A well-designed document is readable and professional looking. Your goal as a technical writer is to produce documents that are well written, and has a professional design, format and style. Document design entails taking decisions about:
1. Fonts, Margins, Line Spacing, Alignment
It goes without saying that before you actually get down to the writing part, planning your document is of utmost importance. Appropriate settings with regards to fonts, margins, line spacing, alignment and graphics should be made when you begin a document project.
1.1 Fonts
Use a standard font size for your document. The normal size for the body text ranges from 10 points to 12 points. Fonts can be broadly categorized as serif and sans serif. Serif fonts have little curlicues at the end of each letter, which is believed to make text easier to read. In the body text, use a serif font, such as Times New Roman or Garamound. Sans Serif fonts or 'without serif fonts' do not have curlicues, such as Arial or Helvetica, used for headings, figures and table titles.
1.2 Margins
Standard margins are one-inch (about 2.5 cm) on top, bottom, and both sides of a page. For better readability, add one or two points to the line spacing in single-spaced text.
1.3 Alignment
You can choose between full justified or left-aligned text in your document. Fully justified text has both left and right margins aligned, such as we see in professionally printed documents. When a document is left-aligned, only the left margin is aligned while the right margin is ragged. Use left-aligned style in professional documents.
2 Headings
The titles and subtitles of sections within a document are called headings. Headings play an important role in any document. Some important functions that headings perform are:
2.1 Use self descriptive headings
Headings should tell readers about the topic of the upcoming section. Add the specifics to the section wherever applicable. For example, headings like "Overview," "Technical Discussion," or "Recent Developments" only give a fair idea of what needs to be told. Instead, headings added with the specifics like, "Overview: Android Applications," or "Recent Developments: Android Phones."
2.2 Avoid Pronoun Reference to Headings
Avoid using pronouns such as "this" or "it" to refer to a topic mentioned in the preceding heading. For example, if you have to refer to a topic, do not start the section with, "In this topic... ." Instead, make a sentence with the topic repeated in it.
- Fonts
- Alignment, margins and line spacing
- Headings and lists
- Graphics
- Highligting
- Online media
1. Fonts, Margins, Line Spacing, Alignment
It goes without saying that before you actually get down to the writing part, planning your document is of utmost importance. Appropriate settings with regards to fonts, margins, line spacing, alignment and graphics should be made when you begin a document project.
1.1 Fonts
Use a standard font size for your document. The normal size for the body text ranges from 10 points to 12 points. Fonts can be broadly categorized as serif and sans serif. Serif fonts have little curlicues at the end of each letter, which is believed to make text easier to read. In the body text, use a serif font, such as Times New Roman or Garamound. Sans Serif fonts or 'without serif fonts' do not have curlicues, such as Arial or Helvetica, used for headings, figures and table titles.
1.2 Margins
Standard margins are one-inch (about 2.5 cm) on top, bottom, and both sides of a page. For better readability, add one or two points to the line spacing in single-spaced text.
1.3 Alignment
You can choose between full justified or left-aligned text in your document. Fully justified text has both left and right margins aligned, such as we see in professionally printed documents. When a document is left-aligned, only the left margin is aligned while the right margin is ragged. Use left-aligned style in professional documents.
2 Headings
The titles and subtitles of sections within a document are called headings. Headings play an important role in any document. Some important functions that headings perform are:
- Improve the polished professional look.
- Indicate the topic, purpose, or both of the corresponding section.
- Allow readers to skip sections or steps that they are familiar with or are not interested in.
- Add white spaces to improve the overall readability of a document.
- Focus the attention of tech writers on the current topic and help them stay organized.
2.1 Use self descriptive headings
Headings should tell readers about the topic of the upcoming section. Add the specifics to the section wherever applicable. For example, headings like "Overview," "Technical Discussion," or "Recent Developments" only give a fair idea of what needs to be told. Instead, headings added with the specifics like, "Overview: Android Applications," or "Recent Developments: Android Phones."
2.2 Avoid Pronoun Reference to Headings
Avoid using pronouns such as "this" or "it" to refer to a topic mentioned in the preceding heading. For example, if you have to refer to a topic, do not start the section with, "In this topic... ." Instead, make a sentence with the topic repeated in it.
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