At some point in your law school career you’ll likely have to write an appellate brief. For me, that time is now. While your instinct is probably to just hit the period key until your page numbers on the table of contents appear lined up, if your writing professor is anything like the ones around here, that’ll get you a loss of 2 points. With the 1st year curve generally tight, every point matters! So here’s how to create dot leaders in Microsoft Word:
Go to Format -> Tabs
Type 6″ (or other appropriate measurement) in the Tab stop position box
Under Alignment click Right
Under Leader click 2
Make sure you click Set at the bottom left and verify that 6″ is now in the box.
Click OK
3 Comments
I recommend never just tapping the period key in an attempt to line up your numbers. Tap the space bar first, then tap it between each period. On the next line, immediately after the last word, tap the period, then the space bar every other period. That’s the typewriter way.
If you are using Word, the posted method is obviously much easier. I’m using Pages and use the typewriter way. There is actually a term for doing that. I just call it the typewriter way because I learned to do it on a typewriter.
PTLaw
Hey, thanks!!! That worked like a charm. Got anything to help me with the Roman numeral page numbering turning into Cardinal numbers?
to BP: insert a section break to change the numbers:)