It is no secret to anyone that Word provides a remarkable number of possibilities when create, edit, customize or manage any digital document. Since, it is endowed with various functions that allow to structure the writings in the best possible way.
That is why, as well as containing different configuration options around documents, it also facilitates the inclusion of various elements that manage to enrich them. Just like are the schemes, for example.
Thanks to this, Word users have the possibility to better organize the information they expose throughout their digital texts. But, for this, it is valuable take several aspects into account when creating diagrams and also know what the steps to follow in detail are.
What should I consider before making an outline in Word?
Generally speaking, an outline refers to a graphical representation that offers the simplicity of analyze, mentalize and organize all the content present in a text document. Thus, it consists of the association of ideas or concepts that are related to each other, hierarchically.
In that sense, an outline in a Word document can be defined as a summary of its content, in a finely structured way. Therefore, when preparing such an element in the program, users should take into account that, your digital writing has to be organized in levels.
Which means that, in order to effectively apply an outline in Word, the document it must be organized hierarchically so that it can be divided into main points and, in turn, into other points; depending on the exposed attachment.
So, are an ordered summary of the text and they allow to have an overview of the topic to be dealt with in the document, as well as the key points. So, they are ideal elements for organize very long documents, mainly, in order that these are much easier to handle.
For its part, it is also necessary to consider that, There are two different methods to create outlines in Microsoft Word.. Since, one of them is aimed at all those people who they choose to make an outline before writing their text. On the other hand, there is the scheme that is created to deal with the main points of an already written text.
Is it better to make an outline in Word or in an external tool and insert it as an image?
But, in addition to the fact that Word facilitates the creation of diagrams within its own platform, it certainly also allows add images to enrich documents. From there, a great doubt arises from users about What is the best solution to make a quality scheme?
Of course, before such a dilemma, it is necessary parse Word assistance as a schema creation program and, at the same time, consider whether it is better to do it through an external tool and insert it inside the text document as a simple image. Because, currently, there are many such alternatives.
In this sense, it should be noted that, everything will depend on the type of user that needs to create the scheme and its purpose. Well, if you are a basic user who only needs to organize your text and wants to do it quickly, directly and free of charge, it is recommended to use Word for it. Valuing that, it also provides quality results.
On the other hand, if the user is much more advanced and, apart from organizing the content of the document, also you need to get much more graphic, solid and professional results, Word will not be enough and will not completely convince you. So, ideally, use an external tool to get much more visual outlines.
Steps to create an outline in Microsoft Word like a pro
As we mentioned earlier, Word offers the possibility of creating two types of schemes. Firstly, it facilitates the elaboration of one of these elements without having written the text yet.
Therefore, if you prefer to make a sketch before writing your document, then do it in an orderly and simple way, the Microsoft program provides this.
Next, we teach you how to proceed in such cases:
- First of all, proceed to open blank word document in which you want to create the scheme.
- Following that, on the main page of the program, go to the ribbon and select the "View" tab.
- Now, look for the group called Views and there, click on the option that indicates “Scheme”.
- Done the above, automatically, the toolbar options will be changed And from there, you will find all the necessary choices to develop a quality scheme.
- Then, in the first bullet shown in the writing field, proceed to write the title of your document. Which, will belong to "Title 1" and "Level 1" of the scheme.
- This way, keep writing all the content you need to organize and, manually, you must assign the level (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.) and the text that corresponds to the information in question.
- In case you want to add annotations to your writing, simply proceed to display the menu of levels and click on “Separate text”.
- Finally, in the Master Document group, click on "Show document" and click "Create", in order to obtain your new subdocument from the Word outline.
Here, we explain step by step what you must do to develop an outline of a writing already done:
- Unlike the previous case, instead of accessing a blank Word document, start with open the writing written from this program.
- Later, click on the "View" tab and within the options bar available in the Views group, select the "Scheme" option.
- After that, Word will automatically generate a sketch based on all available titles or subtitles throughout the text and, hierarchically, it will order each of them at their appropriate level.
- In case your digital document does not have titles or subtitles, Word simply will show all text in bulleted form, pointing to each of the paragraphs simply (as if it were a separate text). Therefore, you will have to set the title and level for all those points and subpoints.
The best online tools to make diagrams without downloading anything
Fortunately, there are other alternative tools to Word that facilitate the realization of these schemes and, added to this, they manage to satisfy the requirements of many advanced users who need to obtain sketches at a professional level. Taking into account that, in addition to this, these tools have the advantage of operating online without the need to download software, unlike Microsoft Word.
So, to know what are some of the best alternatives out there to make quality schemes without downloading anything, we proceed to mention 5 solutions of interest currently:
Bubbl.us
Mindmup.com
Wireflow.co
Yworks.com
It is defined as a tool capable of creating both simple diagrams as well as complex diagrams and as you prefer, either using your predesigned templates or starting from scratch. One of its greatest advantages is that it provides an extensive catalog of shapes, arrows, icons and more elements to enrich the sketches you make.
Also, it is a totally free tool that allows exporting the results in various formats (PNG, PDF or SVG) and even offers the possibility of upload schemas to cloud services like Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox. With respect to its templates, we note that it provides training of all kinds, such as: Hierarchical, organic, radial, circular, tree-shaped, among others.
DiagramEditor.com
To conclude, we emphasize this other online tool that it has an intuitive and easy to use user interface, which is endowed with many functions that facilitate the schema creation processes. In addition, it is characterized by providing many customization options, so optimize each user's experience according to their requirements.
In addition to this, it has a shape finder, through which it is faster to edit the diagrams. Apart from this, as well as the other websites, it also offers the possibility of export results to cloud services (OneDrive or Google Drive) and save them in various formats available (PNG, JPEG, SVG, PDF, XML or HTML) and even, insert it directly into your website, if that's what you need.