On this webbpage you will find instructions on how to write an academic paper in Microsoft Word.

Before you start writing – Download Word and adjust your settings

It is recommended that Microsoft Word is installed. Other word programs can be used but these instructions are meant for Word and are with high likelihood to be used also by your teachers and instructors. As a student of Hanken you can download the newest version of Word for free. If you want to use some other word program LibreOffice is recommended.

Many of the basic settings of Word are good as they are but in appearance some are different from the Hanken standards. For example the font Calibri and blue headlines are not settings that are to be used in an academic work. If you sample a few masters thesis you can get a glimpse how an academic document should look like. Hankens masters thesis are found in the publication archive DHanken.

It is recommended that all basic settings are configured correctly before you start writing. It is always harder to manage the settings after the fact than before the actual writing process. The basic settings are: styles, margins, page size and paragraphs. It is also a good idea to make the formating symbols visible ¶ so that you can see where you have put for example a page break.