Formatting A Document

Introduction:

There are ten important rules to remembered while formatting a document in a word

They are
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Rule 1: Use Styles Rule 2: Don't confuse Headers and Headings Rule 3: Don't just format a piece of text Rule 4: Use the minimum of Styles Rule 5: Add descriptions to images Rule 6: Do you really need that Table? Rule 7: Do you really need that Text Box? Rule 8: Don't use tabs and spaces to position text Rule 9: Don't use the Enter key twice between paragraphs

10.Rule 10: Don't use the Enter key to force a new page

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Rule 1: Use Styles - The Most Important Rule

All the Styles you need are set up in Word already. Many Heading Styles including Heading 1 for main headings, Normal for your body text, Index Styles, Table of Contents Styles and List Styles are all available in the "Normal" template. By using these Styles, a Word document can be easily converted into well formatted AltFormats. When you use Styles, you have the added benefit that when you want to change the font, size or emphasis of a Heading, you only need to change the Style once - your changes are then applied automatically to every occurrence of that Style in the document. You can reach the "Styles and Formatting dialog in Microsoft Word 2003 from the "Format" menu choose "Styles" or "Styles and Formatting". For help in earlier or later versions of Word, press F1 or go to the Help menu. When Help opens, search for Styles.

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Rule 2: Don't confuse Headers and Headings

A "Header" Style is used for the document header. This is a piece of text that is repeated at the top of every page; it is not a Heading! A "header" is also known as a "running header". For Document, Chapter and Paragraph headings, you need a "Heading" Style. If you use a Header Style in the body of a document, alternative format creation software will not import it! You can apply Headings and Headers using the Styles and Formatting dialog box in Microsoft Word 2003.The image below shows part of a Word document showing both a Header and a Heading: the Heading is part of the

Formatting A Document
body text, while the Header is in a box of its own.

Rule 3: Don't just format a piece of text - format the whole Style

If you think you need a sub-heading, apply one of the lesser heading Styles; don't just embolden and change the font size when you're using Normal Style.

Formatting A Document
That said, bold, underline and italics are fine for emphasiswithin a paragraph and can also be converted into the AltFormats to emphasise the text. The image below shows part of a Word document shows two identical-looking lines of text. However one has the Heading 1 Style applied, and the other is Normal Style text which has had the font size changed and Bold applied. They look the same, but only the one with a Heading Style applied will be recognised by AltFormat Conversion software as a Heading, and the other as bold text.

Rule 4: Use the minimum of Styles

Keep your document plain, elegant and readable. Concentrate on content rather than looks. Keep to a single topic per paragraph, and resist the temptation to fill your document with fancy fonts, size changes, orientation changes and colours. It won't help your readers to understand, and it will be lost on AltFormat readers. In addition, don't mistake pictures of text as real text! Microsoft Word 2003's WordArt feature does not translate into AltFormats, even if it looks colourful on the printed page. You can create an attractive, visually engaging and fully accessible document by simply using the Heading Styles built into Microsoft Word.

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Rule 5: Add descriptions to images
If you use images, diagrams, plots and graphs, make sure that you add alternative text descriptions using the "Format Picture" dialogue box in Microsoft Word 2003, otherwise that information will be lost to AltFormat readers. Also ensure that all images, diagrams, plots and graphs can be rendered as tactile graphics for Braille readers.

For extra accessibility, you can also add a descriptive line immediately underneath any images, diagrams, plots and graphs.

Rule 6: Do you really need that Table?

Is a table really the only way to represent information? Table's can be great visually, but a very complex table, or one with a lot of columns, can be impossible to render into AltFormats. For instance, when creating Braille; the Braille page has, at most, half the carrying capacity of the print page, and so tables with lots of columns in Microsoft Word will take up more than one line when converted into Braille. In addition, the majority of your table may not be visible when creating Large Print with a font size of 22 point. If using a table is necessary, think to yourself - is the table is too complex? Can the table be split or simplified in some way? Alternatively, can the information in the table be rendered into text instead?

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Rule 7: Do you really need that Text Box?

People often use text boxes to position text on the page. However, you can also do this using indents on regular text in your document. This will look just as good and is a fantastic alternative to using text boxes since it won't cause problems when creating subsequent AltFormats. You can add indents using the "Paragraph" dialog box in Microsoft Word 2003. In addition, if you're using a Text Box to mix graphics and text, you're actually creating an image. For information on making images accessible, please refer toRule 5 of these guideline.

Rule 8: Don't use tabs and spaces to position text on the page
Rather than using the tab key to set indents, you can use Styles instead, which won't do strange things to the layout of your AltFormats. For instance, the "Normal" Style has an option called "Normal Indent" which indents the text to a predefined margin. Using this option will preserve any indents made when creating AltFormats from your materials.

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If you would like to create a new Style with larger indents, you can choose Format, Styles and Formatting, and click the "New Style" button in Microsoft Word 2003 (please press F1 for assistance in previous and later versions of Microsoft Word). It is recommended that you base your new style on the "Normal" style, and then modify any special attributes you want, such as indentations. To do this in Microsoft Word 2003, select to "New Style" from the "Styles and Formatting" dialog box. Then, select "Format" and then "Paragraph" to modify the paragraph indentations. You can then use the "Paragraph" dialog box to set the indents for your new Style.

Rule 9: Don't press the Enter key twice at the end of each paragraph
Pressing the Enter key more than once can hamper the layout of your materials when converted into AltFormats. Instead of pressing Enter twice to create a space between paragraphs, you can increase the paragraph spacing in the Style you are currently using. Here's how to do this using Microsoft Word 2003 (please press F1 for assistance using earlier or later versions of Microsoft Word): For each Style you are using, select "Format: Style" and click the "Modify" button. In the Modify Style dialog box, select "Format: Paragraph". Next, in the "Spacing" section, change the "After" box to 12 (or whatever spacing you want). This will eliminate the need to press the Enter key more than once between paragraphs, and will make creating Altformat versions of the text much easier.

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In Microsoft Word 2003, you can press the Line Break button to show you where all the extra line-breaks are. You only need one at the end of each paragraph. If you can see a column of more than one (as shown in the image below), you should delete the line breaks and change your style as described above.

Rule 10: Don't use the Enter key to force a new page
When typing long documents, you will naturally find that your text covers more than one page, which is perfectly fine. However, when starting a new section of your document, you may wish add a page break to start the section on a new page. Forcing a page break by pressing the Enter key multiple times will create formatting problems when you convert your text into AltFormats. To avoid this, the way to begin the next part of your text on a new page is to enter a hard Page Break. You can add a
page break simply in Microsoft Word 2003 by pressing Control+Enter.