Word Tips

How precise is Microsoft Word?

How Precise Is Microsoft Word?

Is Microsoft Word precise or is it just a fallacy?

InDesign is primarily design software; whereas Microsoft Word is, at its core, a word-processing tool. As such, it’s almost like comparing apples and oranges but with some overlap.

If I was going for a one-off design that needed on-page elements positioned to the nth degree, then InDesign would likely be my choice of software. However, if I wanted reusable documents that several members of my team will use on a daily basis (and repeat) basis, then Word would be my choice.

No contest.

The key factors here, though, are:

  • the purpose of your document(s), i.e., one-off or day-to-day reusable
  • how complex is the design
  • what level of precision do you actually need.

By the way, as you’ll see in the video, Word can position elements to 1 pt or approx 1/3 (one third) of a mm.

(1 inch = 72 pts, so 1 pt = 25.4 /72 = 0.353)

I think you’ll agree, that’s not bad for what’s fundamentally a word-processing tool.

Link to video on YouTube.

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