Ce 431 Lab Report Template
Ce 431 Lab Report Template
by
Joe C. Engineer
Month 20xx
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF TABLES..........................................................................................................viii
LIST OF FIGURES..........................................................................................................
1 Introduction................................................................................................................
1.1 Styles...................................................................................................................
1.1.4 Figures.............................................................................................................
1.1.5 Captions...........................................................................................................
2.3 Tables...................................................................................................................
2.4 Equations.............................................................................................................
vi
3.3 Signature, Title Page, Abstract, Acknowledgements, and Other Preliminary
Pages..................................................................................................................
4 Conclusions...............................................................................................................
References.........................................................................................................................
vii
LIST OF TABLES
Figure 2-6 Changing the Text Direction for Landscape Figures and Tables
....................................................................................................................................
10
Figure 2-7 Landscape Figures and Tables Should have a Caption/Title Vertically on the
Page
....................................................................................................................................
11
Figure 3-2 Changing the Break Type for the Start of a Section.
....................................................................................................................................
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This document provides instructions for using Microsoft Word and associated
styles for preparing your thesis or dissertation. It also will serve as a template containing
all of the basic styles you should need. Chapters are short in order to illustrate different
Styles
Using styles will make your life much easier. There are hundreds or thousands of
ways that you might want to take advantage of styles but in this template I will only try
and include the most important. This paragraph for example uses the Body Text style
which is good for all text in the main body of your writing. You should know it is Body
Text because it will be identified in the styles drop-down list as shown in Figure 1 -1.
The other important formatting you should consider using styles for are outlined
1
1.1.1 Bulleted Lists
Bulleted lists are used to delineate many related objects that are not necessarily
related. The List Bullet style is set up for this. For example we could list specialties
within Civil and Environmental Engineering with a bulleted list like this:
Structures
Geotechnical
Transportation
Water Resources
Environmental
If a list is more sequential then a numbered list is probably a better choice. For
example if I were to list my favorite classes in order of preference I could use the List
1. CEEn 531
2. CEEn 514
3. CEEn 431
4. CEEn 113
All the headings in this document use a Heading style. The number (1, 2, 3)
denotes the level for outlined numbering as well. Heading 1 should be used for chapter
titles with Headings 2 and 3 to denote sub-parts of each chapter. You can extend for
2
deeper heading styles if you wish. Only Heading styles 1 and 2 are accounted for in the
table of contents. You can modify heading styles for spacing, tabs, etc. by using the
command View Styles and Formatting. Right click on the style you would like to
1.1.4 Figures
There is a Figure style that should be used each time you insert some kind of
Figure. It will keep indentation, etc. for figures the same throughout your document and
1.1.5 Captions
The Caption style is used for defining captions beneath figures and above
tables. There is a section below that discusses inserting captions so that numbering will
All of the main body text should use the Body Text style.
The followed numbered list explains what will be covered in the different
chapters:
2. The next chapter covers figures, tables, captions, and cross references
3
3. The third chapter covers page numbering, table of contents and the other
6. The appendix provides a little help for preparing your thesis or dissertation for
electronic submission
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2 Figures, Tables, Captions, and Cross References
having to manually renumber then you will want to take advantage of references for
captions and references within your document. Further, using these styles makes it
For figure, table and equation numbers you should use the Insert-Reference-
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When inserting a caption you will notice that you can choose between Figure,
Table, or Equation as shown in Figure 2 -3. The important thing about inserting captions
in this way is that the numbering will automatically be maintained if you have to insert a
Another reason to insert captions is that you can use the Cross Reference option
when you reference your figure, table, or equation from the main body of your document.
Cross references are then automatically updated as well. However, sometimes I have
found that you may want to use Print Preview to make sure all captions and cross
references are properly updated as this does not automatically happen when you
insert/delete a caption. Figure 2 -4 shows how you access the Cross Reference option.
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Figure 2-4 Inserting a Cross Reference
You can then choose what kind of cross reference you are inserting (figure, table,
etc.) and whether you want to reference the entire caption or only the number. I have
used only numbers in the examples and find it to be the most useful.
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2.3 Tables
The next illustration is for a table. Note that the table references are the same as
the figure so that they are automatically updated. See for example Table 2 -1
2.4 Equations
Microsoft Word has an equation editor that can be accessed using the Insert
Object command. You will have to scroll through the list of Objects in the dialog shown
in Figure 2 -6 until you see the Equation object. Unfortunately the Equation editor is not
installed by default with Microsoft Office (I guess they are not scientists at heart) so you
may have to get your Office CD and install it through the Custom option if you do not see
it.
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Figure 2-6 Setting up Equations with the Microsoft Equation Editor
While Words equation editor is adequate it was kind of more of an after thought.
Still, you will find it useful and further it is also easy to reference (see 2-1) them so that
(See Figure 2 -3 and choose Equation). Word will only allow the equation number above
and below equations, figures, and tables. However, after the caption is inserted, you can
move the text to be on the same line with your equations by using a series of tabs after
the equation.
2
1.49
Q AR 3 S (2-1)
n
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2.5 Landscape Figures and Tables
A figure or table may be placed horizontally (landscape) on the page with the top
at the binding (left) side. The table title above the table and the figure caption below
with their numbers so that they read vertically up the page. The page number is in its
normal position at the bottom center of the page. When inserting a caption, you must
Figure 2-7 Changing the Text Direction for Landscape Figures and Tables
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Figur
e 2-8
Lands
cape
Figur
es
and
Table
s
Shoul
d
have
a
Capti
on/Tit
le
Vertic
ally
on the
Page
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3 Page Numbering, TOC, Lists, and Signature Pages
sections. By using sections you can restart (or continue) page numbering and have
New sections are created so that you can change the layout or formatting of
different parts of the document. All new chapters in this document have been created by
inserting new sections. This is done by choosing the Insert-Break command. You will
then choose the type of break you want to insert as shown in Figure 3 -9.
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All of the sections in this document have used the Odd Page break type. This
will insure that each new chapter starts with an odd page number. Odd pages are always
on the right hand side of your document and when photocopying two sided that is where
you will want each new chapter to begin. Doing it this way should also force the printer
to print a blank page if one chapter ends on an odd page so that you will have all the
pages necessary to run the document as a one sided to two sided copy job. This is
especially helpful in the preliminary pages. You can change the break type of any section
by putting the cursor in the first page in that section and then choosing Page Setup from
the File menu. From the Layout tab select the type of break to begin the section as shown
in Figure 3 -10.
If a blank page is created from using the odd page break, no page number will be
printed on the blank page. However, University standards require page numbers on all
pages. So, once your thesis is finished, and you are ready to print, go to the end of each
chapter and make sure you have a page with a page number. You may have to insert
actual page breaks to do this. This will create an actual blank page with a page number.
See the end of Chapter 3 for an example. You may find it easier not to use odd page
breaks in the text and just add blank pages where needed at the end of chapters to ensure
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Figure 3-10 Changing the Break Type for the Start of a Section.
The Page Setup dialog shown in Figure 3 -10 is also used to control some other
important parameters. For example margins are set by selecting the Margins tab. Some
important things to note about how these properties are set is the setting for Multiple
Pages is Mirror margins so that there are outside and inside margins rather than left and
right since we want the larger margin to always occur on the inside where binding takes
place. For odd pages this is the left, but for even it is the right.
The page numbers have been inserted in the footers. You can view them by
choosing the View Headers/Footers command. You can modify the format by choosing
the Page Numbers command from the Insert menu as shown in Figure 3 -11
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Figure 3-11 Changing Page Numbers
Page numbers have been defined to continue from one section to the next in the
main body. However it is important that you go in and define the starting page for the
Table of Contents section since this will vary depending on whether you include an
acknowledgments page. Also I have set it to start at vii by default because while each of
the first sections start on Odd Pages (so that blanks will be printed and the document
readied for two-sided copying) we dont want to count those blanks in page numbering as
we do in the body of the text. To set a specific starting value choose the Options button
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Figure 3-12 Page Numbering Options
You will then see the dialog shown in Figure 3 -13 and be allowed to set the
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3.3 Signature, Title Page, Abstract, Acknowledgements, and Other
Preliminary Pages
The first few pages of this document are properly formatted for the title page,
signatures, abstract, etc. You should just replace the appropriate areas with your title,
your name, your advisor, etc. and it will be ready to print. The acknowledgements page
There is no need to have table of contents (TOC) entries for pages up to the TOC.
These pages count in terms of the page number the TOC starts on, but they are not listed
in the TOC itself. The entries for the remaining chapters are created automatically when
you are finished by choosing the Insert- Reference-Index and Tables command as shown
in Figure 3 -14. This will bring up the dialog shown in Figure 3 -15.
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Figure 3-15 Table of Contents Options
The default options will generate TOC entries for Heading Styles 1 and 2 (just
1&2), but you will need to choose the Options button and specify the List Title to be level
1 (see Figure 3 -16) in order to have your List of Tables and List of Figures included.
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Figure 3-16 Defining Styles to be Included in a Table of Contents.
You may also want to turn off Heading Style 3 as I have done for this TOC.
Unfortunately you have to do this each time you generate the TOC because Word doesnt
seem to have a way to remember it from one time it generates the TOC to another (but
this isnt something you have to do all the time either). There are plenty of other options
for the number of levels included in your TOC and other formatting if you want to
explore. You will be prompted if you wish to replace the existing TOC which you should
do. The TOC styles insert a series of periods () for tabs so that numbers are right
aligned. This causes some extra periods in the Appendix entries which you will need to
delete manually.
Do not run the titles into the page number section. Modify the layout of the table
of contents to include tab stops at the right side if you have titles that are long enough to
go to a second line. You will also want to modify the paragraph style to make entries
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single spaced if more than one line and double spaced between entries. This can all be
Lists of figures and tables are generated automatically the same way the TOC is
created. Before generating these lists you should put your cursor on the first line of the
table/figure list you wish so that it replaces the correct one. In either case you will
choose the List of Figures tabs from the dialog shown in Figure 3 -15. From this tab you
will be able to choose whether or not you wish to generate the list of tables and list of
figures. Remember that in order to generate these lists automatically you must have used
the Insert-Reference-Caption option when defining the captions of each table and figure.
Long figure/table titles should not run into the page number section. Titles should end
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4 Conclusions
I hope this document will be of use to you. Undoubtedly you will find bugs or
problems with it and/or you will discover new/better ways to make your writing more
efficient. Please feel free to make corrections to this template and email it back to me at
There is a lot more you can learn about MS that will help and I encourage you to
do so. However, the most important thing to learn is to use Styles and then edit formats
through styles so that you do not have to continuously go through your document and
update manually when you want to change a font size, spacing, numbering, etc.
One final note of advice is that you shouldnt be afraid to use the Help option
within Word to investigate how different options work. There were many times in the
course of building this template that it was handy and provided me with good
information.
Lastly, below is a checklist of things to remember to look for as you review your
Check numbering of sections, figures, tables, etc. to make sure they are
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Check cross references that they are correct
Take thesis to your department and then to the deans office for formatting
review
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References
Bates, P. D., Stewart, M. D., Desitter, A., Anderson, M. G., Renaud, J. P., and Smith, J. A.
(2000). Numerical simulation of floodplain hydrology. Water Resources
Research, 36(9), 2517-2529.
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Appendix A. Electronic Document Submission
The Fulton College of Engineering and Technology requires all theses and
All the information you need to know about creating an electronic document can
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