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A&S Dossier Template Instructions

Method

Needed

  • Latest version of Word (on either a PC or a Mac). Available in Office 2016 from Bobcat Depot free for university-owned machines. The version for home use (Office 365 Pro Plus) has not been tested, but should work.
  • Latest version of Acrobat (Adobe Acrobat Pro DC) -- or agreement with a colleague to use this program for you. Available from Bobcat Depot for free for university-owned machines.

Overview

  • All content will be prepared in one main document in Word; that document is then converted at the finish to PDF format using Acrobat
  • If content to be added is already a PDF, it should be converted to Word (using Acrobat) and then inserted into the main Word document where needed
  • You will remove all commentary in the template from your final version
    •  Green-colored text identifies guidelines from the College and instructions for the method to create the dossier
  • You will insert your own content on a blank line directly below each green comment
  • The UNDO button is your friend! If anything happens that is unexpected and unwanted, immediately use the UNDO button and check what might have caused the problem
  • Your name and page numbers will be added to a header after the Word document is converted to a PDF
  • The Table of Contents has no page numbers because all the entries are links that go directly to the content

Start Here

  1. Open the main dossier template document
  2. Click File > Save As > replace “template” at the end of the filename with your last name, e.g. dossier_yourlastname.docx. This keeps the original template document with the commentary always unchanged and available.
  3. To go directly to specific content, you have three options --
    1. links within the Word document (hold Control or Command and click on the link)
    2. the Table of Contents in the Word document (hold Control or Command and click on any heading)
    3. open an index on the left by clicking on (for a PC) View > Navigation Pane or (for a Mac) View > Sidebar > Document Map Pane, then click on any heading

Add Your Own Content

Your own content is added to the main Word document in one of three ways --

NOTE: copy/paste will not work well except for small amounts of text – if you try, be prepared to immediately UNDO if the result is not what you expect.

  1. Type text directly where needed, then delete the green comment without deleting sections, headers, or pages
  2. If the content is a PDF, convert it to Word by doing the following –
    1. In Acrobat, open the original document
    2. Click on File > Save As Other > Microsoft Word > Word Document > Settings > Retain Page Layout and uncheck Run OCR > OK > Save (wait until the processing is finished)
    3. Your converted file will be listed in the same location as the PDF. You can open it in Word to check the results (optional).
    4. Go to the next step to add the converted content to the main document
  3. If the content is already in a Word file, or has been converted to Word
    1. In Word at full screen showing your master document, move cursor to the position where you want the content inserted
      1. Browse to where your Word content is located
      2.  Click on Insert > Object > Text from File
      3.  If the first page overlaps the master document header
        1. Click on the inserted content. You will see a border outlining the inserted content with a small black box at the top middle. Drag that box down just enough to display the master document header.
    2. Delete the green comment

Don’t neglect to SAVE EVERY TEN MINUTES

DON’T delete whole sections or whole pages. If sections are not relevant to you or the content is not yet available, enter Not Applicable or To Be Added Later. This preserves the structure of the dossier and its headings.  All sections of the dossier must have some entry.

Add Links within your content

  1. Insert a bookmark where you want the link to go to (if Bookmark menu item doesn’t show, expand the Word window or click on Insert > Links
    1. Replace the contents in “Bookmark name” with a new name and click Add
  2. Select the text that you want to act as the link, then select Hyperlink > Place in This Document, then select the bookmark you have just added

Proofread and Polish

  1. When you have completed a final version of the dossier in Word, scan through the pages to confirm that you have removed all green text and that all sections are filled or acknowledged by typing Not Applicable or To Be Added Later.

Convert to PDF

  1. As your last step before converting, make sure that your Table of Contents is up-to-date. To do this, right-click on your Table of Contents and choose Update field, then Update entire table.
  2. The steps are slightly different for Macs and PCs.
    1. In Word on a Mac, click File > Save As > File Format = PDF > Best for electronic distribution > Allow
    2. In Word on a PC, click File > Save as Adobe PDF (wait until the processing is finished). If you don’t see “Save as Adobe PDF”, check your Word Help information for saving as a PDF.

FOR ADVANCED USERS: installing Acrobat when Word is already installed will allow you to use the convenient “Save as Adobe PDF”.  This is known as the Acrobat PDFMaker Office COM Addin.

  1. With your converted dossier open In Acrobat Pro DC, complete the header by doing the following –
    1. Click Tools (at right side of window) > Pages > Edit Page Design > Header & Footer > Add Header and Footer > a warning note will says the file already contains a header, choose Add new
      • Font = Arial, Size 10, Top Margin = [type in >>] 0.65 (Inches)
      • In the Left Header Text box, enter Your Name
      • In the Right Header Text box, enter Page (and a space), then click on Insert Page Number
      • Click OK, then File > Save

DO THIS CAREFULLY. The name header can’t be edited without losing the section headers from Word. If you make a mistake or want to do changes, the Word document will need to be re-converted first, then the PDF header re-done.

Making changes after converting to PDF

Unless the changes are minor, you will save yourself time and trouble by NOT editing within the PDF. Return to your main Word document and make the changes there (inserting content, correcting errors, adding links, etc.). Then re-convert the Word document using the steps in the previous section (the header will need to be re-done).

Of course, if you like, you can experiment with editing the PDF, such as adding pages. This is not recommended, but possible with the following steps --

  1. In Acrobat, open the Page Thumbnails > right-click on intended location for added material > Insert Pages > From File > browse to file location and select > Open > choose Insert Pages Location = After (or Before)
    • If green comments need to be deleted, click on the comment (an editing box will show) > right-click > Select All > press Delete key

 FOR ADVANCED USERS: Dragging a PDF page or pages into the PDF dossier is not advised. The insertion will not recognize the headers that identify each part of the dossier, and will instead force a blank template page. If that blank page is then deleted, the header is lost and the link in the Table of Contents may disappear.

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