We recommend that you review the videos and instructions for formatting your thesis/dissertation before you start to write. The links below will guide you through the most common features of Microsoft Office Word and Adobe Acrobat. Samples of the title and signature pages are included for your reference.
Help with Formatting Your Thesis/Dissertation
IUP has established standards for the layout of the front matter of theses/dissertations. Review the samples below carefully to ensure your document complies to the standards.
- Sample Title Page
- Signature Page Templates
- Sample Table of Contents
- For help with creating dot leaders before your page numbers on the Table of Contents (or on a List of Tables or List of Figures), visit our Dot Leader Instructions page.
- Sample List of Tables
- Sample Front Matter
- Title page, signature page, abstract, table of contents, list of figures, Chapter 1, APA headings, APA references, and appendix examples combined
- Checklist of Common Formatting Errors
Please refer to the Thesis-Dissertation Manual for additional guidelines on formatting your thesis or dissertation.
Workshop
Formatting Your Thesis or Dissertation is a presentation that provides important information about the formatting process and live links to details. It covers important points from the Thesis-Dissertation Manual about front matter, APA style, MLA style, and plagiarism prevention software.
Help with Using MS Word
The short videos and instructions below cover the most common features of MS Word that you will use as you write your thesis/dissertation.
- Word 2010 Tutorial Website A helpful collection of 25 walkthroughs that cover everything from text basics to working with templates.
- Creating a Table of Contents and List of Figures (video) A six-minute tutorial that shows you how to use Word 2010 to generate a Table of Contents (TOC) and a List of Figures (LOF) for a document. Please note, however, that if you create a TOC or LOF in this manner you will need to modify the heading styles so that they conform to the IUP Thesis-Dissertation manual and whatever style guide you are using (i.e. MLA, APA, etc.).
- Dot Leader Instructions Instructions for manually creating a table of contents using the dot leader feature in MS Word 2007, 2010, and 2013.
- Page Break and Section Break Instructions Instructions for adding page and section breaks to control page layout in MS Word 2007, 2010, and 2013.
Help with Using Adobe Acrobat
You will submit your thesis/dissertation electronically in PDF format. The video and instructions below will guide you through converting your Word document into a PDF file.
- Converting a Document to PDF (video) A two-minute tutorial covering how to publish a Word document to PDF file in MS Word 2010.
- Combining Multiple PDFs in Acrobat Instructions for merging separate PDF files in Adobe Acrobat.
- Download Adobe Acrobat Download a free 30-day trial of Adobe Acrobat X Pro.
If you need more detailed assistance with MS Word or Adobe Acrobat, please contact the Applied Research Lab at 724-357-4530 or e-mail iup-arl@iup.edu to schedule personalized training.