Activity 4: Organize so Readers Follow You Easily
Learning How to Organize Business Documents

Two activities follow. The first asks you to apply the instructions for outlining to one of your own documents without the benefit of Microsoft Word (if you haven't obtained a copy of the software yet). The second asks you to use Microsoft Word's outlining functions to organize one of your own documents. If you just want to go straight to organizing using Microsoft Word, click here.

 

Practice Organizing Using an Outline

This first activity asks you to practice organizing a business document using an outline without the aid of Microsoft Word. Follow these instructions to create an outline of the text in the box below.

  1. State the central idea in one sentence before your outline. It will not be part of the outline because it is the overarching idea for the entire message. There is only one in this activity.

  2. Identify the several main ideas or points explaining or supporting the central idea. There are several of them in this activity. If necessary, highlight or bold them so you know what they are.

  3. Identify the first main point and write Roman numeral I before the sentence describing that first main point.

  4. Put "II," "III," and so forth before the remaining main points.

  5. Check the order in which you are presenting these main ideas. Change the Roman numerals in front of the main ideas until you have "I" before the one that should come first, "II" before the one that should come second, and so forth.

  6. Now identify the "sub-ideas" that explain the first main point, Roman numeral "I." Put "A," "B," and so forth before them to show the order in which they should fall. Cut and paste so they are under Roman numeral "I." Indent them by one-half inch to show that they are at the second level.

  7. Check the order of those ideas.

  8. When you have finished working with all of the ideas under the first Roman numeral, "I," go on to the next, "II." Do the same.

  9. After you have created the outline, you will click on the "Submit" button at the end of this page. Your assignment will be e‑mailed the instructor who will comment on them and send an evaluation to you.

List the facts, concepts, or procedures the readers must know:

 

Practice Using Microsoft Word to Organize Your Document

This is an optional exercise. Complete it only if you are interested in using Microsoft Word to help you organize.

  1. Download a sample page of text to illustrate use of the outline functions in Microsoft Word. Click on the link below with your right mouse button. You will see a list of options. Click on "Save target as." Word will ask you for a name and location. Save it someplace where you will remember its location.

    To access the file, click here.

  2. Start up Microsoft Word and open the "outline.rtf" file.

  3. Make sure that only Microsoft Word and your Internet browser are maximized. You'll only be able to see one at a time. Minimize or close any other programs.

  4. Look for the first main point text: "THE FIRST MAIN POINT - HEADING 1."

  5. Put the insertion point in the first main point text. Change its style to "Heading 1." To do so, click on the tab option "HOME" on the ribbon across the top of the page. On the right end of the ribbon, you will see a tab with "Styles" on it. Below is an image with the ribbon.

  6. Click on "Heading 1" to make the text of the first main point heading become the "Heading 1" style. That will assign the style for Heading 1 to that paragraph. You will see the text change to bold, upper case (capitals), centered. That heading corresponds to "I" in a Roman numeral outline.

  7. Now go on to the next sentence that reads, "The first sub-point under the main point - Heading 2." Put the insertion point in the paragraph. Change its style to "Heading 2." To do so, click on "Heading 2." The text will change to be bold.

  8. Notice that the next text is the paragraph that follows the headings. It is tagged as a "Normal" paragraph. However, it has no space skipped before it and is against the left margin. That is too crowded to be easy to read. Change the style to "Plain Text." The "Plain Text" style is set up to have space skipped before and an indentation for the first line. Do so now.

  9. Go on to the other sentences and phrases that have "Heading 1" and "Heading 2" in them. Change their styles in the same way. You will also see "Heading 3" paragraphs. Change them to the "Heading 3" style.

  10. After you have tagged all of those main ideas, change to "Outline" view by clicking on "View" at the top of the window and clicking on "Outline." You will see the document change into an outline.

  11. At the top of the Microsoft Word window is the outline toolbar. You will see below the word "OUTLINING" a box with "Level" and a number. That is the level of the heading you have the insertion point in. Click on the down arrow to the right of that box and you will see the list of the levels in the illustration to the right: Click on the "Level 1." That tells Microsoft Word that you only want to see the first level of points that you tagged Heading 1.

    The window will change so that only those points you tagged as Heading 1 show.

  12. On the outline toolbar, click on the number "Level 2." The Heading 1 level words and Heading 2 level words will show.

  13. Then click on "Level 3" to see the Headings 1, 2, and 3 levels.

  14. Finally, click on "All" to see all of the text.

  15. Try changing the order of the Heading 1 tags. Put the mouse arrow over the "+" sign to the left of the second Heading 1 paragraph.

  16. Hold down the left mouse button and drag the Heading 1 paragraph up to the beginning of the document, before the first Heading 1 paragraph.

  17. Let your finger up. The Heading 1 paragraph, its Heading 2 paragraphs, and all the text will move to that position.

  18. Do the same with one of the Heading 2 paragraphs. It will move all of the text under the Heading 2 paragraph, but won't disturb the Heading 1 paragraph. You can move the entire Heading 2 paragraph and the text after it to another Heading 1 paragraph's text area.

You can do your writing and editing in Outline View or change the view to Print View to see the document as it will print.

Now that you're able to tag paragraphs with styles and view the document in Outline view, we'll go on to perform this process with a document you prepare.

 

Using Microsoft Word to Organize a Sample Document

Follow this procedure to use Microsoft Word to organize a sample document.

  1. Make sure that only Microsoft Word and your Internet browser are maximized. You'll only be able to see one at a time. Minimize or close any other programs.

  2. Click here to download a copy of the text you will organize. This is the same text you organized above using an outline. It is in a file named "sampletext.txt." Save it on your hard drive in some convenient location. Then click on the "Back" button on your browser to return to this explanation.

  3. Open the "sampletext.txt" file in Microsoft Word.

  4. Use the procedure described above to set up the heading styles and see the outline in Outline View.

 
Submit to your instructor.

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If you have a question for the instructor, write your question below before you click on the "I have finished" button.