2007 Microsoft® Office System Inside Out

Eleven Reasons to Outline Your Next Complex Document

Even if you’re a stream-of-consciousness writer, you’ll find some benefit in outlining your long or complex documents. Once you create an outline in Office Word 2007, you’ve got something to start with—something you can use to build your document, edit it, and organize (or reorganize) it. And with that outline, you can even move seamlessly to and from a table of contents that’s linked to the work in progress.

If you do not usually use outlining (and you’re not alone), consider these reasons for outlining long documents in Word.

1. You’re more likely to meet your goals. If your job involves writing grant proposals, producing product evaluations, writing annual reports, or composing print publications, ...