Masters Paper Template

» Download Microsoft Word Template

This template allows Adobe Acrobat to automatically collect document metadata through specific paragraph formatting in Microsoft Word. You do not need to use this template, but if you do not, you will need to manually type all your metadata (author, title, abstract, etc) during your submission to DSpace.

Although most of us have used Microsoft Word before, this template has a few features that it helps to know about.

  1. The first two pages of the template for the abstract/headings and title page must remain EXACTLY as they are for the formatting to be acceptable.
  2. Text in the template that is dark or light blue should be changed to your paper's specifics (title, advisor, etc) when you use the template. If the template has a guide in all caps, keep it in all caps.
  3. If you click on the link in the official masters paper instructions and the .dot file opens as a text file in your browser, there's a simple fix. Right click on the link, and say "Save Link As..." Save it to your hard drive, and open it in Word.
  4. If you cut and paste something (i.e. your title) and the formatting from your original document carries over into the template, don't panic. Go to the top menu bar and click on the drop down formatting box to the left of the font styles. Options include:
    • Abstract
    • Advisor
    • Approved
    • Author
    • Keywords
    • Header
    • Major
    • Title
    • Year
  5. The body text can be either "Normal" or "Body Text + Indent" depending on how you want your paragraphs to be separated. Both are acceptable by SILS guidelines.
  6. Page numbering can be quite difficult in Microsoft Word. Once you've pasted in your paper, in order to get different size margins and continous pagination, follow these steps:
    1. Divide your paper into sections following Insert -> Break -> Section Break
    2. View -> Header and Footer
    3. Find the header where you want to start numbering
    4. Place your cursor in the appropriate header/footer
    5. On the Header and Footer toolbar click the button "Link to Previous." In Word 2000, linked headers have the label "Same as previous." Clicking the "Link to Previous" button removes this label, indicating that the link is broken.
    6. The header for this section should now be unlinked from the previous section headers
    7. Insert page numbers where you wish to start numbering
  7. If you need to include images or tables imported from other programs, many times converting the image to a JPG is a wise idea. PDF conversions are unpredictable with imported files, and JPGs save space as well.
  8. As always, check your paper over before converting it into a PDF. There's nothing worse than noticing errors once you've converted and having to repeat the entire process again from Word to Acrobat.
  9. If you are having problems with the Word template, please ask either a SILS lab employee or one of the DSpace administrators. For problems with the PDF conversion process, please ask a SILS lab employee.
  10. When converting your paper into a PDF in the SILS lab, there are a few changes that have to be made to the Microsoft Word settings.
    1. Go to Tools > Options and click the Security tab.
    2. Click the Macro Security button and change the level to "medium."
    3. Restart Word and the PDF buttons should appear.
    4. If the button doesn't show up then you can tell it to by going to Addons and Plugins and enabling the Adobe Macro Tools --> Templates and Add-ins check the AdobePDFMaker.dot
    5. Click OK and it should be visible.

Good luck with your papers! If you need any help with the template, or have anything you'd like to add to these instructions, feel free to email us at dspace@miles.ils.unc.edu and we will add it to this FAQ.

Created by Patricia Losi — April, 2004
Update by Jackson Fox — March, 2005