Quick formatting hacks for your thesis

If you are in the final stages of writing your thesis right now, the last thing on your mind is the formatting of your thesis.

Chances are that you do not have time to fiddle around with your layout for hours. Still, it is important for your thesis to look neat to make a good impression.

For this reason, I have compiled for your five Microsoft Word formatting hacks. They will make your thesis look polished and professional instantly:

Structure your thesis by creating a professional table of content

Lay the groundwork for a clearly arranged written work with a proper table of content in three easy steps.

1. Mark you headings by selecting the heading text and go to the Home tab and then Style. Click on Heading 1 or Heading 2.
2. Insert a table of content. Place the cursor where you want your table of content to be. Go to the Reference tab and then select Table of contents. Select a automatic table and press enter. The table of content will appear automatically.
3. Don’t forget to update the table of content after you make any changes. To do this click on the table of content and then update table of content.

Improve your figures with a meaningful caption

A meaningful caption is a must for every thesis. Here is how to insert one.

1. Right click on the figure and choose insert caption.
2. Select the labelling and the position of the caption. Press Ok. Write the text of the caption

Make your document look professional with a neat header

If you go the extra mile and insert a header with the chapter title at the top of every page, you will achieve a polished look for you thesis. Here is how to do it quickly.

1. Place your cursor between chapter 1 and 2 (meaning in front of the first letter of the 2nd chapter).
2. Go to the Layout tab, go to page setup and select Breaks. Choose the Next Page Section Break.
3. Repeat Step 1 and 2 for all chapters.
4. Go to the first chapter and write the desired header, e.g. the chapter title, in the header. Now this header is on every page.
5. Go to the second chapter and click into the header. Go to the newly appeared header and footer menu tab and there go to Navigation. Here you need to deactivate the button Link to Previous.
6. Now write the desired header text in the header of the second chapter.
7. Repeat step 5 and 6 for all chapters.

Bring the layout of your large document to the next level by inserting roman page numbers for the pages that do not belong to the main body of the text

Admittedly, this is only advisable if your document is large. So don’t do this for a 10-page document. Here is how to do it.

1. Ensure that all the chapters are separated by page breaks.
2. If you have not done so already, insert page numbers. To do this go to the Insert tab and then to header & footer; finally add page numbers.
3. Double click on the page number and right click on it. Choose format page number and choose the numbering format you like (such as I, II, III), Press Enter.

Make your tables look beautiful and well arranged

Tables might be important items in your thesis. Make them neat and appealing and your thesis will look the part.

If the end of a page is reached, by default tables will go on to the next page. But this looks ugly and destroys the clarity tables are conveying. Here is how to keep all the lines of your table on one page.

1. Select your table and right click. Select the Table Properties.
2. In the Row tab untick the box that reads Allow row to break across pages. Press ok.
3. Select all lines of the table except the last one. Go to the Home tab. Expand the Paragraph settings.
4. Go to the Line and Page Breaks tab.
5. Activate the boxes Keep with next and Keep lines together. Press ok.

If you have a very wide table, you might want to show in the landscape format. This is how.

1. Put a Next Page Section Break in front and after the table.
2. Go to Layout tab and then to Page Setup. Now choose Orientation and the landscape format.

If you do it like this, the header and footer will be in landscape format, too. Unfortunately, there is no way to keep the header and footer on the short ends of the page. The only known possibility to achieve that is making a screen shot of your table and inserting it as a figure.