Using the Manuals and Forms
With a little bit of effort, you can make the manuals and forms available on this website available for easy use whenever you or another member of your squadron or chapter needs them. Just follow the instructions below!
Required Software
To view the publications on the AAS-SW website, you will need one of the following software programs:
- Adobe Acrobat
- Acrobat Reader can be found on most AFROTC detachment computer systems and in most schools’ computer labs; alternatively, it can be downloaded for free from Adobe Systems. Acrobat Reader can be used to view and print the Acrobat files on this website, including forms and manuals. Note that Acrobat forms currently cannot be filled out on-line or saved to disk; they must be printed and completed by hand. This is most useful for those forms that will be completed by many members of a unit.For best results, use Acrobat Reader 4.0 (or later) for Windows or Macintosh. Acrobat documents can either be viewed directly in your web browser (when the Acrobat plug-in is installed), or can be downloaded to your hard drive to view with the Acrobat application by right-clicking the link (control-click on Macintosh) and saving the file.
- Microsoft Word
- Microsoft Word can be found on most AFROTC detachment computer systems or in most schools’ computer labs. This program can be used to view, fill in, save, and print the Microsoft Word files on this website. These files are Word templates, so you may want to install them in the Templates directory for easy access on a computer you use frequently for AAS-SW business�see below for details. This is most useful for those forms that are completed by one individual and submitted to higher headquarters, etc.For best results, use Microsoft Word 97 (or later) for Windows or Microsoft Word 98 (or later) for Macintosh. The Word Templates can sometimes be viewed in your browser on Windows, or they can be downloaded and saved to disk on both Windows and Macintosh.
Installing Forms as Word Templates
The following instructions walk you through installing the AAS-SW forms as templates within Microsoft Word. The example below was created with Word 2000 for Windows; the process is similar for other versions of Word, including the Macintosh versions.
- Create a new folder somewhere on your hard drive to store the form templates (D:\Cadet Templates in the example below), with additional folders inside to hold the different types of forms. A suggested folder structure is shown below. Download the AAS-SW forms from the website and save them to the appropriate folder.
- Launch Microsoft Word. From the Tools menu, select Options and then select the File Locations tab.
- Highlight one of the templates lines in the list provided. Usually, it is best to use the Workgroup templates entry, as shown above. After you highlight this line, click the Modify button to bring up a file selection dialog.
- Within this dialog box, find the templates folder you created in step 1. Select it, and then click OK. You will be returned to the Options dialog, which should now look like this:
- Click the OK box to save the change.
Completing Forms in Word
The following screens will show you how to fill out a form within Word.
- From the File menu, select New to open the window shown below. Note that you should not use the keyboard shortcut (CTRL-N for Windows, Command-N for Macintosh), because that usually gives you a totally blank new document.
- Select the tab that contains the type of form you wish to complete, and then pick the form you want to fill out from the list that appears. Click OK to open that form as a new document within Word.
- Within the document that appears, you can move back and forth between fields using the TAB key or with the mouse. Fill out the form as prompted. Note that some forms will automatically take care of math computations for you, and will not let you alter the results to eliminate errors. Also note that instructions on what to enter in a particular field show up in the status bar at the bottom of the window.
- Once the form is completely filled out, save it to your hard drive or floppy disk for record-keeping purposes. You can then e-mail the completed form to the appropriate unit (National Headquarters, EMC, etc.) when no money is submitted with the form. For those forms that require funding or official signatures, print out the completed form and mail it to the appropriate unit.