Creating an Outline

 Bijou Computer Applications Class

Table of Contents

 
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Word can simplify the tasks of outlining and writing.

Word makes it easy to create an outline. You can create a draft, and then easily make revisions.
The Outline view makes it easy to display only selected headings.
This can help you to organize your thoughts to better write your paper, just like your English teacher always said!

Creating an outline in the Outline View

Open a document in Outline View

  1. Open a new document
  2. Click View> Outline.

    3. - or -
    Press the Outline View icon in the lower-left corner of the screen.

Either way, the Outline Toolbar is now on-screen, below the Formatting toolbar.

Create the outline

  1. In your new document, type, or copy and paste, the following list:

    Careful: This text is in a border for clarity, but do not copy the border!
    -     Just double-click on the word "Reading" and drag through the last line "Excerpted From Colorado State Standards"

READING AND WRITING Standards

STANDARD I

Students read, listen to, and understand a variety of materials.

BENCHMARK A: STUDENTS USE COMPREHENSION SKILLS TO UNDERSTAND TEXT/SPOKEN RHETORIC.

BENCHMARK B: STUDENTS RECOGNIZE AND APPLY VARIOUS CONTENT-SPECIFIC STRATEGIES, TECHNICAL FEATURES, AND TEXTUAL CLUES TO DERIVE MEANING AND INTERPRET WRITER’S PURPOSE.

Students infer and predict using information in a variety of text and genres (9)

Students confirm meaning of figurative, idiomatic, and technological language using context clues (9)

BENCHMARK C: STUDENTS APPLY CONTENT OF READING MATERIAL TO OTHER SITUATIONS AND CONTEXTS TO ESTABLISH RELEVANCE OF TEXT.

STANDARD II

Students write and speak for a variety of purposes and audiences.

Students identify and incorporate personal knowledge of material/subject (9,10)

BENCHMARK A: STUDENTS USE A VARIETY OF MODES

Students write in a variety of genres including expository, technical, persuasive, narrative, and descriptive for specific purposes (e.g., synthesize, analyze, evaluate, explain, persuade, inform, entertain) (9,10)

 

Excerpted From Colorado State Standards

 
  • Remember you are supposed to be in the Outline View.
  • Practice using the Promote and Demote buttons. Click in any line of the text you just pasted, and click each arrow on the Outline toolbar to see its effect.
    Each arrow has a specific, named function.  When you point the cursor at it without clicking, its name will pop up.
  • Click Undo back to, but not including, Paste.
     
    Note (Remember? This is VERY Useful!)
     If you press the wrong button, from the Standard toolbar, click 
     the Undo button, or press Ctrl+Z to undo the previous step.    		 Undo Button
  1. Click anywhere in the Standard I line.
  2. Click the Demote button once.
  3. Click in the next line that begins with Students. Click Demote to body text.
  4. On each of the Benchmark lines, click Demote twice.
  5. On each of the lines that begin Students, click Demote to body text.
  6. On the Standard II, click Demote once.
  7. Leave the Excerpted line alone.
  8. Click the Print Layout view. Your document should look much like this:


     
    • It was relatively easy to make a professional-looking document, wasn't it?
       
  9. Save this document as Outline1, or under a similar name, for more lessons on this page.

Using the Outline View

Using the icons on the Outline toolbar, you can create outlines with as much or as little detail as you want. If your outline is lengthy, you can create it and then display only part of it -- the details are still there, they’re just hidden. For instance, if you are a student presenting a research paper and you want the audience to see an overview, show them only main headings. Later, you can show them more detail from your original document.

Rearranging items on your outline using the toolbar buttons

  1. Open or keep open your previous document.
  2. Click anywhere in Benchmark B (under Standard I) line, and click the Move Down button.
  3. Click anywhere in the Students identify and incorporate personal knowledge of material/subject (9,10) line (under Standard II), and click the Move Up button twice. This puts it under Benchmark C.

It is useful to be able to move items to different positions when you are creating an outline.

Collapse your Outline to make it easier to see a particular level.
  1. Click on the + or — sign on the Outline toolbar to collapse or expand a line and its group of text you're insertion point is in.
  2. Double-click on the + to collapse a particular line's group of text.

Now you are ready to put your outline into its final format. You can use your outline as a guide when you give an oral presentation. You can choose a detailed outline view or one that has only the main points. Either way, you can support your presentations and reports by creating a well-organized outline.

Formatting your outline using Bullets and Numbering Outline Numbered format

You can format your outline so that it has a numbering system that allows you to refer to certain parts when discussing or presenting. (More or less, it's the "classic" outline").

  1. Open or keep open your previous document. On the Outline toolbar, press Ctrl+A to select the entire document.
  2. On the Format menu, click Bullets and Numbering.
  3. Click the Outline Numbered tab, and then click the view that contains Roman number-I and the letter-A:

  • You may not have to do 4, 5& 6  if the default settings are set this way already.
  1. Click Customize.
  2. In the Number style box, select I, II, III.
  3. You may also have to click on the "level" for level 2 and level 3, on the left side of the above window, to make this work right.
  4. Click OK.
  5. Your outline should look something like the illustration that follows:

You can also print your outline without any numbering, arranging it with the Outline View
 and Bullets and Numbering:
  1. Open or keep open your previous document.
  2. Select All, (Ctrl+A)
  3. Click Format> Bullets and Numbering> None.

It would then look something like this:

 

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UPDATED 11/14/05