A Word on Word

Hello MGN bloggers, I hope you're all busy working on the final project. This has been a very interesting and intensive class. I meant to post this last night, I'm not sure how many check the blog on the weekend. I wanted to share some insights on Microsoft Word, the program we're submitting our papers in. I've never been a fan of Microsoft products but, after working in it for this class, have a new respect. Maybe all of you are familiar with the various aspects of this program, but if there's anyone else out there like me, there are some features that will make it easier to format and write this paper.

This is a word processing program so there are obviously formatting options built in for type style, variation, line spacing, and indenting. This has built in style sheets that you can change too depending on what part of the paper you're working on. The Help tab is actually pretty good at explaining what, where and how to use the features.

One of the best time savers is Word's Document Elements tabs where you can automatically insert Table of Contents, Headers, Footers and Bibliographies. You can create a Citation (it's in the Toolbox on the menu bar), choose what citation style you'd like to use (MLA, APA), click on the Plus sign to create a new source, set your type of source (Book, report, web site, film, etc.) and the fields will show up to tell you what is recommended for this particular source. You just type in all the info, click OK and your citation will show up in the Citations list. You can format the citations with an exact style (hanging indents, type style, etc.) and then at the end, just click on the Document Elements to create a Bibliography with your listed citations. You will need to then go into the Bibliography and annotate them.

These features have saved me quite a bit of time and they keep your document, citations and formatting consistent and looking good.

It is good sometimes to get out of your comfort zones. Good luck with your papers!