Category: Geeks r Us
Hello, all.
I am wondering if anyone has experience in setting up an outline in Microsoft Word 2010 with Jaws For Windows. As part of an English assignment, I am required to construct an outline, but was never taught the Jaws commands for making this happen. Thanks for your support.
Nathan
Can you be a bit more specific about what your outline needs to look like? What kind of indents do you need? Are you having trouble with fonts? Spacing? Other formatting? If you can isolate -exactly what you need to do and what you're having trouble with, we'll be better able to give you exact pointers. Also, see if your university has a writing and learning services group or some variation thereof, that can help you with formatting your work correctly.
Hi.
The outline has to include in-text citations, 12 point font, and I guess be an outline. I just need help with indenting, and in general how to set one up.
Thanks,
Nathan.
Okay, that's a bit more helpful. Do you have an assignment sheet or set of notes on -exactly what your outline must look like. for example: what kind of indents do you need?
In-text citations are quite easy, as long as you know which documentation style you'll need. In general, in-text citations look like this: (author, page number). All punctuation belongs outside the parentheses, and you'll need commas separating the author's last name(s) and the page number(s) the material is sourced from. If you are using APA documentation style, you'll also want to include the year of publication. For example:
(Smith, 2013, pp. 17-19) or (Smith, 2013, p. 17)
If you don't have page numbers or other information you'll need, check out the corresponding book that goes with your documentation style of choice. If you don't have a book the perdu university website has a great summary of all the major documentation styles, if I remember correctly. They have detailed examples as well.
As for font, that part is easy. First, press control A to select all the text in your document. This will make sure that the entire document is uniform. . Hit alt to go to the menu bar, and you will likely end up on the "home" ribbon. If you don't, navigate there using your left and right arrow keys. Once on the home menu, tab forward until you hear "font submenu" You will see several font options before you hit the submenu, but I recommend waiting until you get to the submenu, as it is easier to navigate. Press space to open it. The first thing you'll see is colour, but you shouldn't have to mess with that. Next, adjust style (I recommend times new roman as it's an easy-to-read font) and then adjust size. You can do this by using your up/down arrow keys or first-letter navigation. When you're done making your changes, tab till you see an ok button and press space. To make sure your changes have taken effect press nvda key plus f and it should tell you the details of the font you're currently using.
I hope this helps. Please come back with more details if you need further assistance, and don't be afraid to ask your instructor for more help if you need it. That's what they're there for.
Wait, so they're different outline set-ups?
Also, doesn't microsoft automatically know when you're doing an outline?
For example, if you put the first Roman numeral, the number 1 and the letters after, microsoft should already know you're doing an outline. At least that's the way it happened for me anyways.
Yeah it should. In general outlines begin a main topic with roman numerals. Then you follow that with uppercase letters a, b, c, etc. with the sub-topics. Then if you need to go in to more details write out the numbers 1, 2, 3, etc. This is usually the universal way of doing an outline, and if your professor wanted you to do it another way he/she should have told you the way they wanted it. Tab is the easiest way to indent obviously and I wouldn't worry about trying to make the outline look fancy, because it's just an outline. But make sure you follow the professor's instructions and ask like Meglet said if you aren't sure. Good luck.
Use tab or shift tab to indent / outdent also and if you have started your outline it will work.
So for engineering documents, which admittedly do look different than your school documents, here is what I do:
I enter
1.
12.
3.
each on separate lines. Well after you enter 1. followed by a space you can just hit enter a couple of times.
We use real numbers not Roman Numerals and letters.
So then you move to the line where you want your letter to appear, hit enter and it will insert the number instead, just tab and it replaces it with the letters.
Because we use subsections like 1.1 and 2.1.3. then I actually enter the numbers in but it seems Word likes the schoolish outlines better than ours.
I haven't done any citations since the typewriter days and even thinking about doing those makes my head hurt. But linking external documents is as straightforward as making hyperlinks (control+k).
The reason we use sections / subsections is that during meetings or design analysis we can refer to them directly. A lot more sensible to say Item 2.1.3 than to say number 3 under section A of Roman Numberal II, I have no idea how English humanities types manage this sorts of things when trying to figure out flow.
Just remember that is what your outline is for: flow. I suppose there is an artsy fartsy English class word for it, but it's flow: shows you a picture of the design of what you are making, a paper in your case I suppose.
But anyway hope some of this helps, though Meglet's tips are more in line with academia probably.
Yes, unless you've messed with word's settings, it should insert the numbers and letters you'll need if you start off with a Roman numeral.
Thanks for the help. I use Jaws, not NVDA.
Is there a template I can use?