7 Deadly sins

Calculations in MS Word

 

 

The 7 Most Deadly Sins Engineers Make When Making Calculations in MS Word
 
“If you want people to read, understand, and approve your calculations, you must avoid these sins at all costs”
By Robert Mote PhD PEng, Motagg Solutions Inc.
 
Sin #1: No structure is presented. A lack of structure creates confusion and can lead to errors and misunderstanding.
All calculations are planned. Without a plan to read that tells you what you are going to read you need to keep an open mind and see what happens and then evaluate what you have read. It means you have to hold all calls, close the door and set aside time to read it and you don’t want to do that. A structured plan helps you to understand what you are going to read. It tells you what is included, what is to be done and what is not included. The calculation should be checkable and verifiable along the way. When you start to prepare your calculations you have an agreed list of headlines you need to address throughout the design cycle. A plan is more than the contents list, it is also a visual roadmap that helps navigation. This plan should be agreed by the team.
Sin #2 Pasting pictures/tables from Excel directly. Pasting tables from Excel into Word can cause many frustrating formatting problems which can take hours to fix. 
You have spent time formatting your tables in Excel and now you want to include it in your calculation. You find when you paste directly you will either spend hours trying to replicate the table properties in your document, or choose to print it separately. Anything you bring into Word, from an external source, you must use the Edit> Pastes Special> Picture (JPEG) format. This means MS Word will not tamper or adjust hidden settings it would normally recognize. In the imported item menu when you select Picture format, it means Word puts its hands up and lets you insert your picture/table unmolested!
If you need to change the table, you go back to the source document and re-insert the new table. No time is wasted. Now we’re using MS Word as a desktop publisher. This is why we do not need to limit ourselves with corporate headings in Excel, it already in the Word file.
Sin #3: Not enough information on a page. Each page that is not planned is a wasted page. General arrangement drawings, elevations and sections should not be spread across numerous pages when one page will suffice.
 Including graphics from external sources should be resized so as to fit as much information on a page. The human eye reads drawings faster than the words on the page. Showing plans, sections and elevations from a StaadPro output, typically spawned across twenty pages is difficult to coordinate in the mind. Reducing all the drawings to a single page means a single page can be viewed and the mind can construct the visual information instantly. This single page becomes the valuable blueprint for the designers, third-party, multi-disciplines and the client. As the design proceeds this layout can be modified and annotated for member sizes, connection forces, new elevations and other changes throughout design lifecycle. Additionally importing spreadsheets that do not have corporate formats means up to 90 lines can be imported into Word. Everything you need to know is on the page and can be read in isolation.
Sin #4: Too much writing in calculations: Engineers in a hurry often lack good writing skills and is more likely to confuse the reader than enlighten. The degree of spelling mistakes, grammar and punctuation will unfairly penalize the validity of the calculations.
A calculation is different to a report, it should not betray one’s culture or proficiency in language. A calculation is a series of logical numbers and diagrams arranged in a methodical and practical manner. In calculations, you build your pages around the plan, even if there is only three lines on one page, or another page is jammed full of sketches and diagrams. In calculations, you do not need to worry about headers and header numbering. Where the report is the written justification, the calculation is the visual collection of the relevant numbers and diagrams. Where the report must show the correct use of language, the calculations must show the correct use of theory, units and numbers. Do not mix these. Having said that, some writing is inevitable but if you cannot spell, get someone to check all spelling, grammar and punctuation.
Sin #5: Writing your headlines and/or body copy in ALL CAPS. People find reading text that is typeset in all caps extremely difficult to read as well as very annoying.
Research has shown that people find reading text that is typeset in all caps extremely difficult to read as well as very annoying, especially body copy written in all caps. If you want appreciative readers for your calculations, do not use all caps for any text, especially body copy. Using most of the default settings as presented in MS Word such as line thickness for tables and lines are similarly “loud” and annoying. The printer technology has long overtaken the screen ability for quality. Use the printer output to judge the results, not what you see on the screen.
Sin #6: Not using page/section breaks properly. Formatting is the biggest time waster. Resetting the page layouts of the Word calculation due to new insertions on earlier pages requires continual readjustments of line returns. Managing the tables, graphics and text become a struggle.
 There are two types of end-of-line return. These are soft ( as you type more than a page width and it auto formats) and hard line return(where you hit the enter key.) As each page is built to a plan, you do not want to use a continual series of hard line returns to find your way to the next page. Use the Insert>Break>Break Page and/or section break (control + enter keys). This prevents future changes impacting and pushing empty lines onto the next page when you add new lines of text or a graphical image.
Sin #7: Not using visuals. A lack of simple visuals such as bending moments, shear force diagrams and details means the reader has to make assumptions which can be erroneous.
 
Relegating quality of results to third party applications is bad enough but presenting endless reams of results without any visuals to the reader is poor form.  The checker will not appreciate the lack of effort. Engineers are noted for their spatial awareness. Rather than write, as in a report, use diagrams and visual aids to follow the logic of the calculations. Learning to draw in Word is very easy and fast. Importing visuals from outside Word is also a simple and powerful tool. The imported visuals can be embellished further by annotations and highlighting key features. 
Sins #8 – 27. Yes, there are far more than 7 deadly sins of MS Word in Engineering calculations, and sadly, your team is probably making most of them, thus killing the readership and undermining the productivity by proving that Word does not work for them .
As one of the world’s unique training firm for engineers in the design office, Motagg Solutions focuses on demonstrating how only 10% of MS Word generate stunning results in productivity for your team. The Mote Method is a tried and tested principles developed by Dr Robert Mote, working in the frontline of the real world — and it shows. The Mote Method has helped generate results for many of the world's most prestigious companies, including:
·         ABB Lummus Global, NL –Shell Seraya Project
·         AMEC, UK – FPSO Bonga Project
·         Fluor, UK – Kuwait KOC GC25 Plant, Kazakhstan SGI/SGP Tengizchevroil
·         Fluor Canada – CNRL Horizon Project, New Delhi team.
·         Jacob Canada – Suncor Firebag Project, Mumbai, Charleston teams
·         And more!
More Than Double Your Engineering Team’s Productivity.
Call Motagg Solutions today at (613) 523-7381 to have your team trained.