Access the Templates

Microsoft Word Templates (the Library's recommended thesis templates)

Other Templates:

• Landscaped tables/pages
• Bi-Fold Pages (extra-large 11"x17" pages)
• LaTeX Template
• Open Office Template: It is recommended that students use the thesis template with Microsoft Word although Open Office does accommodate the templates. Students interested in using Open Office should come to a Thesis Template Workshop to see how to apply styles and which styles to apply where.  

What Is a Template?

A template contains styles that help format documents consistently.  A number of the functions (such as inserting footnotes, generating the Table of Contents, etc.) that are available in Microsoft Word are driven by styles.

Why Use the Library's Thesis Template?

The Library's Microsoft Word thesis template-based file has been designed specifically to format theses. You are encouraged to use the Library's template rather than another template or doing the formatting on your own.

The Library supports templates created by the Assistant for Theses in Microsoft Word. Please attend a Thesis Template workshop to learn about how the template works.

The Library's thesis template holds:

• layout-related settings (such as margins, headers and footers, page orientation, section breaks, placement of footnotes, etc.)
• program-related functionality (such as the ability to generate a Table of Contents, Lists of Tables, Figures, etc.; inserting footnotes/endnotes, page numbering, and more) and
• styles which, when applied to paragraphs, gives your document it's whitespace, makes its formatting consistent, and holds everything in the document in place (e.g., captions, figures, and their notes together).

Default styles have been reformatted and new styles have been added so you can format every single paragraph in your thesis (such as  headings, Normal text, blockquotes, references, etc.) simply by applying a style to each paragraph. This allows you to:

• easily and consistently format your thesis and
• auto-generate a Table of Contents (ToC), List of Tables (LoT), List of Figures (LoF), List of Illustrations, List of Photos, List of Schemes, etc.

When converting to PDF the layout can shift. Using a well-developed template with specific-purpose styles prevents this from happening.