Technical Memorandum

To:	[RTI Project Manager]

From:	CTR RS/Research Team: [Names]

Subject:	TxDOT Project #-#### – Tech Memo #

Date:	00/00/0000

Tech Memo Title

A tech memo should document the task activities and/or results. There’s no minimum or maximum length; submitted TMs have ranged from 1 paragraph to 70 pages, although the majority run around 3 to 7 pages.

If the tech memo was delivered as a PowerPoint presentation or other non-report format, use that file as documentation with this page as a cover sheet.

Pro tip: if your final project will combine the tech memos as chapters, use the CTR report template to format your tech memos. The autonumbering function of the report template’s styles should (theoretically*) automatically update when the files are combined, saving you some time on organization.

For editing, email the tech memo to CTR Docs (ctrdocs@engr.utexas.edu).

For shorter (30 pages or less) report-style tech memos, allow the CTR editor 3–4 working days for editing. For longer tech memos, please allow 4–5 working days. The editor will submit it for you to the TxDOT PM.

*Microsoft Word’s good behavior not guaranteed.

A Chapter Title

Welcome

Welcome to the CTR Research Report Template. This template provides a simple structure for writing and formatting research reports, using Microsoft Word styles. You will find contact information for help with this template at the end of this chapter. Chapter 2 illustrates styles used in the report template.

Note that the chapter number and title are on the same line. This makes our job a little easier when we are inserting metadata and bookmarks into the PDFs prior to your report’s online publication. Metadata makes it easier for people to find your work online (search engines pull from PDF metadata) and bookmarks make it easier for people to find what they are looking for within your work.

How to Use Styles

Microsoft Word “styles” are different types of formatting (font type and size, line spacing, justification, etc.) saved and named so that you may easily apply the same type of formatting throughout a document. The following sections describe how to access and use styles in Word 2010.

You’ll notice that our body text is single-spaced with a hard return between paragraphs. The Word default currently is an inexplicable 1.15 line spacing with 10 points of space after each paragraph. But you don’t have to do everything Word tells you to do, do you?

Word 2010 Instructions

To apply styles to your text, go to the Styles group on the Home tab. You can quickly apply a style from the gallery of styles—just select the text you’d like to apply a style to, and click on the style name. To see a complete list of the available styles in your document, click the Styles Dialog Box Launcher by hitting the little arrow in the bottom right corner of the Styles group (circled in red in Figure 1.1).

The Styles group on the Home tab

Styles Used in the CTR Research Report Template

Listed below are the template styles in the order they appear in this document. The next chapter illustrates the context in which each of these styles are used. Note the following bulleted list uses the “Bulleted List” style for formatting, a style you may find useful.

CTR DOT fields (used in the DOT form)

CTR Front Matter Title (used for the titles of front matter sections such as Disclaimers and Acknowledgements)

Heading 1 (use this for your chapter titles to take advantage of the auto-numbering of Headings 2 and 3)

Heading 2

Heading 3

Heading 4

Heading 5

CTR body text

Bulleted list

Bulleted sublist

CTR Equation

CTR Equation Def

CTR Blockquote

CTR Table Title

CTR Figure Caption

CTR Back Matter Title

CTR Reference Text

CTR Appendix Subhead

CTR Table Title Appx (appendix)

CTR Figure Caption Appx (appendix)

Applying the Template to an Existing Document

The most painless way to use this template and its styles is to just save this file as your own Word document and replace the existing content with your content. However, you might have a report you’ve already started that you’d like to use these styles in. Here you’ll learn how to apply this template’s styles to an existing file.

Your first step will be to activate Word’s Developer tab (if you don’t already see Developer among the tabs running along the top of the Word window). It’s pretty easy, though: just go to the File tab (leftmost tab up top), click on Options in the vertical menu on the left to open the Word Options dialog box. In that dialog box, click on Customize Ribbon. When presented with the Customize Ribbon options (which will appear in a column on the right side of the dialog box), click on the Developer box to make it appear among the tabs that run along the top of the screen.

Now that you can access the Developer tab, go there and click on Document Template (second option from the right end). Under Templates, click in the empty box at the top to browse to the location of the template file, and then click Attach after checking the box to “Automatically update document styles.” Now all the CTR report template styles will be loaded into your document.

For Further Assistance with the Template

Contact Maureen Kelly at 512.232.3128 or at maureenk@mail.utexas.edu.

A Chapter Title (This is Heading 1 Style)

Note to Authors (This is Heading 2 Style)

< Authors: Please use the predefined style called “Heading 1” for the titles of chapters, as above. You can apply the “Heading 1” style by placing the cursor anywhere in the chapter title text and then selecting the “Heading 1” style from the style pull-down menu. When you apply the “Heading 1” style to the chapter title, it should automatically number itself properly, even when you add chapters before or after it later. >

Heading 2 Style Looks Like This

Here we have an equation using “CTR Equation” style:

(2.1)

where,

x	=	1.23

y	=	2.23

z	=	3.33

How to Insert a Table for Use as a “Text Box” MS Word’s Text Box function has been known to produce some problems. Another way to create the effect of a text box without actually using a text box is to insert a table (of just one cell) and place text inside it. If you want text to wrap around it, go into Table Tools/Layout tab and click on Properties. In the Properties dialog box, select the Around option in the “Text wrapping” section.

Heading 3 Style Looks Like This

“CTR Body Text” style text looks like this. “CTR Body Text” style text looks like this. “CTR Body Text” style text looks like this.

This is “CTR Block Quote” style. This is “CTR Block Quote” style. This is “CTR Block Quote” style. This is “CTR Block Quote” style. This is “CTR Block Quote” style (Jones 2003, p. 15).

Heading 4 Style Looks Like This

“CTR body text” style text looks like this. “CTR body text” style text looks like this. “CTR body text” style text looks like this.

Heading 5 Style Looks Like This

“CTR Body Text” style text looks like this. “CTR Body Text” style text looks like this. “CTR Body Text” style text looks like this.

This is a table title in “CTR Table Title” style.

Number	Type	Percentage Increase
1	X	53%
2	Y	22%

This is a figure caption in “CTR Figure Caption” style

References

< Authors: Please use the predefined style called “CTR Back Matter Title” for the titles of References and other back matter titles, as above (“References”). This will ensure that the unnumbered chapter title will appear properly in the Table of Contents later. >

< This is an example of the “Reference Text” predefined style for references. This is an example of the “Reference Text” predefined style for references. >

< This is an example of the “Reference Text” predefined style for references. This is an example of the “Reference Text” predefined style for references. >

< This is an example of the “Reference Text” predefined style for references. This is an example of the “Reference Text” predefined style for references. >

< This is an example of the “Reference Text” predefined style for references. This is an example of the “Reference Text” predefined style for references. >

< This is an example of the “Reference Text” predefined style for references. This is an example of the “Reference Text” predefined style for references. >

< This is an example of the “Reference Text” predefined style for references. This is an example of the “Reference Text” predefined style for references. >