E8: Long Documents

This exercise will tackle long documents in Word. In its way, this exercise will be the most difficult one you attempt. The reason for that, primarily, is that Word’s advanced features tend to be, shall we say, wonky. Luckily, you are more likely to find help online for Word than any other program.

Since Word was originally a word-processing program, it handled documents like a typewriter would, with a few modest features such as spell check. As time has gone on, Microsoft has tried to build Word into a page layout program. Page layout programs are designed to handle graphics and page design. They require much more power and flexibility than a word-processing program. The features that allow Word to be a page layout program work… somewhat. They do have quite a few bugs in them. However, if you are going to be a power user in Word, you must know how to work around these issues. This exercise will help you learn how to do that.

Be prepared for weird things to happen in this process. Be prepared for Word NOT to do what it should. Be prepared to experiment and troubleshoot. If it works for you without issue, be grateful for that rare occurrence.

Advanced Word Exercise

Do not use the Page Color option for any of these exercises. It is unreliable, does not work well, and can be a mess when trying to convert the document to a PDF. If you are creating a digital portfolio, remember that a potential employer will see this document; make it something that will impress them. If you are not creating a portfolio, just step through the exercises.

1. Find a Wikipedia article or paper you have written with multiple headings and pictures.
2. Copy the text of the article.
3. Paste the text only into a Word file as unformatted text.
4. Change the page size to a width of 5.5 inches and a height of 8.5 inches.
5. Change the margins to be mirrored left/right with an inside margin of .6 inch, an outside margin of .4 inches and top/bottom margins of .5 inches. (hint: use mirror margins)
6. Change the color scheme of the document to your choice of colors. Make sure you change the actual scheme.
7. Change the font scheme of the document to your choice of fonts. Make sure you change the actual scheme.
8. Create three new paragraph styles: HD1, HD2, and HD3.
9. Looking at the contents section of the article, make all the first-level headings HD1, all the second-level headings HD2, and all the third-level headings HD3.
10. Format the HD1 style to look like a header (larger, bolder, some fancy font, etc.). Ensure you are changing the style definition and not just a single instance. (hint: right click on the style in the ribbon)
11. Format the HD2 style to look like a header (larger, bolder, some fancy font, etc.). Ensure you are changing the style definition and not just a single instance. (hint: right click on the style in the ribbon)
12. Format the HD3 style to look like a header (larger, bolder, some fancy font, etc.). Ensure you are changing the style definition and not just a single instance. (hint: right click on the style in the ribbon)
13. Change the HD2 style to have a space of 18 points above it. Ensure you are changing the style definition and not just a single instance.
14. Create a new style for the text, name it YourLastName_para01, and make it whatever font and spacing you want (not the default). Apply the style to the basic text paragraphs.
15. Add the pictures from the Wikipedia article or paper into the body of the text.
16. Wrap the text around the pictures. Place the pictures on the side, not in the center.
17. Dress the pictures up. Feel free to use borders, artistic effects, whatever.
18. Make the caption float with the picture. (hint: caption and a text box)
19. Delete the original contents section or table of contents (TOC).
20. Following the title, create a TOC using the HD1, HD2, and HD3 tags. Ensure the TOC hyperlinks to the appropriate sections. You will need to update the list once you insert it.
21. Make every other page have a different colored background. (hint: put a page-sized box in the header or footer. Look for how to make the first page have a different header/footer.)
22. Make the pages have facing or mirrored headers and footers (page numbers on the outside of both pages).
23. Change the page number format to Roman numerals. Make sure the pages are numbered consecutively throughout all the sections.
24. If you are creating a portfolio, make the document look as nice as possible using your Word skills before considering it finished.
25. Save the file.
26. Turn the file in, if applicable.