Ok - so the version you submit before the viva, I'm going to get it soft bound.

Do I put gold lettering on the spine.

a) i'm not sure which year to put, as submission is in 2011, viva in 2012
b) looks a bit pretentious? as they may say its NOT a PhD and therefore gold lettering will look stupid and embarrassing.

Shall I just go for plain?

Have some faith! Go for gold!

I'd put 2012 personally as that is the year you will actually get your "dr" awarded.

My soft bound thesis didn't have anything written on the spine - all of the information was on the front cover. I think the date doesn't really matter because you can change it after. When I submitted I put the month/year of submission, whereas on my final hard bound thesis I put the month/year in which the degree was awarded.

Same as MHK, no info on the spine, all on the front cover. Well done on submitting!!

Hey sneaks,- I didnt have anything on the spine- everything was on the cover.....
all the best- the end is indeed quite nigh for you - well done :p

I had nothing on the soft bound cover or spine of my 'submission' thesis as it was not required for my uni regs. The date was the submission date and not the exam date. Once I passed the viva the thesis was hard bound in all its full gold lettered glory, but the date remained as the 'submission' date and not revised to the exam date. So my answers to your Qs would be
a) submission date eg 2011
b) keep it simple for the submission copy and go for gold for the final post viva copy!

ok, well after a panicky discussion with the nice printer lady and the admin persn who deals with PhDs, I begrudgingly went with 2012 and PhD on spine. I may spend the first 10 mins of my viva gushing apologies about this assumption lol and confuse my examiners who probably wouldn't have noticed! ANyway, its in :-)

well done Sneaks, a bottle of vino tonight methinks:-)

Fantastic Sneaks. I'm sure you're glad. Just the viva to look forward to now...

Wow, Sneaks!!! Amazing. Big congratulations on getting it submitted. Don't worry about having lettering on the spine - I had it on mine too and there were no issues. You must feel so relieved. You definitely sound as stressed as I did when I was getting mine submitted. Well done :-)

Congratulations! I do not read the forum much aymore but on this visit I recognise your username from the old days and wanted to say congratulations! :)

Hi Sneaks,  Long time no post but early New Year
what else is there! Many congrats on submitting.  I know you haven't asked for
it :-) but my advice for viva - keep ticking over until 2-3 weeks out by reading
around your subject area, swotting up on examiners work etc, then actively
engage with the thesis again - summarise chapters, noting down the questions you
would ask, use viva prep book recommended on here, practice answering the
questions to yourself (in fact the more talking to yourself the better, you answer questions very differently when you say them out loud you will need to practice this). Then you're into the territory of being confident in your argument, defend your work
but accept and acknowledge there are different views and ways - not necessarily better, just different!  All the very best, you've been such a great source of support to many on this forum you deserve a straight pass :-) Happy 2012.  Chuff

Hi sneaks - i hope you see this - im sooo late to your party!! SUPER CONGRATULATIONS what a brilliant result!! you worked really hard and defo deserve it!! i hope you partied hard xx