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SJD Seminar and Thesis Formatting

This guide was created to answer questions that SJD students frequently ask the library staff about formatting their theses.

MS Word Formatting

Setting up the Document

Page Numbering & Sections

Inserting a Table of Contents

Tagging Headings

If your entire dissertation is in a single MS Word file and you tag your headings, the software can automatically generate a table of contents. 

Here is how to tag the headings:

  1. Type your top-level heading.
  2. Highlight it
  3. From the "home" menu, there is a ribbon that gives you the option of different styles.
  4. Click "Heading 1."
  5. Repeat these steps for second-level headings (clicking "heading 2") and third-level headings (clicking "heading 3")
  6. If the appearance of the headings is not what you and your advisor want, refer to "style sheets," above.

To Insert a Table of Contents:

  1. Put the cursor where you want the table of contents to be
  2. Go to "references" menu
  3. Click "table of contents"
  4. Click "Automatic Table" (either 1 or 2 is good)
  5. If you change your document after inserting the table of contents, highlight the table of contents, right-click, and click "update table."  All the page numbers will update.

Anchoring Footnotes for "Supra" references

Both Mac and PC:

You can link a footnote back to a previous footnote.  To do this:

  • Click in the footnote where you want the supra to go
  • Click the References tab
  • Click Cross-reference

  • Change the Reference type to Footnote
  • Chose the footnote and click Insert

 

If you add footnotes in after the fact, you'll need to update your footnote.  To do this

  • Click anywhere in the footnotes
  • Press Ctrl + A 
  • Press Ctrl + F9

That's it!

Inserting copy-and-paste as plain text

Copying and Pasting as Plain Text

Windows

  1. Right-Click where you want to paste the text

  2. Select the "paste as text" option, or press CTRL-SHIFT-V

Mac

  1. Right-Click where you want to paste the text

  2. Click "paste special."

  3. On the next screen, select "unformatted text."

Formatting block quotes

Guidelines for using block quotations:

  • Do not use quotation marks.
  • Indent the entire quotation five spaces from the left and right margins.
  • Single spacing is required. 

Small caps font

Bluebook citation for titles of books and journals uses "Large and Small Caps" font. 

Windows:

To choose Large or Small Caps, click the Font Dialog Box Launcher

 

Choose either Small Caps or All Caps.

 

Mac:

To choose Large or Small Caps, click the Format Drop down at the top

Choose either Small Caps or All Caps.

 

Outline View

Using Outline View is the simplest way to update formatting for the headings of your thesis. Select the View tab at the top toolbar. Then select "Outline."

 

Your toolbar should switch to the Outlining tab. Select the text of the heading you would like to format. Use the green arrows (or [Tab] and [Shift + Tab]) to increase or decrease the style Level. If you are using the Law Library's Template, the Heading 1 style will correspond to Level 1, Heading 2 to Level 2, etc.