Word Intermediate Capstone: Build a 12-Page Tutoring Handbook

In this level you learned to control a document instead of decorating it: styles, fields, sections, table and picture settings, review tools and the Accessibility Checker. Each tutorial practiced one of these on its own. A long document needs all of them working together, and the order you add them in matters. This project is where you practice those decisions.

The Tutoring Club needs a 12-page Tutoring Handbook for new volunteers and families. You will plan it, build it in three stages, send it through a review round with a partner, check it for accessibility, share it and score it with a rubric. Every stage links back to the tutorial that taught the skill, so you know where to look when something misbehaves.

The project brief

Here is the request from the club coordinator: "New volunteers keep asking the same questions, and families want to know how sessions work. Can you turn our notes into one handbook? It should be easy to find things in, look like it comes from the club, print well, and work for people who use screen readers. Please have another volunteer check it before it goes out."

That is a lot of wishes in one paragraph. Turn them into requirements you can check off. Each one maps to a tutorial in this level:

The example file above holds every word of the handbook as plain paragraphs: chapter text, the schedule as tab-separated lines, the materials list as comma-separated lines, the FAQ and the contacts. Markers in square brackets show where pictures, captions and cross-references go. You don't write anything; you spend your time on structure.

Plan the handbook

In a 12-page document, the expensive mistakes are structural: a heading formatted by hand that never reaches the contents, a landscape page that turns the whole book sideways, a header that repeats on the wrong pages. All three are decisions you can make on paper in ten minutes. Make three small plans.

1. The page plan. Your page count will come out a page or two different, and that is fine. What matters is which pages belong to which section. The Pages column counts pages in the file; the numbers printed in the footer start at 1 on Welcome, so the schedule on page 9 of the file shows the number 7.

2. The style plan. Decide the look once and put it in styles, not on individual paragraphs. Write down four lines: Normal (font, size, spacing), Heading 1 (size, club color, space before), Heading 2, and Title. One accent color is enough. Readers of a handbook skim, so contrast and space matter more than decoration.

3. The order of work. Build in this order: styles first, then the contents and captions, then sections and layout, then tables and pictures, then review, accessibility and sharing. Each step depends on the one before. The table of contents needs real headings; the page numbers in it only make sense after the sections exist; and the review should look at the finished layout, not a draft that will still move.

Stage 1: Styles, contents and captions

Stage 1 gives the handbook its skeleton. When it's done, the Navigation pane shows every chapter and page 2 lists them.

Change the styles to fit the club (Tutorial 1).

1. Turn on Home› then Paragraph› then Show/Hide ¶ (Ctrl+Shift+8) and open View› then Show› then Navigation Pane.
2. Apply styles top to bottom: Title for the handbook name, Heading 1 (Ctrl+Alt+1) for the seven chapter names, Heading 2 (Ctrl+Alt+2) for the subsections, and leave body text in Normal. Watch the Navigation pane fill up as you go.
3. Right-click Heading 1 in the Home› then Styles gallery and choose Modify. Set the size and club color, and under Format› then Paragraph give it more space before than after so each heading sits with the text it introduces. Keep Only in this document selected.
4. Do the same for Heading 2, Title and Normal. If you'd rather format one heading by hand first, select it, right-click the style and choose Update Heading 1 to Match Selection. Every Heading 1 in the book changes at once.

Insert the contents on page 2. Click at the start of the first chapter heading and press Ctrl+Enter twice to make room, then click on the empty page 2. Choose References› then Table of Contents› then Automatic Table 1. Word lists every Heading 1 and Heading 2 with its page number (Tutorial 2). You will update it at the end of each stage, because the layout work in Stage 2 moves pages.

Caption every table and picture. Tables and pictures don't exist yet; you add them in Stages 2 and 3. Caption each one as soon as you insert it: select it and use References› then Captions› then Insert Caption. Use the label Table above tables and Figure below pictures, and type a short description after the number: Table 2: Weekly schedule, Fall 2026. Word numbers them in order and renumbers them if you add one earlier in the book.

Add at least two cross-references. The practice file has markers like [cross-reference: schedule table]. Delete each marker, then use References› then Captions› then Cross-reference. Choose Table or Figure as the reference type, Only label and number as the reference, pick the item and click Insert. Tick Insert as hyperlink so readers can click to the table in the shared copy.

Stage 2: Sections, headers and columns

Sections let one document behave like several: different orientation, different headers, different numbering, different columns. Do this stage carefully and in order, because each section starts as a copy of the one before it (Tutorial 3).

1. Split off the front matter. Replace the page break before Chapter 1 with Layout› then Page Setup› then Breaks› then Section Breaks› then Next Page. The title page and contents are now Section 1, the chapters Section 2.
2. Isolate the schedule. Put a Next Page section break before the Weekly schedule heading and another after the schedule table. Click inside the schedule and choose Layout› then Page Setup› then Orientation› then Landscape. Only that section turns sideways.
3. Turn the schedule lines into a table. Select the tab-separated lines and use Insert› then Tables› then Table› then Convert Text to Table with Tabs as the separator. You format it in Stage 3.
4. Set the headers. Double-click the header of the first chapter page. In the Header & Footer tab, click Link to Previous to turn it off, then type Tutoring Club Handbook. Do the same for the footer and insert the page number there. Section 1 now has no header or number.
5. Restart the numbering. Still in the Section 2 footer, use Insert› then Header & Footer› then Page Number› then Format Page Numbers and set Start at to 1, so Welcome is page 1.
6. Label the schedule page. Go to the header of the landscape page, turn off Link to Previous and type Weekly schedule, Fall 2026. Leave the footer linked so numbering continues.
7. Fix the section after it. The section after the schedule copied the schedule header. Turn off Link to Previous there and type the handbook name again.

The two-column FAQ. Select the questions and answers, but not the Frequently asked questions heading, and choose Layout› then Page Setup› then Columns› then Two. Word adds Continuous section breaks around your selection by itself, so the heading stays full width and Contacts goes back to one column. If one question splits awkwardly between columns, put the cursor before it and use Layout› then Page Setup› then Breaks› then Column.

Before you move on, press Ctrl+A, F9 to update the contents and check View› then Zoom› then Multiple Pages. You should see a portrait front section, numbered chapters, one sideways page and a two-column page.

Stage 3: Tables, pictures and a Quick Part

Stage 3 fills the structure with the parts that tend to misbehave in long documents: tables that run across pages and pictures that drift.

Format the tables (Tutorial 4). Convert the comma-separated materials lines and contacts lines into tables the same way you did the schedule, with Commas as the separator. For each of the three tables:

• Pick one plain style in Table Design› then Table Styles for all three, with Header Row ticked and Banded Rows if the table is long.
• Click in the first row and, on the table Layout tab, choose Data› then Repeat Header Rows. The materials table runs onto a second page, so its column names repeat there. This setting is also what tells screen readers which row holds the headings.
• In Table Properties› then Row, untick Allow row to break across pages so no row is split in half.
• Use AutoFit Window for the landscape schedule so it fills the wide page, and sort the materials table by subject with Data› then Sort.

Place the pictures (Tutorial 5). Each picture marker says what to insert. Choose the wrapping for each job:

For the wrapped picture, turn on Show/Hide and check that the anchor icon sits on the paragraph the picture belongs to. If you edit the text above and the picture lands on the wrong page, drag the anchor, not the picture. A caption on a wrapped picture is placed in its own text box, so select the picture and its caption with Shift held, then group them with Picture Format› then Arrange› then Group so they move as one. Add alt text to Figures 1 and 2 that says what the photo shows.

Save the contact block as a Quick Part (Tutorial 7). The practice file ends with the club's contact block: name, email, phone and hours. Format it once, select it and choose Insert› then Text› then Quick Parts› then Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery. Name it Club contact block. Now insert it at the end of the Welcome and Contacts chapters from Insert› then Text› then Quick Parts instead of copying and pasting it. When the phone number changes next year, you fix the Quick Part once.

Review, check and share

You can't proofread your own structure well: you know what you meant. A partner reads what's actually there. Run one full review round (Tutorial 6).

1. Prepare. Update all fields (Ctrl+A, F9). Share the file with your partner with edit permission, and point them to the Notes for your review partner at the end of the practice file.
2. Your partner reviews. They turn on Review› then Tracking› then Track Changes (Ctrl+Shift+E) before typing anything, edit wording directly, and use Review› then Comments› then New Comment (Ctrl+Alt+M) for questions they can't fix themselves, such as Is Room 106 still the science room?
3. You respond. Reply to each comment with what you did, then Resolve it. Go through the changes one at a time with Review› then Changes› then Next and Accept or Reject each one. Don't click Accept All until you've read them.
4. Clean up. When none are left, turn off Track Changes and delete the resolved comments with Review› then Comments› then Delete› then Delete All Comments in Document. Remove the partner notes from the end of the file.

Pass the accessibility check (Tutorial 8). Run Review› then Accessibility› then Check Accessibility. A handbook built this way usually passes with only a few fixes: alt text for a picture you added, a table whose header row isn't set to repeat, or a link that says click here. Fix each one from the checker pane until the status bar says Accessibility: Good to go. Also give the file a real title in File› then Info› then Properties› then Title, because screen readers and PDF viewers announce it.

Inspect, then share. Run File› then Info› then Check for Issues› then Inspect Document to confirm no comments, tracked changes or hidden text remain. Then send the version each reader needs:

Score it with the rubric

Score the handbook before you share it, and ask your review partner to score it too. Give each row 0, 1 or 2 points. Use View› then Show› then Navigation Pane, Show/Hide and View› then Zoom› then Multiple Pages while you score: most rows can be checked in seconds that way.

Total: 20 points. 18 to 20: ready to publish. 14 to 17: fix the rows that scored 0 or 1 and update all fields again. Below 14: take your lowest row back to the tutorial it links to in the project brief, practice that skill in a small test document, then return to the handbook.

Common mistakes

Practice