Word Competency

The Sage of Word: Kimby

Overview

To demonstrate your learning, you will format your own documents utilizing the tools covered in the three-course lessons. Please keep track of which tools you used on each item.

Level 1 – Basic Level

Individuals who earn this badge will use the foundational tools of Word to format basic documents and acquire the knowledge to answer basic questions.

For Level 1 pass off, demonstrate skill with

  • Creating new files, both blank and from a template.
  • Formatting text
    • Using the Font group of the Home Tab
    • Extended Font menu (or pop out font menu)
  • Inserting Media
    • Smart Art
    • Pictures
    • Shapes
      • Edit Shapes
    • Screenshot
    • Screen clipping
  • Creating Headers/Footers
    • Along with page numbers and running header text
  • Learn how to download and install Word from office.byu.edu.

Questions you should be able to answer at the basic level

  1. Where are the widow/orphan controls and what do they do?
  2. How do you apply text wrapping to an element? What are the six text wrapping options and what they do? How does in-line text wrapping work?

Show your finished projects to the Sage of Word and explain how you demonstrated these skills. The Sage will check your work and, if you pass, will award your badge.

Level 2 – Teaching Level

Individuals who finish this level will show that they have mastered the core (both basic and advanced) features of Microsoft Word that pertain to the Word class curriculum. As such, a person who has completed this level should feel comfortably teaching or answering questions in the lab. Knowing these skills may also be necessary for future custom classes.

Demonstrate skill with

  • Section breaks
    • The difference between continuous and next page section breaks
  • Styles (including use of the Styles Pane)
    • Creation
    • Application
    • Modification
    • Style Separators (hint: ctrl + alt + enter
  • Table of Contents
    • Creation
    • Formatting through modification of the TOC styles
  • List of Tables/Figures
    • By Captions
    • By Styles
  • Track Changes

Questions you should be able to answer at this level

  1. How do you find styles that aren’t shown in the Styles Pane?
  2. Why Captions are generally inferior to styles for a list of tables/figures?
  3. What three different menus allow you to assess whether there is any space before/after issues?

Show your finished projects to the Sage of Word and explain how you demonstrated these skills. The Sage will check your work and, if you pass, will award your medallion.

Level 3 – Advanced Level

Level 3 will involve an appointment with the Word Ninja, rather than a project, to display the use of the tools and corrections of the issues listed below. Individuals who complete this level will be able to troubleshoot the most difficult problems in Word. They will also have a larger grasp on other advanced (and less used) tools in Word. Trainers who complete this level may be considered for consultation work involving Word or ETDs, contingent upon approval from Ben.

Tools you will need to show familiarity with:

  1. Mail Merge for
    1. Emails
    2. Envelopes
    3. Labels
  2. Formula Editor
  3. Tab Stops and Indentation controls in the Ruler
  4. Use of the Format Painter/Paste Special
  5. Use of Foot- and End-notes
    1. Be able to answer questions about what happens to these notes when changed in track changes
  6. Show knowledge of/skill with contextual tabs for the following objects.
    1. Tables
  7. How to add internal document links.
  8. Understand how to use the Compare/Combine feature, and why you would use them.
  9. Object Anchors.
  10. Understand Viewing options, especially how to turn them on and off.

Be able to:

  1. To connect Refworks with Word
  2. Be able to enable and disable add-ons
  3. Understand and Use the View >> Window group options
  4. Understand and explain how track changes can mess up a list of figures and list of tables links.
  5. Put in a line break into a TOC and know why they are useful for a TOC.
  6. Troubleshoot problems with footnotes and endnotes (not issues from the program EndNote, but issues with the built-in endnote function of word).

Questions you should be able to answer at this level

  1. If a table or paragraph continues to push itself onto a new page, how do you fix it?
  2. How do you line up a line of text directly on the 1-inch margin line at the bottom of a page, especially when just adding single-spaced hard returns doesn’t work?

Suggested Projects

Examples

Basic

Much of this formatting is something you can do with papers you write for your own classes. You can also download the file used for the paper formatting day.

Teaching

Demonstrate skills using your own essay, or use the sample ETD file from the ETD class curriculum.

Advanced

Given that no file can be created that would demonstrate all of the necessary skills, schedule a time with the Word Sage to talk over the skills. Be ready to demonstrate actual examples and to explain those skills or tools in your own words.