1. Writing Skills –Part 2 Technical Issues

2. Content vs Presentation Content is always more important than presentation! Bad presentation can often detract / distract Good presentation can enhance impact and intelligibility

3. Formatting Font size - Font size Font size Font size Font type - times, verdana comic vivaldi Font style - bold italic Depends on your intended audience! E.g. document, powerpoint presentation, website, journal article, poster

4. Example Document Set outline document structure Set styles and formatting including line spacing, paragraph spacing, indenting, bullet points, numbering etc. Set page layout, headings, sections, headers and footers, page numbers, page breaks, table of contents, index etc… Create content and references, figures etc...

5. Checklist Content –Formatting, Spelling, Grammar –Figures and captions, References Page structure –Margins, Paper Size, Document Title, Author, Page No’s and Total, Modification Date or Printout Date

6. Software – the basics Word Processing –Microsoft Office - market leader! (OUCS) –Corel (WordPerfect) – alternative (OUCS) –MathType / SciWord - equation editing (OUCS) –LaTeX / Winedt / WinTeX / MikTeX - (downloads) consider compatibility with your supervisor! Bibiliographic software –Endnote / Procite / Reference manager (OUCS) Powerful in combination with on-line databases Endnote web free site license

7. Software – yet more! Graphing –Excel – part of Office readily available (OUCS) –Origin, SigmaPlot - zero cost site licensed (Dept website) –Mathematica and Matlab – zero cost site licensed (Dept website) Images/micrographs –Photoshop / PaintshopPro / Corel – cost money (OUCS) –Gimp / Inkscape – freeware (web download) –Digital micrograph etc – specialist (Dept IT staff or EM staff) Mathematical packages –Mathematica & Matlab – zero cost site licensed (Dept website) PDF creation –Acrobat full – costs money (OUCS) –PDF Creator Pro – zero cost site license (OUCS) –Pdf995 or CutePDF – freeware (downloads)

8. OUCS training courses Course details and bookings are via http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses Word: Creating professional documents –http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TRWFhttp://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TRWF Manging your Thesis –http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TRWGhttp://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TRWG Word: Building long documents –http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TRWKhttp://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TRWK

9. OUCS course resources https://weblearn.ox.ac.uk/portal/hierarchy/asuc/oucs/itlp_courses

10. Getting IT Support - Local itsupport@materials.ox.ac.uk Dr Paul J Warren - Senior IT Officer –paul.warren@materials ; 73727; ETB Room 10.12paul.warren@materials Dr Alex Cock – IT support / Teaching Lab / Admin –alex.cock@materials ; 73727 ; ETB Room 10.15alex.cock@materials Khalid Schofield – IT support / Networking –khalid.schofield@materials ; 73728 ; ETB Room 10.28khalid.schofield@materials Chris Akinola- IT support / General / Audio Visuals –chris.akinola@materials ; 73667 ; ETB Room 10.14chris.akinola@materials