Microsoft Office Power Tools:
Using Word’s Power Features to Create Syllabi and Exams

Workshop Activities:

This list of activities is saved as a Word file called "00_Class_Activities.docx" formatted using styles (of course). You can also download all of the data files and the activity file at once by choosing "Word_Power_Tools.zip".

Intro:

Microsoft Word has thousands of different tools, macros, building blocks and keyboard shortcuts yet most users will access a couple of hundred and feel quite accomplished. I want to show a few of the advanced Word options and how they may make your life easier.

Syllabus Styles

Styles are a combination of font, color, spacing, tabs, text effects and others saved for re-use.

Styles provide for consistency within a single document or across multiple documents.

Word comes with over 350 styles already defined and waiting for you to use them, fortunately most of them are hidden until needed. A typical document will display sixteen styles to choose form and show them in a gallery on the “Home” tab.

To see one small example of styles, go ahead and open “10_test_sample_stage_4.docx”. Click between question #1 and #2 and then right click “answer” in the style gallery – change color to red and see the answers to each question. For another preview of a syllabus open “01_syllabus_custom_styles.docx” and scroll through document.

Use Styles to Navigate and Organize – open “01_syllabus_custom_styles.docx” if not already open, close navigation if necessary and review document.

Click on “General Course Information” & select small triangle to the left to collapse section – collapse and restore several others.

Open navigation panel (Ctrl + F) and collapse section (no change in document). Rearrange headings and document responds. Move “Additional General Information” subheads to “College-wide P & P.” Delete “Additional; General Info”

Select “Blackboard…” and delete

Close the document without saving.

How to Apply, Modify, Create and Import styles – open “02_syllabus_short_no_styles.docx” and save as temp.docx.

Apply built-in styles Title, Subtitle, Heading 1, and Heading 2. All use the default office theme (blue).

Click on test formatted as Heading 1 and make some changes (color, font, bold…). Right click on Heading 1 in Gallery and choose to “Update Heading 1 to match selection.” Repeat with Heading 2.

To import existing styles… Open styles dialog box and choose “Manage Styles” from the bottom icon set. Select “Import/Export” from bottom of dialog box. Close the open file (Normal.dotx) and open (all Word document types) 01_syllabus_custom_styles.docx. Copy Category Topics, College Name, Course Name, and Major Category to current document.

Select title (Montgomery College) and apply College Name style. Select subtitle (all three lines) and apply Course Title. Click into Heading 1 text (General Course Information) and Home → Select → All text with similar formatting (No Data) to pick all Heading 1 text. Format selected text as Major Category style. Repeat with Heading 2 text and format as Category Topics style.

Select Important Dates category data and apply No Spacing style. Save as temp.docx (or check out 03_syllabus_short_custom_styles.docx) and close file.

Save styles as a template – open 04_syllabus_generic_custom_styles.docx.

Customize test with actual division, campus, course, instructor name, contact info, etc.

Remove and/or rearrange major sections and minor categories

Update header/footer with course and instructor name

Save document as “Word Template (*.dotx)” called my_business_template.dotx (replace “business” with appropriate course name).

Close all files and exit Word. Start Word – choose “New” and “Personal” templates to open fresh copy of syllabus. Name is “Document1.docx” and will require another name to be saved.

Test Styles

Creating a multiple choice test with a set of styles and a template

Save the template and copy questions to new test –

Open 05_test_sample_styles_for_template.docx and modify header and footer to customize. Save as Word Template my_business_quiz_template.dotx (replace business with appropriate course name). Close all Word files.

Open 06_test_sample_test_bank.rtf (drawn from an actual test bank) and a new test from the saved template.

Copy two or three questions (and answers) to template below the sample question. (Results are saved as 07_test_sample_stage_1.docx in data file folder).

Format the new test – continue with current document or open 07_test_sample_stage_1.docx if necessary and save as temp.docx

Remove all tables – click in first table of answers. “Table → Layout → Convert to Text → OK” to remove first table and accept default formatting.  Click in the next table and repeat the command with “F4” keystroke. Repeat for the other eight tables. (Results are saved as 08_test_sample_stage_2.docx)

Apply styles – select each question and apply question style (using F4 to repeat the command). Select first set of answers and apply answer style – repeat for all other sets of questions using F4 to repeat the command. Select first answer key and apply style key – repeat for other answer keys using F4 to repeat.

Renumber questions – copy sample question number (_____ 1. [tab]) and paste in place of second question number. Use F4 to repeat the paste operation after each subsequent question number is selected. Delete the sample question and manually renumber questions once paste is complete. (Results are saved as 09_test_sample_stage_3.docx)

Remove extra ¶ (pilcrows) – Select “Find What” and insert two paragraph marks  (Home → Replace → More >> → Special €→ Paragraph Mark). Choose “Replace With” and insert a single paragraph mark. Choose “Replace All” repeatedly until zero replacements are made.

Complete Formatting – hit ENTER after quiz instructions to add white space. Hit CTRL + ENTER before question #7 to move it to a new page. Modify key style to white text. Ready to be printed. (Results are saved as 10_test_sample_stage_4.docx)