When you press the Tab key while working in Microsoft Word, your cursor moves to a specific location called a tab stop. Tabs can be used to indent paragraphs, but they can also be used for other purposes including creating single- and multi-column … Continue Reading about How to Create, Change, and Delete Tabs in Microsoft Word
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Should You Use Metric or US Customary Units of Measurement in Your Writing?
Here in the United States, we use US customary units of measurement, such as pounds, feet, and inches, for most of our daily activities. However, we are also accustomed to seeing—and sometimes using—the metric system adopted by most other countries. So, should we use metric or US customary units of measurement in our writing? Before […]
How to Stop Microsoft Word from Calling You “Author” in Track Changes
Does Track Changes identify you as “Author” instead of your user name when you are making edits or writing comments? If so, someone has used the Document Inspector to remove hidden properties and user information from your file. This tutorial shows the basic method to stop Microsoft Word from calling you “Author” in Track Changes […]
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How to Cite a Podcast in Reference Lists, Notes, and Bibliographies
From true crime to comedy, podcasts are all the rage right now. And unsurprisingly, the information they provide is sneaking into our writing. But, just like written sources, podcasts need to be properly cited in reference lists, notes, and bibliographies. This post explains how to cite a podcast according to three of our primary style […]
How to Create a Nonbreaking Dash in Microsoft Word
This tutorial shows you how to create a nonbreaking dash in Microsoft Word. A nonbreaking dash will stop words or numbers connected by an en dash or em dash from separating at the end of a line. These steps can also be used for hyphens. However, Word provides a built-in nonbreaking hyphen that is simpler […]
How to Write Table Titles
Table titles help readers understand the connection between tables and the rest of the document. They can also make tables easier to understand when viewed by themselves. Due to these important functions, all our primary style guides offer detailed guidelines for how to write table titles. So today, we’re going to compare the differing guidelines […]
How to Insert Figure Captions and Table Titles in Microsoft Word
This tutorial shows how to insert figure captions and table titles in Microsoft Word. The benefit of using Word’s caption tool, as opposed to just typing captions and titles manually, is that the caption and title numbers will automatically update as you add figures or tables. The following steps also explain how to change the […]
How to Write Figure Captions
Figures are visuals such as graphs, charts, photos, drawings, and maps. Figures are normally identified by the capitalized word Figure and a number followed by a caption. A caption is a short block of text that gives information about the figure. The following seven tips explain how to write figure captions in your book, article, […]
How to Create a Custom Dictionary in Microsoft Word
All Microsoft Word users have a default custom dictionary that acts as a catchall for their spelling preferences. In fact, every time you right-click on a flagged word (which may or may not be misspelled) and select “Add to Dictionary,” that word goes to your default custom dictionary. However, you can create additional custom dictionaries […]
When to Use the Percent Sign in a Sentence (The Ultimate Guide)
Do you know what percentage of style guides agree on when to use the percent sign in a sentence? Zero! To understand when to use the percent sign instead of the word percent, we need to look at the recommendations provided by all four of our primary style guides: The Chicago Manual of Style (Chicago […]
How to Create and Customize Headings in Microsoft Word
This tutorial shows how to create headings in Microsoft Word. More specifically, we’ll look at how to create headings using Word’s styles. Then, we’ll look at how to customize Word’s default heading styles to your preferred font, font size, alignment, and color. But first, let’s discuss the importance of using Word’s heading styles. Why Are […]
How to Capitalize Hyphenated Words in Titles and Headings
Most titles and headings are formatted with headline-style capitalization, which means that the first and last words and all the main words in between are capitalized (as demonstrated in the title of this blog post). But how should you capitalize hyphenated words in titles and headings using headline-style capitalization? The general guideline is to capitalize […]
Three Ways to Insert Superscripts and Subscripts in Microsoft Word
Superscripts are numbers, letters, or symbols that appear slightly above the surrounding text. Subscripts are letters, numbers, words, or phrases that appear slightly below the surrounding text. This tutorial shows how to insert superscripts and subscripts in Microsoft Word using three different tools: 1. The Superscript and Subscript Buttons 2. The Symbol Dialog Box 3. […]
