Documents and word processing

Most people learned word processing by typing first and fixing the look by hand afterwards: bold here, a bigger font there, two blank lines before each heading. That works until the document passes a few pages or reaches a second author. Structured documents do the reverse. Headings are marked as headings through styles, spacing belongs to the style rather than to empty paragraphs, and page layout lives in sections, so a table of contents, new margins or a landscape page for one wide table takes seconds.

Word and Google Docs support the same core structure. Word goes further with sections, references and long-document tools; Docs makes simultaneous editing its default. Anything that leaves the organisation is usually better sent as a PDF, which fixes the layout and keeps comments and revision marks from travelling with it. The habits below apply in either editor.

Five habits of documents that survive editing

• Style every heading. Styles drive the navigation pane, the table of contents and the way assistive technology announces the page.
• Let paragraphs space themselves. Space before and after belongs in the paragraph format, not in empty lines that drift when text is added.
• Break pages and sections on purpose. A section break lets one part change orientation, columns or headers without disturbing the rest.
• Use captions, footnotes and generated contents instead of typed numbers, so inserting a table renumbers everything after it.
• Track changes on shared drafts, then resolve them, clear the comments and strip hidden personal information before the file leaves the team.

Microsoft's MO-110 exam for Word assesses six areas, running from managing whole documents through formatting, tables and lists, references and graphic elements to collaboration by comments and tracked changes. Document management, formatting and tables account for most of the marks, and the outline also asks candidates to find and fix accessibility and compatibility problems before sharing a file. MO-110 counts towards the MOS Associate title. ICDL covers similar ground with Documents in its CORE programme and an advanced Documents module in PROFESSIONAL.

What the exams leave out

No exam measures whether a document is clear. Plain sentences, an opening paragraph that tells the reader what to do, headings a skimmer can follow and tables used for data rather than for layout decide whether a report gets read at all. Alternative text on images and a marked header row on tables take a minute each and make the file usable for someone listening to it. Mail merge and templates are worth learning too if your job sends letters or proposals in volume, though the MO-110 outline does not include mail merge. For flyers and social graphics a layout tool such as Canva fits better than a word processor, and slide decks are covered under presentations.