body paragraphs) should appear on landscape pages.

To change the page orientation to landscape:

Before the page you wish to change to landscape, insert a section break: on the Page Layout tab in the Page Setup group, click the Breaks button and select Section Break Next Page. Delete any extra returns.
After the page you wish to change to landscape, insert a section break the same way. Delete any extra returns.
Double-click in a header or footer. This causes the Headers & Footers Tools (Design tab) to become active. Click inside the footer following the landscape page and deselect Link to Previous. This will preserve the page numbers for the sections following the landscape pages.
Click the Close Header and Footer button.
On the first landscape page, on the Page Layout tab in the Page Setup group, click the Orientation button. Select Landscape.
Insert the illustration or table and the related caption on the landscape page.

Automatic Figure/Table Numbering

Figure and table numbering must be autogenerated in Word. To insert automatic figure/table numbers, follow these steps:

Position your cursor where you wish to insert the caption.
On the References tab, select Insert Caption. The Caption window appears.
Under Options/Label, select Figure or Table and click OK. Word inserts a consecutive figure/table number.
Type the rest of the caption.
Apply the correct style to the caption. Word’s default is to automatically assign the Caption style to both figures and tables; for table captions, you will need to click on the caption and assign the Table Title style instead so that the List of Figures and List of Tables generate correctly.

Automatic Cross-Reference to Figures/Tables

Figures and tables must be called out in the text prior to figure or table placement (within 1.5 pages of where the figure or table appears). The callouts must be autogenerated cross-references to the figure/table number (not the entire caption). To create a cross-reference to a figure or table, follow these steps:

On the Insert tab, select Cross-reference.
For Reference type, select Figure or Table. For Insert reference to, select Only label and number. For which caption, select the figure/table you’re referring to.

Line Breaks

Sometimes automatic cross-references cause a glitch in Word where a line break, page break, or other oddity is inserted before or after the cross-reference. This generally happens when you add a break before the figure or table number you’re referencing.

To correct this undesired formatting, delete the existing figure or table number and replace it and the cross-references to it. If you need stronger measures, you can lock the field. To lock the field, select the problem cross-reference and press Ctrl + F11. This prevents Word from updating the cross-reference and inserting a page break. If you need to later update the field, press Ctrl + Shift + F11 to unlock the field.)

References

See your sponsor’s guidelines for instructions on how to cite sources.