Proofreading for Format Consistency

It’s critical for the formatting of all documents to be consistent; for example, levels of headings should be surrounded by the same amount of space and use the same font, page margins should be equal across all pages, and tables and figures should be aligned and marked in the same ways. Most current word-processing software offers a "Print Preview" function that is a very helpful tool for checking the consistency of your document’s format. The following guidelines for proofreading for format consistency are based on Microsoft Word for Windows 2000, but similar text-production software packages, such as WordPerfect, Acrobat, Word for Macintosh, and other versions of Word provide similar options. Review the Help menu of these packages for instructions on how to proofread for format consistency.

To use it, select File --> Print Preview. You will see a full view of the page your cursor was on when you started the preview (see figure below).

This page alone gives you a bird’s-eye view of your work that can be very helpful in spotting incorrectly spaced headings. But you can also expand the view to include multiple pages of your document. To do so, click the Multiple Pages button in the upper left-hand corner of Word’s window (see figure below), and drag the cursor to set the number of pages you wish to view.

After doing so, you will have an overview of all the pages you’ve selected (see figure below). Click the "up" and "down" arrows to move forward or backward in your document, and click "Close" when you’re finished and ready to return to Word’s normal editing mode.