(Retired) Microsoft Word for Dissertations

Rackham has very specific requirements for most elements in your document. For example, your chapter titles and front matter titles (e. g., Dedication, Acknowledgements, etc.) need to be formatted in a particular way. Below is an example of how you can set that up using the Heading 1 style – please confirm your Heading 1 style with the Rackham guidelines to be sure nothing has changed and that we didn’t miss anything!

1. On the Home Ribbon, in the Styles Group, right-click on the Heading 1 style and select Modify.
2. In the Modify Style dialog box (see picture above), in the Formatting: section,
   • Set the font to Times New Roman.
   • Set the font size to 12 point.
   • Set the text color to black.
   • Center the text.
   • Select single or double spaced lines.
3. Click on the Format button in the bottom-left corner of the dialog box and choose Paragraph (see below).
4. In the Indents and Spacing tab, type in 1 in. or 72 pt (these are equivalent values) in the Spacing Before: box. This adds the two-inch margin required for chapter titles (this one inch, then one inch from the margin). ** Please note that you must have a Section Break (Next Page) inserted before the title text for that extra inch to be added **
5. Since the chapters and front matter have to start on a new page, you can build a page break into the style by going to the Line and Page Breaks tab and checking the box for Page Break Before.

Click OK until you are back to your document.