Thesis Manual & Style Guide - This manual is for use at Florida Institute of Technology and provides instructions for writing your thesis/dissertation.
Note: Visit the Office of Graduate Programs early on in your writing to make sure you are following their guidelines for layout and format.
Important Note: The Evans Library offers a LaTeX template for your convenience. Students should use this template at their own discretion. For additional guidance, please contact your thesis advisor and/or your department, as this will likely be the best source for LaTeX information.
This template is intended to offer a basic outline of the formatting requirements. These files are not guaranteed to be error free or work precisely as written and may require customization.
SAVING AS A PDF/A FILE IN WORD FOR WINDOWS
Saving your MS Word document as a PDF/A file is not difficult, but involves a few steps. Please note that a regular PDF file is not a PDF/A file. Below are screen shots explaining how to save your MS Word document as a PDF/A file in a PC environment.
Problems with your Thesis using MS Word:
1. Black Box Problem: The black box problem typically occurs when people are copy and pasting online images into Word. Most of the time this is caused when people are copying and then pasting into Word. A better practice is to download the image that needs to be put in the document and then use the Insert > Picture > From File inside Word.
The black box problem typically occurs when people are copy and pasting online images into Word. Most of the time this is caused when people are copying and then pasting into Word. A better practice is to download the image that needs to be put in the document and then use the Insert > Picture > From File inside Word.
2. Turning a Word document (PC only) into a PDF/A?
a. In Word, click File > Save As
b. Change the Save as Type to PDF
c. Give the file a name and then click on the Options button.
d. In the box that displays make sure there’s a check in the box by PDF/A compliant in the PDF options
section.
e. Click Ok.
f. Click Save.
3. Florida Tech Thesis Template in MS Word
If you have issues with turning a Microsoft Word document (PC only) into a pdf/a do this:
a. In Word, click File > Save As
b. Change the Save as Type to PDF
c. Give the file a name and then click on the Options button.
d. In the box that displays make sure there’s a check in the box by PDF/A compliant in the PDF options
section.
e. Click Ok.
f. Click Save.
2. If you are having issues with turning a regular pdf file into a pdf/a file do this:
a. Visit the DSL and log into one of the Macs.
b. Open up Acrobat Pro DC from the Finder by clicking on Go > Applications > Acrobat Acrobat DC
c. From the Acrobat Pro DC screen open up the pdf that needs to be converted.
d. Click on Tools
e. Go to PDF Standards in the Protect & Standardize
f. In the upper right you will see a link to save the file as a pdf/a.
Name the file and save it. Voila! You are now a pdf -> pdf/a wizard!
Congratulations!
Questions? Contact Jared Campbell at jared@fit.edu or Ashley Huser at ahuser@fit.edu.
Florida Tech Thesis and Dissertation Work (Office of Graduate Programs) which includes the following:
University Forms for Graduate Students (Office of Graduate Programs & Registrar)
Writing a Graduate Thesis or Dissertation
by 
How to Write Your First Thesis
by For editing assistance, contact Carol Tillema at the Academic Support Center, 321-674-7110 or ctillema@fit.edu. She charges $25 per hour.
or
For editing assistance, contact Dr. Strother at her email, strother@fit.edu. She also charges $25 per hour.
