Tutorial - Running Headers in MS-Word

Apologies for no regular blog posts this week!  I started a new job as a tutor at a vocational college, and it has kind of turned our schedules upside down, inside out, and all around!  I'm tutoring in the "LRC" - learning resource center - of a school for Allied Health (think dental assistants, medical assistants, etc), and all of my students are required to use APA formatting in their writing.  I'm used to MLA, so some elements such as a "running header" were totally foreign to me!  Turns out the running header is pretty foreign to most of my students too!

After doing some research, and playing around a bit with MS-Word, here is what I figured out...(note, these instructions are primarily for Word 2007 and 2010).

1. Double click in the very top portion of your document (this area is the “header”).  A dashed blue line will appear, separating the top from the rest of the page. 

2. In the command options, click on Insert.  Then click on Page Number.  Then, hover over Top of Page.  Click on the option for Plain Number 3. 

3.  Check the box for Different First Page.

4. Insert your page numbers.  This is almost a repeat of Step 2.  Again, click on Page Number, but note that it is now in a different location!  Hover over Top of Page.  Click on Plain Number 3.

5.  DO NOT delete the page number!  DO NOT add spaces.  Just type “Running Head: AND THEN THE NAME OF YOUR PAPER”.  Follow the formatting – “Running Head” should have only the R and H capitalized, and then be followed by a colon.  The title of your paper should be in all capital letters.  On the keyboard, hit the Tab key twice to reposition the words that you just typed for your header.

6.  Scroll down to the top of page 2.  DO NOT change the page number!  TYPE YOUR TITLE.  Do not type "Running Head" on any page other than the first page.  Then, on your keyboard, hit the Tab key twice to reposition the title.

7.  Scroll down to verify that the page numbers and title are correct on every page. 

8.  Double click in the body of any page to get out of the header, and back into your paper.

Tutorial: Creating tables in Word

Not too long ago, I promised a tutorial on how to create tables using Microsoft Word.  I use Word to make our weekly homeschool lesson plans.  An example of our weekly lesson plan:

Subject	Monday   10/3	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Math	Evaluating Algebraic Expressions	Basic Algebra #1 – 15 problems	Basic Algebra #1 – 12 problems	Basic Algebra #3 – 15 problems
Language Arts	The Wind in the Willows Ch 1 and 2 Grammar pg 98-104 Think and Write Megawords #2-10	The Wind in the Willows Ch 3 and 4 Grammar 105-111 Think and Write Megawords #2-10	The Wind in the Willows Ch 5 and 6 Grammar 112-117 Think and Write Megawords #2-10	The Wind in the Willows Ch 7 and 8 Grammar 118-121 Think and Write Megawords #2-10	The Wind in the Willows Ch 9 and 10 Revise Think and Write
Science	Dragons of Eden pg 55 to 69 The Electromagnetic Spectrum Humans and The Electromagnetic Spectrum	Dragons of Eden pg 69 to 79 Light Meets Atoms Exp: Don’t Paint Your Lunchbox Black	Dragons of Eden pg 83 to 92 Rainbow Refraction	Dragons of Eden pg 92 to 104 Sunset Scattering Exp: Bowl of Sky	Video
Social Studies	Landforms Notebook	Landforms Notebook	Landforms Notebook	Landforms Notebook
Miscellaneous					Outing/Field Trip

To make a table using Microsoft Word, once you have Word open, first use your mouse to click on "Insert" and locate the tab for "Table":

Click on Table, and a graphic should open up with rows and columns of boxes.  You need to know how many rows and columns you need in your grid.  Use your mouse to highlight the proper number of rows and columns. The grid will appear as you mouse over the boxes in the Table menu.  When you have selected the right number, just click on the last box highlighted.

Now, you are ready to fill in your grid! Just click in any box, and fill in the contents! 

I filled in just the days of the weeks and subjects.  I saved my grid as a template so that I could change the contents as needed.