Structurallearnings: How to write a professional report of your thesis/ dissertation work?

It is very easy to write a professional looking technical report in half-an-hour Just follow the simple steps compiled here

· You might have copy pasted the content from many of your publications. They may contain many formats/ styles, sections, fields, etc.
o To remove the unnecessary section in Body if the thesis copy it into separate file and run the VBA code (View>Macros>Run>DeleColumnBreaks, View> Macros> Run> DeleSectionBreaks) THe VBA codes are give at the end of the post

o To convert all the fields into plain text, select all fields (CtrlA), and press Ctrl+Shift+F9. This will clear all the previous links that were created previously. This can also be done before submitting your manuscript to any journal, because presence of fields will cause unnecessary complications during generation of PDFs, etc

· Create Three section- cover pages, Body of thesis (Chapters), Appendix

· Organizing the chapters
o Define a new multilevel list Home>Paragraph. Use Level1 linked to Chapter Heading, Level2 linked to Section heading, Level 3 linked to Subsection heading, and so on. Ensure that Heading1 is modified to get Chapter Heading, Heading2 modified to Section heading, Heading3 modified to Subsection heading and so on.

o   Now, view the navigation pane by View>Show>NavigationPane
o   Go to every Chapter heading and click on the ChapterHeading style.
o   Similarly, go to every section heading and click on the Section Heading style
o   Go to every subsection heading and click on the subsectionheading stlye
o   You can use the increase/Decrease Indent tab to make a sectionHeading as Subsection Heading or viceverse.

·        Other styles
o   Also create style for normal body of the text
o   Ensure that Caption style is Left Justified in the beginning.
o   Create any other style that may be required. For example, numbered text or bulleted text
·        Numbering Figures:
o   Go to the figure for which you want to add the caption
o   Copy the caption for that figure
o   Select the figure for which the caption is to be added or select the location where the caption needs to be inserted
o   Go to Insert Caption in References Tab, to insert a caption

o   If required create a new Label like “Fig.” that is shown in the above picture.
o   If required, go to Numbering and check the “Include chapter Numbering” in the caption. In the above figure The chapter number is included. The above picture shows the dialogue box for inserting first figure of first chapter (Fig.1.1)
o   In the same way, you can add the Captions for all figures
o   After adding the figure captions, you can Insert the table of figures (with page numbers) wherever you want (either at the beginning or at the end of the document) using References>Insert Table of Figures
·        Numbering Tables:
o   This procedure is exactly same as Numbering figures. Only difference is that you need to create a new Label “Tables” if it is not already existing. You may also use any other label like “Tab.” You may also include the chapter numbers in the Table caption
o   Just like table of Figure, you can insert a List of Tables with page numbers, by selecting the appropriate Label, say, “Table”
·        Numbering equations
o   It is better to use a table for inserting equations. Insert a table with one row and three columns. The left column is meant to provide indent, the central column for writing the equation and the right column for inserting equation number or caption. Therefore adjust the column widths accordingly. In the middle column insert your equation by typing “Alt=”. In the right column type any character, say “a”. Select that character and Insert Caption from references Tab. You should use a new label for equation numbering, say “Eq. “. Then select the numbering format, and check to include chapter numbering (if required). Remove the character created for inserting the caption. Now, adjust the alignment of the caption in the cell. Ofcourse, you may insert the equation numbers in the left column also.

Eq. 1.1

o   You should suppress the borders of the table
o   If you have many equations in your report, better to save this table as a Quick part (Insert>Text>QuickPart), so that you do not have to repeat these steps for inserting every equation

·        Managing citations

o   It is better to use a table for inserting equations. Insert a table with one row and three columns

VBA codes for removing column breaks and section breaks

Sub Delecolumnbreaks()

Selection.Find.ClearFormatting

Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting

With Selection.Find

.Text = "^n"

.Replacement.Text = ""

.Forward = True

.Wrap = wdFindContinue

.Format = False

.MatchCase = False

.MatchWholeWord = False

.MatchByte = False

.MatchAllWordForms = False

.MatchSoundsLike = False

.MatchWildcards = False

.MatchFuzzy = False

End With

Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll

End Sub

Sub DeleSectionbreaks()