How To Make A Good Word Document
How To Make A Good Word Document
How To Make A Good Word Document
Microsoft word is packed with so many features that you can produce pretty much whatever you
want with it. But these features don’t always result in the kind of beautiful, high-quality, and
professional documents that may be expected of you.
Nearly every tip in this article is a specific application of this first one, but it’s so important that
it bears special emphasis: keep it simple and less is more. Let this be the driving force behind
any design decisions in your documents, and if you walk away remembering only one thing from
this article, let it be this one!
When writing a document, the content should be the main focus. The formatting exists to make
that content easier to read and digest. Eliminate the temptation to introduce eye-catching
elements that only serve to distract. Maximize whitespace. Keep your wording tight and revise
any wordy sentences or paragraphs. Simple and minimal rules over all.
Most business and academic papers are typed in 12-point font size, which generally produces
the most readable paragraphs when combined with the guidelines for page size, margins, and line
spacing later in this article. Some information-dense reports may sometimes go down to 10-point
font size, but never less than that.
In general, it’s best to keep your hands off of anything related to colors, especially for printed
documents. You’ll have to pay more for the color ink, and it won’t carry over if the document
ever gets copied. For digital documents, reserve colored text for critical warnings and the like.
Prefer to emphasize using bolded and italic text.
Nearly all office documents are printed for standard 8½” x 11″ pages, known as US Letter size
(also known as A4 elsewhere, which is 210mm x 297mm). This is the only size that’s guaranteed
to be available regardless of which printer you use
As for margins, most style manuals and style guides call for a 1″ margin on all sides of the
page, which produces the best readability for line lengths and allows for written annotations if
necessary. However, if the document is going to be bound in a binder, you may want to increase
the side margins to 1½” to accommodate the rings.
You may be tempted to use justified alignment because that’s what’s used in newspapers and
novels and some textbooks, but it’s the wrong choice for office and academic documents. While
it may look cleaner and more formal due to the straight edges, it kills readability.
What you want is left alignment for text. This produces jaggedness on the right side of
paragraphs, but it keeps letter spacing as intended by whatever typeface you’re using, and that
means optimal legibility. Otherwise, you may end up with typographic rivers, which are
extremely distracting and simply look ugly.
Paragraphs should have no extra spacing in between them, and first lines of paragraphs should be
indented to make each paragraph stand out. The only exception is for paragraphs that directly
follow a section heading, which can be left unindented because the surrounding context makes it
clear that it’s its own paragraph. A general rule of thumb is to make the indent size the same as
the font size. Make sure you use Word’s paragraph styling features to handle the indents rather
than using the Tab key.
It may be okay to place images inside a paragraph and allow the surrounding text to flow around
it, and if your organization prefers it that way, then go ahead and do that. But generally speaking,
it can damage readability, especially in data-driven reports.
The safest option, particularly for graphs and charts and tables, is to put images in between
paragraphs and keep them center aligned. That way your images are never vying for attention
with surrounding text. It also helps captions to stand out.
The right choice for line spacing (the whitespace that separates a line of text from the next line of
text) really depends on what kind of document you’re writing.
Academic papers should first follow any academic style guides in place, then prefer double-
spacing if no style guide exists. Business and office documents tend to be single-spaced to
minimize the number of pages needed when printing, but digital documents may be easier to read
if spaced at somewhere between 120-150 percent.
The longer the document, the more important headings become. Would you rather read a 20-
page report that’s nothing but a wall of text from end to end? Or a 30-page report that’s
organized into proper sections, subsections, and headings? I prefer the latter every time.
Lists are also good for breaking up walls of text and drawing eyes to important points.
Use numbered lists when counting a set of items (e.g. “the five attributes of a successful
entrepreneur”) or when providing step-by-step instructions. Otherwise, bulleted lists are fine.
Just be sure to avoid overusing lists, which can detract from readability.
Defaults :
With all of these settings—margins, typeface, spacing—you can make your preferences be
the default, so that every time you open a new document, it's already the way you want it.
For most adjustments, there's an option in the settings window for "set as default." If you're
working with a a few different kinds of documents, it might be worth your while to create
templates, too. To save a new template, get your document set up how you want it, and
choose Word Template as the format when you save.
Shortcuts :
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