Quick formatting guide for Microsoft Word

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    I want to list some of the basic things that a Technical Writer must know about MS Word.

An MS Word document can be in DOC or DOCX format. The DOCX introduced in 2007 is the more advanced format. The X in DOCX stands for XML standard. DOC and DOCX are compatible with each other, and DOCX has more advanced formatting options. You can convert from DOC to DOCX format, but you do not necessarily do it. PDF generated from either will have nearly the same size.

For Technical Writers, MS Word is a document source file, or it is an intermediate file format and rarely the final deliverable. Many tools allow exporting to MS Word. Make some additional formatting changes and export to PDF. Now the final deliverable is crafted!

Confluence exports in DOC format. A Markdown tool that uses Pandoc will export in DOCX format. The formatting changes to make are nearly identical in both cases.

Now let us see when we should export to Word. I usually export to PDF (provided we have the PDF export option) a small Confluence page that doesn't require any additional changes after the export. The PDF export from Confluence usually has export as document/article options, and you can select the appropriate option. The same is true when I am exporting from Markdown. Currently, I use Typora Markdown Editor for some of my deliverables. Its PDF output is impressive for small-sized documents. The PDF uses Google fonts not used in the Word document. I export large documents to Word (DOCX format), and it uses Pandoc in the background for this processing. Make the following changes before converting the Word document PDF:

  • Apply document properties
  • Apply cover page
  • Generate the table of contents
  • Apply header and footer
  • Use the company-specific formatting (such as copyright and logo)

 Apply document properties

  1. Click File > Info.
  2. Click Properties > Advanced Properties.
  3. Enter document information such as Title, Subject, Author, and so on.


  4. Select the Custom tab if you want to set other attributes such as document number and click OK.


The above is just one of the ways to apply document properties, and the other options include Document Info and Quick Parts.

Apply cover page

  1. Select Insert > Cover Page. I selected Austin from the in-built cover pages.
  2. You can directly edit and apply information such as Abstract and Subtitle.


  3. Ensure applying your company logo. 

Generate the table of contents

Must use the table of contents for large documents, while it can be optional for small documents under ten pages. Ideally, TOC comes after the copyright page and other customary information.

  1. Click References > Table of Contents.


  2. You can choose one of the Built-in options. Use the custom table of contents if you need to use headling levels different from the default heading levels, such as when you want the fourth or lower-level heading to appear in your document.

Apply header and footer

Applying header and footer is very simple, but a lot of people find it tricky.

  1. Click at the top of the page to open Header & Footer ribbon.


  2. Select Different First Page and Different Odd & Even Pages checkboxes (I always do it). You can use Quick Parts and Document Info when using a plain header and footer. You can use the plain text header and footer, but the document will have greater visual appeal if you use one of the ready templates for the header and footer. I am using one of the built-in templates suited for different odd and even pages. 
  3. Place the pointer on the even page header and vice versa for applying the even and odd page header.


  4. Place the pointer on the even page footer and vice versa for applying the even and odd page footer.


  5. Remove and reapply the header and footer if you want to try some other template.


We have covered only the essential formatting options for a document exported to Word from a source such as Confluence.

The document is ready for publication when you generate a PDF after all these changes.

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