How To Create a Template in Word (.dot)

Happy Friday! We're bringing you another helpful tip on authoring today to close out the week.

This week's tip is a HUGE time-saver. We're teaching you how to create templates in Word. Do this now and save yourself hours and hours of boring formatting work over the long run! That means more solutions written, more productivity, and more money for you. That's good all around.

Now, let's get started. We'll go over what a template is, how to create one, and how to save it. If you have further questions, ask them here on the blog or on the LinkedIn group.

What is a template?
A template is a document that saves all of its formatting (fonts, delimiters, margins, page size, headers) so you can easily duplicate your solution format again and again. Imagine all the tedious time saved! A template saves in a .dot format, so make sure that when you finish each solution and save it, you change the name and convert this to .docx. More on that in the final part of this tutorial.

How do I create a template?
It's super easy. For our purposes, you can actually use our template document that we send you when you start a project, and then just go to File>Save As>Word Template. Alternatively, create your own template for certain types of solutions (i.e. maybe you have a lot of similar discussion questions or accounting questions with similar tables). Now, each time you open that file, it will preserve all formatting so you can start fresh with each new solution. Voila!

How do I save each solution?
Now, you know you'll need to change certain things in each file, like the chapter ID and problem ID, possibly the date (unless you also make that update automatically too, smart idea.). Then you're all done writing the solution. You can't simply hit Ctrl+S. You'll need to go to the file menu and Save As. Just hit .docx, update the file name to reflect your BookID-ChapID-ProbID, and then you're all set.

It's as easy as that. Imagine how much time that will save you in the long run if you set that up now. In solutions authoring, time really is the same thing as money, so we recommend you do this today!

For more information on this, check out Microsoft's tutorial on their website. Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

How To Box Your Answers in Word

Many of you have asked me or Ryan how you go about boxing answers in Word without MathType. In MathType, it's simple. You just highlight the text you need, and you click the box option, like so:

But if you don't use MathType (because you use Word's Equation Editor 3.0 or because your text isn't equation-oriented), there is another option for you in Microsoft Word. To box the answer, you just highlight the final answer and click “Outside Borders” in the Paragraph menu.You should not box with a text box. This is way easier anyway, so I'm not so sure why you'd even want to! :-)

What's Your Solution Authoring Strategy?

We hope you're not using a typewriter...

As some of you may know, we've been working hard to improve the quality of our engineering solutions authoring program. We actually conducted a short survey for our engineering authors about six weeks ago, and we learned all kinds of tactics and approaches that some of you take to tackle the problems assigned to you. 

We were so impressed by some of the feedback that we've decided to share it with everyone here. Read on for tips and tricks, and then share your strategies in the comments! If you work differently, we'd love to hear how you attack the difficult stuff.

Best free program for creating diagrams:

• DrawPlus (http://www.serif.com/free-graphic-design-software/). Once you are familiar with how to use this program, it becomes very easy to use. Our authors say it is just as useful as CorelDraw.
• For geometry, try Geogebra.

Best way to approach problem-solving:

1. Solve on paper first quickly, grouping similar problems so that you can concentrate on one topic/equation/method at once (if you need to explain these concepts more than once, you can even copy-paste your descriptions).
2. Then begin to create any helpful diagrams you need. If a problem does not require that you manipulate the diagram at all, save time by referring to the diagram in the text. Say something like, “See the diagram of the pulley-system with a length of 5 ft. and…”. Do not refer to page numbers, figure numbers, or problem numbers, as these change from edition to edition while many of the problems remain the same.
3. Finally, begin typing up the solutions.
4. Save time by creating a universal introduction template and/or filling in the blanks in a template for similar problems.
5. Start by inputting just the MathType equations, and then decide the best places to add in student-friendly explanations. Place delimiters (steps) before each short written explanation.  
6. Never include more than 4 lines of MathType. Instead, break up these lines and add written explanation between them, separating each step with delimiters.
7. Always box the final numeric answer.

Some tactics from our authors that help them work more quickly:

• Derive on scratch paper before typing.
• Try to use the best suited equation for given parameters of the problem.
• If the problem is very simple, don’t use scratch paper! Instead, type directly in order to minimize the time it takes to write the problem.
• For harder problems, quickly solve the solution on paper first and then transfer to Word.
• Verify the final answer with the available software that you have.
• Work on one section or topic at a time.
• Type the solutions in the same section on the same day so your brain is all warmed up for that particular type of problem, rather than typing one problem a day.
• Spend time creating meaningful diagrams and sketches, because they help to make the solution easier to understand for the student. This initial time investment will also save you from getting sent back solutions and having to create them all over again.
• Provide a logical order to the solution process so that the reasoning behind the solution is easy to follow.
• Break up lengthy solutions into logical, modular segments, in a similar fashion as writing very lengthy software. This makes it easy to review the solution and to spot mistakes.