Formatting Support: Word 2007
Guidelines for Preparing Electronic Theses, Dissertations, and Doctoral Essays
This document contains instructions for formatting conformant Portable Document Format (PDF)
versions of theses to our database.
Please see the companion document “Organization, Formatting, and PDF Conversion Guidelines for
Theses, Dissertations, and Doctoral/Lecture Essays” published by the Graduate School for instructions
on document pagination, spacing, and other styling issues, as well as Graduate School policies regarding
the editorial and publication process.
Contents
Best Practices ................................................................................................................................................ 2
Use the Same Software and Computer While Writing ............................................................................. 2
Working with Multimedia Files ................................................................................................................. 2
Converting From Microsoft Word 2007 to a PDF (Windows Only) .............................................................. 3
Step 1: Embed fonts in Word 2007. .......................................................................................................... 3
Step 2: Adjust Adobe Acrobat Professional Settings. ............................................................................... 4
Step 3: Convert your Word file into a PDF. ............................................................................................... 5
Step 4: THE MOST IMPORTANT: Double-check your conversion. ............................................................ 6
Recommended File Formats ......................................................................................................................... 7
Image Files ................................................................................................................................................ 7
Audio Files ................................................................................................................................................. 7
Video ......................................................................................................................................................... 7
Spreadsheets and Databases .................................................................................................................... 7
Program Code ........................................................................................................................................... 7
If at any time, you need help with the formatting or conversion of your
thesis/dissertation, please contact the ETD Formatting Support Group at
[email protected] or visit the Digital Media Lab in the Richter Library.
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Formatting Support: Word 2007
Best Practices
In order to ensure that the text in the PDF version of theses or
dissertations will look the same on all machines today and in the
future, it is required that you submit PDF documents containing
copies of the fonts you have used. In technical terms, this is
referred to as “embedding” fonts. As per the Graduate School's
Formatting Guidelines, only Arial, Times New Roman, and Courier
New are considered acceptable fonts, with the main text sized at
12-point. While generating PDF files is easy to do, please pay
close attention to the instructions on embedding fonts.
Use the Same Software and Computer While
Writing
Students may create conformant PDF documents using Microsoft
Windows, Apple Macintosh, or Linux operating systems.
However, because the text data in documents often renders
differently in different versions of the same software, we strongly
recommend that students generate their final PDF documents
using the same computer and software they used to author their
original document. All of the text in a Microsoft Word 2003
document may not display correctly when opened in Microsoft
Word 2007, and vice-versa.
Working with Multimedia Files
Because it is possible that print copies of student theses are
provided to students and their advisor, you are encouraged to
think of your theses/dissertations as electronic documents which
will also be printed. For this reason, if your thesis or dissertation
contains non-printable multimedia files, DO NOT embed them
within the PDF. You may upload these separately in addition to
the dissertation itself, to make them available in the electronic
database. A list of acceptable multimedia files is found on page 6.
Tips:
1 – We strongly recommend
that students generate their
final PDF documents using
the same computer and
software they used to author
their original document.
2 – If your thesis or
dissertation contains non-
printable multimedia files,
DO NOT embed them within
the PDF.
3 – For help creating your
multimedia supplemental
files, please visit the Digital
Media Lab in the Richter
Library
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Formatting Support: Word 2007
Converting From Microsoft Word 2007 to a PDF (Windows Only)
There are five basic steps to convert your Word 2007 document to a PDF.
If you have written your thesis/dissertation in multiple documents (multiple *.doc files), please be
sure to follow the additional instructions.
Step 1: Embed fonts in Word 2007.
Don’t leave home without your fonts! If you are taking your word files somewhere to convert them to
PDF, you must embed your fonts in the word files before you leave the computer on which you have
composed your document. This is especially important if you are using multiple computers to edit your
document(s).
1. Open your document.
2. Click on the Microsoft Office button.
3. Click the “Word Options” button at the bottom of the frame.
4. On the “Save” tab, click to select the "Embed fonts" in the file check box. Check the box for
"Embed only the characters used in the document (best for reducing file size). Make sure
that the box "Do not embed common system fonts" is not checked.
The Save tab of the
Options dialog box
should look like this.
5. Click “OK”.
6. Save your document.
MULTIPLE FILES: If you are using multiple files, repeat the above steps for each Word file.
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Formatting Support: Word 2007
Step 2: Adjust Adobe Acrobat Professional Settings.
Personal Computers: If you are doing this on your personal computer, you will not need to repeat this
step every time you convert to PDF. If you need to resubmit the PDF after making changes to your Word
documents, the settings created in the steps below will still be saved on your computer.
Non-Personal Computers: If you are doing work on a shared computer (i.e. a computer in the Otto G.
Richter Library), you will have to setup Adobe Acrobat each time you use a computer.
1. Open Adobe Acrobat Professional.
2. Click on “Edit”, then “Preferences…”.
3. Select “Convert To PDF” from the Categories column, then “Microsoft Office Word” from
the Converting To PDF column.
4. Click “Edit Settings…”. The Adobe PDF Settings for supported documents dialog box opens.
5. Select “Standard” from the Adobe PDF Settings dropdown.
6. Click the “Edit…” button to the right of that dropdown.
7. In the Standard – Adobe PDF Settings dialog box, select “Fonts” from the list of folders on
the left.
8. Check the boxes “Embed all fonts” and “Subset embedded fonts…”.
9. In the Never Embed box (lower right), remove all fonts that appear in the box by
highlighting the font and clicking “Remove”.
a. You may remove multiple fonts by holding the “Shift” key and using the “↓” (down)
key to highlight them.
The Fonts tab of
the Standard –
Adobe PDF
Settings dialog
box should look
like this.
10. Click “Save As” and save with file name “Embed all fonts”. Click the “Save” button.
11. Click “OK”. Click “OK” again. Click “OK” again.
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Formatting Support: Word 2007
Step 3: Convert your Word file into a PDF.
SINGLE FILE: If you have one Word document (one *.doc file), follow these instructions:
1. In Adobe Acrobat Professional, click “File”, “Create PDF”, “From File” and then browse to
the document.
2. Select the document and click “Open”.
3. Wait for Acrobat to perform its conversion. This can take several minutes for large
documents.
4. Check that your fonts are embedded and subset:
a. Go to “File”, then “Properties”.
b. Click on the “Fonts” tab.
c. Next to each font listed, the words “Embedded Subset” should appear.
Example of correctly Embedded
Subset font in a converted PDF.
5. Name your electronic thesis file according to the file naming convention and click Save.
Save your PDF onto an external drive or e-mail it to yourself. Always keep a backup copy of all
updated Word documents as well.
MULTIPLE FILES: If you have multiple Word documents, follow these instructions:
1. In Adobe Acrobat Professional, click “File” then “Create PDF” and “Merge Files into a Single
PDF”.
2. In the dialog box, click “Add Files”, “Add Files” again, and then browse to the documents.
3. Select the document and click “Add Files”. Repeat this step until all your documents are
listed in the Combine Files dialog box.
a. You can also shift-select or ctrl-select multiple documents in the browse window.
4. The documents are listed by filename in the order they were selected. You can change the
order by highlighting the file and clicking the “Move Up” or “Move Down” buttons on the
bottom of the dialog box.
5. Once you have the files in the order you want them to appear in the PDF, click “Combine
Files”.
6. Wait for Acrobat to perform its conversion. This can take several minutes for large
documents.
7. Name your electronic thesis file according to the file naming convention and click Save.
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Formatting Support: Word 2007
8. Check that your fonts are embedded and subset:
a. Go to “File”, then “Properties”.
b. Click on the “Fonts” tab.
c. Next to each font listed, the words “Embedded Subset” should appear.
Example of correctly Embedded
Subset font in a converted PDF.
Save your PDF onto an external drive or e-mail it to yourself. Always keep a backup copy of all
updated Word documents as well.
Step 4: THE MOST IMPORTANT: Double-check your conversion.
Once your PDF has been created, it is important that you thoroughly check your thesis/dissertation for
any inconsistencies.
Make sure that all pages are numbered correctly.
Make sure that all tables and figures are correct.
Make sure that all equations or symbols that were used converted properly.
If you have any problems with the conversion, please contact the ETD Formatting Support Group at
.
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Formatting Support: Word 2007
Recommended File Formats
This is a short list of recommended file formats for the Supplemental Materials. If you are not sure how
to create these formats or want more information about your specific project, please contact
Dissertation Formatting Support at dfs@miami.edu
.
Image Files
• BMP (bitmap image file)
• PNG (Portable Network Graphics Format)
• TIFF (Tagged Image File Format)
• JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)
• JP2 (Joint Photographic Experts Group 2000)
Audio Files
• MP3 (MPEG Layer 3)
• WAV (Waveform)
• MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface)
Video
• MPEG (Moving Pictures Expert Group)
Spreadsheets and Databases
• TXT (Plain Text)
• CSV (Comma-Separated Values)
Students are recommended to export spreadsheets and databases to a tab-delimited or comma-
separated text file. When possible, students are encouraged to encode data sets in text files in the UTF-
8 or UTF-16 Unicode character encoding.
Program Code
Students may upload uncompiled codes in the programming language(s) of their choice. Instructions for
running submitted programs may be included in the Dissertation itself, in a separate README file, or
both.
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