Amal Nagm

If you've been on Hotmail recently you've probably noticed that Live Search is no more! It's been replaced by Bing (http://www.bing.com), which, according to Microsoft, is a "decision engine". Once again, the software giant has rebranded its search engine, completely separating it from the Windows Live group of services. Let's take a look inside!

Traditionally, search engines have just been a method of finding the material you want located on other websites. Bing is moving away from this and appears to have the information, and no longer just points to where you can find it. For example, if I wanted to find flights between Ft. Lauderdale and Dallas (Fort Worth), I would type "FLL to DFW flights" into Bing . A small box will appear with links to Bing Travel, another one of the search engine's services.



Click the route name and all the information you need about fares is at your fingertips. Whilst these services are available on other sites, it just goes to show that search engines don't just point to relevant sites anymore!



Another interesting feature of Bing is the Restaurants Scorecard. Using the example provided on the Bing website to demonstrate this feature ('Wolfgang Puck' in Las Vegas) and clicking on the first listing that appears, we can see reviews for that restaurant.



Bing also incorporates some of the features Google has in its search engine offering. For example, users can enter in mathematical problems to obtain answers. However, Bing goes one step further than Google as it allows users to enter in algebra as well...



Like Google, you can also obtain stock quotes from Bing. Simply type in the stock ticker symbol (it's a string of about three or four letters) and information about the company on the stock exchange will appear. Interestingly, you can also get information from MSN Money's news service directly underneath the numbers.



Another feature of Bing is the reference tab. If I wanted information on Netscape Navigator, I'd type 'Netscape Navigator' into Bing and click the Reference link that appears on the left-hand side of the page.



A Wikipedia article on Netscape presents itself to you! See what I mean when I say Bing is moving away from just being a search engine?

While I don't know if Bing is going to become a 'Google killer', I think it could be successful in becoming a bit more competitive than Microsoft's previous offerings. Whichever search engine you choose, I wish you happy searching!

Notepad does let you control some aspects of printing. You can set margins and change your header and footer. I know, it ain't much, but what do you want for a plain text file creator?

Keep in mind that the changes you make will affect all docs viewed in your notepad and will not be saved to the txt file as formatting.

In Notepad, go to File/Page Setup. There you can select paper orientation and margin size—that's pretty self-explanatory.

But wait, what is this "&f" stuff in the header and "Page &p" in the footer? Well, that tells the header to print the file name and the footer to show the page number. You can change these if you know the right codes—and you will because I'm going to give them to you.

&f - shows the file name or "Untitled" if it doesn't have one

&d - displays the date

&t - inserts the time according to your computer's clock

&p - shows the page number

Since you can use more than one combination in the header or footer box these code can come in handy...

&& - puts in an ampersand (&)

&l (for left), &c (for center), &r (for right) will align the header or footer. To use this put the code first followed by the other code you want to use, for example: &l &d &r &p will align the date left and the page number right.

You can also put in your own text in the header or footer and it will be printed such as "Page" next to &p or a title in the header.

This article describes a sequence of steps which can be performed to quickly create a report that is well formatted, neat and presentable. While this tutorial is in significant detail, it should not take more than 10 minutes to perform these actions on a report 

The following areas are addressed as part of this tutorial

-Text Formatting (Justifying Report Content)
-Adjusting Paragraph Spacing
-Utiling the Heading Style Buttons
-Adding Page Borders
-Header and Footer (With Report Title and Page No.)
-Adding a Table of Contents (Clickable)
-Adding a Cover Page
-Generally Accepted Formatting Schemes

Text Formatting (Justifying Report Content)

Select the entire content of the report. Remove the different spacing styles by clicking on the "No Spacing" icon amongst the heading styles as indicated below. Then select all the text and click on the "Justify" icon in the toolbar or use the shortcut "Ctrl + J"



Adjusting Paragraph Spacing

Select the entire content of the report. Adjust Paragraph Spacing by opening the "Paragraph" dialog box. Change the "Line Spacing" dropdown box as required. (Normally, a line spacing of 1.5 is used in most reports). Screenshots are indicated below



Utilizing the Heading Style Buttons

Many people do not realize the power of the "Heading Style Buttons" which are available in Microsoft Word. These buttons can be pre-formatted with a specific heading style which can then be applied to all headings by just selecting the heading and clicking on the button. Heading Styles 1, 2 and 3 can be utilized for section headings, topics and sub-topics respectively. This helps ensure consistency and uniformity in the formatting styles used in the report. Further this can also be utilized to generate a "clickable" table of contents.

-In order to set the format of a heading style, right click the "Heading Style Button" and click on
"Modify".
-Modify the style as required using the available options and click on "OK".
-Now, to apply this style to any heading, just select the heading (or leave the cursor on the
heading) and click on the "Heading Style Button".



Adding Page Borders

Select the entire report. Click on "Page Layout". Click on "Page Borders". Select a suitable style and click "OK". Screenshots are indicated below.



Header and Footer (With Report Title and Page No.)

-In order to add the Header, click on "Insert>Header". Choose a style as appropriate and add text
(e.g. Report Title, Section Title, Author's Name etc.)
-In order to add a Footer, click on "Insert>Footer". Choose a style as appropriate and add text
-In order to add Page Numbers, Click on "Insert>Page Numbers" and choose where to display the
Page Number. The page numbers can be formatted as required.
-In order to prevent the First Page from displaying the Header, Footer and Page Numbers click on the
option "Different First Page" while adding these. This ensures that the first page can be used for the
Cover Page without any of these being displayed.

Adding a Table of Contents

In order to add a table of contents, click on "References>Table of Contents" and choose a style as required. This adds a table of contents (Toc) with "clickable links". Use "Ctrl + Click" to to navigate to a section of the report from the ToC.
Whenever any changes are made to the report, as a precaution before saving the report, right click the ToC and select "Update Field". If only content is moved across pages, then update page numbers alone should suffice. Otherwise, update the entire table.



Adding a Cover Page

-One can either use a prexisting style for the Cover Page from within Word or design the cover
page on their own.
-In order to use an existing style, click on "Insert> Cover Page" and choose a suitable style.

Generally Accepted Formatting Schemes

-Times New Roman, Regular Text Font Size 12, Heading Text Font Size 16, Line Spacing 1.5
-Arial, Regular TextFont Size 11, Heading Text Font Size 15, Line Spacing 1.15
-Calibri, Regular Text Font Size 11, Heading Text Font Size 14, Line Spacing 1.1

Additional Tips

-Using Heading Text Styles will reduce the amount of effort which goes into formatting the
headings while simultaneously ensuring consistency and uniformity.
-Adding a Clickable Index will add structure to your report and help provide easier access to
information available in long reports
-Adding a Thick Page Border will make a report look more presentable, especially if it is being
utilized in a soft copy format.