<p>I’m trying to write up my d’s theater resume for her college app. It requires 3 columns (the play, the part, the theater, with the director’s name in parentheses). Some of the plays have very long names, some of the theaters have very long names… I have not been able to make the columns in ms word do anything sensible, so I have typed it without columns. But somehow it doesn’t quite line up (by a fraction of a character) and doesn’t look as professional as it should. Is there a simple answer that I’m missing?</p>
<p>^That’s why I have Publisher too.</p>
<p>Instead of formatting the entire document in columns, format the document as a single column, then insert a three-column table and make the lines white so they’re not visible. Now your information will be in three columns, and the information in each column will line up with the corresponding information in the next column. Let me know if you don’t understand, and I’ll go into more detail, but I think you’ll get it if you experiment a bit.</p>
<p>Thank you! I am going to try it now!!</p>
<p>Later that same night-- I have got the hang of it…will keep working. Thank you!</p>
<p>To “line up” things in MS Word, place your cursor in front of the line you want to line up, go to “page layout” and use “indent” and click up and down either left or right to shift the lines. You can also use the “Spacing” tool, located right next to “indent” to have better line spacing between each row/line.</p>
<p>Play around with it until it looks good. You can also click on the “paragraph symbol” (looks like two vertical lines with a swoosh around it), which will provide you with indent, cue and spacing marks.</p>
<p>Thank you, OR and all… I wrestled it all last night and came to the decision that I need to either pay someone to do it for me, or get some software that will help— is Publisher the right choice for that?</p>
<p>Surely your D can do it herself for free.</p>
<p>I’m surprised a three-column table didn’t work, but yes, Publisher is great for this kind of thing. It gives you much more layout flexibility than Word. Well, complete flexibility, actually.</p>
<p>mantori, it is probably me, rather than the table,that doesn’t work. I basically cannot figure out how to cram so much into the columns: </p>
<p>Feb. 2010, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man in the Moon Marigolds, Tillie Hunsdorfer, Endless-bloody-name-Productions, (Heinous Humptrouble, dir.) </p>
<p>One has to find a font that will do it all gracefully, etc., etc. I LOVED making the table lines white, though, it made my day! Thank you!</p>
<p>I have, on occasion, created a table in excel, and then inserted that data into Microsoft Word. In Excel you can select Format Cells, then select Alignment to have the text wrap, and also handle your horizontal and vertical text alignment so your various columns line up. </p>
<p>I use Publisher as well, but for what you are doing, I’m not sure I would use Publisher to fit and align things.</p>
<p>Not to derail a thread on formatting, but sorghum is right… your daughter should be doing this herself - perhaps with some help/guidance from you.</p>
<p>Formatting in Excel then pasting into Word is no easier than just making the table in Word to me.</p>
<p>It may not be any easier in Excel, but since I work in Excel all day long, I’m better at using it than Word!</p>
<p>Gwen, I am no techie but I have helped my own daughter format theater resumes as well as many other advisees. I used to just use tabs to make columns but found that things did not line up quite right. Then, I discovered inserting tables and then removing the grid lines and that works great. </p>
<p>However, I think there are other issues here besides the tech ones. Without seeing your D’s actual resume…and just going by the examples you gave…</p>
<p>Sometimes if the name of a play is a commonly known name but very long, you can shorten it. For example, I recall when my D applied to college, one musical on her resume was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. No way was that long name gonna work with the three columns! So, we shortened it to “Joseph and…Dreamcoat,” or something like that (it is no longer on her current resume but you get the gist). So, the show you mention, which is one most theater auditors will be familiar with, could maybe be: “The Effect of Gamma Rays…” or if room, “Effect of Gamma Rays…Marigolds.” This is commonly done with very long play names that are known plays.</p>
<p>Now the other example you gave…where the theater company was a long name and you also tried to fit on a long name for the director…well, I have two thoughts. My first thought is that my kid never puts on the name of the director unless the director is widely known (and for most college applicants, that will not be the case). So, my D’s resume had show name, role, theater company…as the three columns. But if you really want the director (I don’t feel you need it), then make FOUR columns and put directors’ names in the fourth column (but of course, this all uses up room). Now that my D is a professional actor/singer and has worked with some directors who are known in the field, she does add the directors’ names ONLY for the directors that are known (doesn’t list director for every credit, in other words). </p>
<p>But there are two more ways you can do that. One way is for the director’s name and “dir”…you could use a smaller font (just for this), and maybe in italic to set it apart from the theater name. OR you could put the director’s name under the name of the theater company but this uses up double lines for every credit on the resume and that only works if it all is situated well on the page (I don’t know how extensive your D’s resume is). </p>
<p>These suggestions are without my seeing your D’s resume and it is a lot easier to make suggestions of how to fit things on the page well when viewing specific resumes.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone-- I hadn’t thought of shortening the names and that should help. I feel like everyone we know puts directors names on, that it shows that one has experience working with lots of different people…but maybe I’ll try without it. I did find an online template that seems to help so am working with that for the moment. </p>
<p>As for the shoulds…I guess everyone’s different. As long as D is willing to unscramble my tech problems I’m more than willing to do some secretarial work for her.</p>
<p>I do not think the directors’ names are important. The reason you gave…to show you have worked with many different people, would also be implied if, for example, your daughter worked with more than one theater (each having its own director). As I wrote, my D had no directors on her resume when she applied to BFA in MT programs. Even now, as a profession Equity actor, she only lists the directors’ names next to credits where the director is well known and leaves off the directors’ names for other credits. I do not believe the objective is to show you have worked with many people, but the point of using a director’s name is to point out WHO you have worked with specifically. And for a high school student, those names are often ones that the college auditors will not have heard of (such as a school director, community theater director, local professional theater director, etc.). I just looked at my D’s current resume (it’s on her website and so easy to find). Only for five of her theater credits (She has more than five credits) does she list the director and three have directed on Broadway, and the fourth has been on Broadway. The others she left off.</p>