Styles and templates

Use the IECSTD template and the styles it contains when preparing your documents. Note that the template allows for line numbering of drafts, which can be used to facilitate the identification and resolution of comments, should it be considered necessary.

Indenting paragraphs

Use the paragraph formatting commands.

Example:

Do not use tabulations or combinations of line returns and tabulations, as when you change the text, or if you change the printer set-up, the presentation will be incorrectly modified as in the example below:

Example:

Tables without rules (borders)

Use the table functionality.

Example:

Do not use tabulations or spaces.

Example:

Preventing elements of text from being split

Use a nonbreaking space or a nonbreaking hyphen.

Example:

Do not use a variable space or a line break.

examples:

Hyphenating your document

Use either the hyphenation functionality or optional hyphens unless the hyphen forms part of the normal written form of the word.

Do not insert hard hyphens in words unless they form part of the normal written form of the word.

Keeping a sequence of paragraphs together

Use “Format”, “Paragraph”, “Line and page breaks”, and select the pagination option “Keep with Next”.

Do not insert manual page breaks unless a page break needs to be present at the particular place in the document.

Repeating table headings on each page

Select the row or rows that constitute the table heading, and select “Headings” from the Table menu.

Do not repeat the table heading by copying and pasting the table headings from the first page.

Entering footnotes to the text

Use the footnote functionality of your word processor.

Do not enter footnotes to the text as paragraphs positioned at the bottom of the page.

Numbering the lines in a computer listing

Enter the line numbers as text so that they form part of the document.

Do not use the line numbering functionality of your word processor.

Positioning elements on a page

Use borderless tables to position elements on a page.

Do not use frames or text boxes unless absolutely necessary.

Formatting a component of text for which a corresponding style does not exist

Use the formatting commands of your word processor.

Do not use a style for a purpose other than that for which it was defined, e.g. do not use the style TOC to create a form.