Formatting and Document Preparation
This domain checks whether the document you produce looks like an office document rather than a typed sheet: page setup, font choice, paragraph behaviour, alignment and print readiness. It applies equally to Hindi and English output.
Page and paragraph setup
- Standard page: A4 (210 × 297 mm), portrait, margins around 1 inch.
- Body font: Mangal or a Unicode Devanagari face at 14 pt for Hindi, Times New Roman or similar at 12 pt for English; single or 1.15 line spacing.
- Indent the first line through paragraph settings, never by typing spaces.
- Let text wrap naturally; press Enter only at the end of a paragraph.
- Use real tabs or table columns for aligned data, not strings of spaces.
Structure and finishing
Centred bold heading, date aligned right, numbered or bulleted lists, header or footer with page numbers when the document runs beyond one page. Finish with print preview: it is the only reliable check that nothing has spilled onto a second page.
Worked example
A one-page office notice is required in Hindi.
- Set A4, 1-inch margins.
- Type the heading, centre it, make it bold at 16 pt.
- Set body text to Mangal 14 pt, single spacing, 6 pt space after each paragraph.
- Right-align the date and the issuing officer's designation.
- Open print preview; if the notice spills to page 2, reduce spacing rather than shrinking the font below 12 pt. Reasoning: every adjustment is made through page and paragraph settings so the layout survives any later edit.
Traps that cost marks
- Pressing Enter at the end of every visual line, which destroys reflow.
- Mixing a Unicode font and a legacy Kruti Dev string in one document - the two do not render together.
- Double spaces after full stops and before punctuation.
- Saving a formatted document as plain text and losing all structure.