Table of Contents
15 Ways to Make Your Documents Look Professional
How to Make Professional Documents That Connect with Customers
Must-Have Features for Enterprise Document Automation Software
10 Benefits of Document Automation Software for Enterprise
Document Automation in Action: Real Results from Enterprise Organizations
How to Make a Document Look Professional In 15 Steps
MHC Team 
Last Updated: May 13th, 2026
We’ve all had the experience of having a promising conversation with a potential supplier or vendor, only to be turned off when they send over a document that’s sloppily designed, confusingly formatted, or just plain unprofessional looking. That’s a surefire way to make a bad first impression, and in the business world you often don’t get a chance to make a second one.
Following a well-considered strategy for creating professional-grade documents is an essential part of the way your organization communicates with your valued clients and vendors. In the first part of this article, we’ll run through some in-depth tips for strengthening your design for documents of all kinds. In the second part, we’ll look more specifically at making business documents look more professional.
Table of Contents
15 Ways to Make Your Documents Look Professional
How to Make Professional Documents That Connect with Customers
Must-Have Features for Enterprise Document Automation Software
10 Benefits of Document Automation Software for Enterprise
Document Automation in Action: Real Results from Enterprise Organizations
Key Takeaways
The 15 steps to a professional document:
- Use extended type and contrasting font pairs to create visual hierarchy — one serif for body, one sans serif for headings is a reliable starting point
- Line and paragraph spacing have a bigger impact on readability than most people realize — even a 0.2pt difference changes how a page reads
- Keep font sizes between 10–12pt, stick to standard margins, and resist the urge to tweak sizing to fit more content — trim the copy instead
- Left-aligned text always wins over justified alignment for professional documents; it preserves intended letter spacing and avoids typographic rivers
- Whitespace is a design tool — less content, better presented, reads more professionally than a packed page every time
- Headings, bullets, and section breaks aren’t just formatting choices — they improve accessibility, SEO value, and scannability for every reader
- Document automation and AI are the logical next step once your formatting standards are locked in — they let you recreate them at scale, without the manual effort
Make professional documents that connect with customers: Manual processes can’t maintain document quality at enterprise volume. AI-assisted generation, reusable templates, smart documents, and omnichannel delivery are what keep communications on-brand and accurate at scale.
Must-have features for enterprise document automation: The right platform covers the full lifecycle — template management, flexible workflows, business-user configurability, interactive forms, automated translation, and both batch and on-demand generation.
The 10 benefits of document automation for enterprise: Faster generation, lower costs, built-in compliance controls, brand consistency, and a complete audit trail — enterprise teams get the speed they need without sacrificing governance.
Customer stories showcasing real-life stories of automating document production: Optum, Procore, and others across healthcare and financial services have used MHC NorthStar CCM to cut costs, meet compliance requirements, and scale to millions of documents annually.
15 Ways to Make Your Documents Look Professional
1. Use Extended Type
To make your documents and reports look professional, you have to pay special attention to details. The extended type is a simple concept and one that can make a huge difference. An example of an extended type for a header would be “E X T E N D E D T Y P E.” Not only is this more eye-catching, but it also makes important information stand out on the page.
If you use Word for document creation, you can use the Crtl + D command or click the small arrow at the bottom right-hand corner of the Font panel in the command ribbon. Once the menu is open, choose the amount of space (points) you want to add.
2. Line and Paragraph Spacing
Trying out different line spacing and paragraph spacing is another fast and easy way to make sure your document is easy to read and attractive.
For example, if you compare the line spacing of 1 pt. compared to 1.2 pt. you will see a clear difference. Just that .2 difference in size makes a huge impact when it comes to text readability.
With paragraph spacing, you are changing the space over or under the paragraph. Line spacing refers to the amount of space in between your lines of text.
3. Use Contrasting Fonts and Sizes
Have you ever heard of the “two font rule”? With this, you will pull yourself away from the desire to use only default fonts. Continually using these defaults for professional documents may give the impression you are lazy, boring, or apathetic by association.
Instead, use two fonts that look different from each other. Try to find options from different families.
One option is to use a sans serif font (these have the “feet” at the top and bottom of the letters) for your headings and use a serif font (the letters without any feet) for your body text. Also, make the heading larger and bold. This creates a nice visual effect and a professional document.
Find out What Makes a Document Dynamic
4. Choose a Font that Fits the Context
It isn’t always enough to choose a couple of contrasting fonts and stick with those for all of your documents. Context matters, and different documents are intended for different purposes.
A more formal business communication might call for a more “professional-looking” font, often a serif font like Times New Roman or Georgia. A document meant to convey energy and excitement, such as an announcement of a new product or service launch, might be better served by a more dynamic-looking, sans serif font such as Arial or Verdana.
By choosing a font that matches your message, you emphasize the attention to detail and consideration of your audience. It may seem minor, but your clients will take notice.
5. Keep Font Sizes and Colors Standard
A common mistake made by non-professional designers is tinkering with fonts in order to save space or attract attention. It’s not an unreasonable idea on its face, but in practice it is almost always wiser to stick to standard, familiar font sizes and colors.
Most business documents keep fonts in the 10- to 12-point range. Going smaller than that makes your document look cramped and difficult to read. (If you’re shrinking fonts in order to fit more copy on a page, it’s probably your copy that needs to be trimmed down, not your font.) Going larger than 12-point makes your document look sloppy and unprofessional.
It’s also a bad idea to try to emphasize certain words or phrases by changing the size or color of your copy. Those changes look jarring and, again, unprofessional. Stick to bold or italic when you need a word or phrase to really hit home.
6. Keep Page Sizes and Margins Standard
On a similar note, toying with the size of your page or the width of your margins in order to fit more copy or images on a page is seldom a good idea.
For one thing, anyone who wants to print out your communication will struggle with a document that doesn’t match a standard format.
Even if your communication is electronic-only, most displays are intended to view documents in a standard, 8½” x 11″ format with a 1″ margin. Straying too far from that standard can make your documents frustrating for recipients to deal with.
7. Remember that Less Is More
Do you want to know a quick and easy way to ensure your documents look professional? Keep things simple. Also, consider using the hidden features provided by programs like Microsoft Word.
When creating a document, the main focus should be the content. Document formatting guidelines exist to help make the content created easier to read and understand.
While you may be tempted to use eye-catching elements in the document, these are only going to be a distraction.
Try to maximize whitespace and keep your wording tight. Stick to minimal and simple rules for the entire document.
8. Align All Paragraphs to the Left
It can be tempting to use justified alignment because that is what you see in the newspapers, novels, and even textbooks. However, it is the wrong option for professional documents.
If you don’t create a sense of formality with your document, it may become unreadable.
The best option is to choose left alignment for text. This creates jaggedness on the right side of your paragraphs but keeps the letter-spacing as intended by the typeface you are using.
This ensures a higher level of legibility. If you don’t do this, you may find you have typographic rivers.
9. Indent the First Lines of Your Paragraphs
The only exception to this rule of indenting your paragraphs is if it comes directly after a section heading. In this situation, you can leave it un-indented because the context nearby makes it clear that this is a stand-alone paragraph.
A good rule of thumb is to make the indent size the same as your font size. Be sure you use the paragraph styling features in Word to handle your indents instead of the Tab key (which is standard practice for some).
Find out how Document Design Benefits Your Business
10. Add Images Between Your Paragraphs
Sometimes, you can add images inside a paragraph and let the text move around it. However, generally, this may impact the readability of the text. This is especially the case for data-driven reports.
A better option, especially for tables, charts, and graphs, is to put images in between the paragraphs and ensure they remain center aligned.
This ensures your images don’t vie for attention over the nearby text. It also helps the captions you add to stand out and be noticed.
11. Follow Accessibility Rules
Always remember that your business communications should be accessible to everyone in your intended audience. That means getting your team fully versed in the latest standards for online accessibility for readers of all abilities.
All electronic communications should be readable by e-readers and other assistive devices, written in plain language, and navigable without the use of a mouse. Color contrasts should take readers with color blindness into consideration. Any electronic images should include alternative text for viewers with low vision.
There are many other aspects to building accessible documents. It pays to research accessibility best practices and requirements in order ensure that your documents are usable by everyone.
12. Choose a Template and Stick to It
Whether you’re following a pre-set template in your word processing software or one decided on by your design team, there are usually predetermined formats for document creation that take much of the decision-making off of your plate.
The important thing to remember when following a template is to do exactly that. Maintaining consistency creates a more effective reading experience for your audience. Making changes to a set template — changing font size, line spacing, header tags, etc. — is likely to create a cluttered or confusing look.
13. Incorporate Headings, Bullets, and Lists
Not many things deter a potential reader more quickly than opening a document and realizing they’ll have to wade through a solid wall of text. Making regular use of heading tags, bullet points, and numbered lists serves several purposes for making documents more readable.
Not only do those elements help to break up text and draw the reader’s eye, they also give a document more search engine optimization value, a useful feature for online documents. Making proper use of header tags also improves the accessibility of your documents by making them more compatible with e-reader technology.
14. Use Section Breaks
Larger documents such as white papers and extensive reports need to be broken up in order to be readable and digestible for your audience. Making use of periodic section breaks makes documents more visually appealing and easier to read.
Depending on the kind of document, that can include page breaks, chapter breaks, column breaks, or whatever kind of section break makes the most visual sense in context.
15. Consider Document Automation and AI
Once you have created a professional document that meets your needs and the needs of your organization, consider investing in document automation. An automated document creation solution with artificial intelligence (AI) assistance enables you to quickly and easily recreate all the formatting and settings you have used.
AI-driven automation makes it simple to create a single document and then use it for multiple purposes. AI tools allow you to build documents and templates faster and more accurately, with personalized content tailored to each vendor or customer’s preferences. This is going to help you, and everyone in your organization saves time, which can lead to higher levels of productivity.
Discover the Difference with Document Automation Software
Read our in-depth document automation guide! Find out how document production is streamlined with automation and what benefits it brings to businesses. Explore our document automation solutions!
How to Make Professional Documents That Connect with Customers
Enterprise organizations have a specific set of document creation needs. Creating a high volume of documents on a regular basis requires a reliable, easy-to-use system that can ensure that each document looks and reads exactly as expected, every time. Trying to handle that volume using a manual system of document creation takes up a huge amount of time, creates a high risk of human error, and requires constant adjustments and tweaking.
An automated document generation system with AI assistance is a necessity for any enterprise business. Automation streamlines your process by eliminating human touch points, creating a centralized document management experience, and facilitating both batch and on-demand document generation. With AI tools to help steer document generation, an automated software solution ensures that your organization creates professional, meaningful documents that can be distributed smoothly and efficiently. Automating your document creating allows you to:
Harness the power of artificial intelligence
Creating documents for an enterprise organization is a complex process with a lot of moving parts. Artificial intelligence tools allow your team to streamline document generation, eliminate bottlenecks, and ensure precision. AI Assist empowers you to quickly generate interactive forms, optimize the tone and sentiment of all communications, and translate documents to any language.
Create templates that you can reuse
Building a new template every time you need to send out a new batch of documents costs your business a lot of time and money. An automated template system makes it easy to create reusable templates that can be easily personalized and adjusted to meet your clients’ needs.
Assemble the perfect professional document based on template
Having a range of reusable templates available gives you the flexibility to choose the ideal document for each situation. Different suppliers and customers have different needs and approaches to business, and an automated document generation system makes it easier to tailor communications to each one.
Create responsive smart documents
Smart documents help to give your customers visibility into their real-time account data and get self-service answers to their questions without needing help from a call center. That also makes it easier for your team to consolidate large data sets and make sure that all of the right information is reaching the right customers.
Add documents to workflows and get them to the right audience
Automated document management makes it easier to incorporate your entire document creation process into your workflow, from the initial design to the final delivery. Making document creation an organic part of the workflow makes it simple to define participants and configure elements to match the specific needs of each customer.
Expand to Omnichannel Distribution
Today’s customers have access to more channels of communication than ever before. An automated document generation solution enables omnichannel distribution of all communications. Distribute professional documents easily via email, SMS messaging, physical mail, social media apps, or any other channel your customers and vendors prefer.
“Enterprise organizations send thousands of documents every single day — statements, contracts, regulatory notices, onboarding packets, and more. A professional document automation solution like MHC NorthStar CCM ensures that every one of those documents meets brand standards, regulatory requirements, and customer expectations — simultaneously, at scale. For enterprise, this isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the difference between building trust at scale and introducing risk at scale.“
10 Must-Have Features for Enterprise Document Automation Software
Not all document automation solutions are built the same — and for enterprise organizations managing high volumes of regulated, customer-facing communications, the gap between an adequate platform and the right one can translate directly into compliance risk, operational drag, and customer dissatisfaction. Choosing the right solution means evaluating it against a clear set of must-have capabilities. Here are ten features every enterprise document automation platform needs to deliver:
- Centralized Template Management – Access a deep, centralized library of templates, logos, and graphics to keep communications consistent and accurate.
- Flexible Document Workflows – Define participants, configure automated workflow processes, automate data collection and streamline reviews and approvals.
- Configurability for All Users – Empower business users and non-tech employees to make changes and manage workflows, freeing up IT to focus on other priorities.
- Versatile Data Integration – Pull data automatically from the cloud, databases, xml, websites, and PDFs, and enter it directly into reports and documents.
- Editing with Real-Time Previews – A visual designer with side-by-side editing functionality lets your teams see changes as they make them without switching screens.
- Interactive Web Forms – Engage with customers anytime while capturing high-quality data from call center agents, customer care providers, and other sources.
- Responsive Smart Documents – Empower customers to answer their own questions and create a personalized user experience while keeping your brand and image consistent.
- Automated Translation and Localization – Automatically translate documents into any language, with conditional blocking to tailor information in documents to specific locations.
- Document Generation in Batch or On-Demand – Run high-volume batch jobs or smaller, on-demand communications with real-time generation of monthly statements, invoices, annual reports, and more.
- Automated Document Assembly – Pull data from any source and integrate that info into other documents and assets, making it easy to finalize and distribute documents of all kinds.
“ The best document automation platforms don’t just increase throughput — they embed compliance and governance directly into the document creation process. Teams shouldn’t have to choose between getting documents out fast and getting them out right. MHC NorthStar CCM is built so you can do both — with the controls, audit trails, and approval workflows to back it up. ”
~Shawn Phillips, Product Manager for MHC NorthStar CCM
10 Benefits of Document Automation Software for Enterprise
The right document automation solution doesn’t just make it easier to create professional documents — it transforms how your entire organization communicates. For enterprise teams managing thousands of outbound communications daily, the operational, financial, and compliance benefits add up fast. Here’s what you can expect when you invest in a platform like MHC NorthStar:
1. Dramatically Faster Document Generation
Automation eliminates the human bottlenecks built into manual document creation. Whether you’re running a high-volume batch job at month-end or triggering a personalized notice in real time, documents that once took hours to produce are delivered in seconds.
2. Significant Reduction in Operational Costs
Manual document handling costs more than most organizations account for — staff time, vendor fees, and error correction all add up. Automation cuts those costs by eliminating repetitive tasks, reducing vendor dependencies, and centralizing template management so a single change propagates everywhere.
3. Built-In Compliance and Risk Management
For organizations subject to HIPAA, GDPR, adverse action notice requirements, or the AI accountability regulations covered in MHC’s CCM Compliance Check-Up series, compliance has to be engineered into the process — not reviewed after the fact. Document automation delivers standardized templates, automated approval workflows, complete audit trails, and delivery confirmation.
4. A Consistently Professional Customer Experience
Every document a customer receives is a brand touchpoint. Automation ensures that every statement, notice, and communication reflects the same professional standard — regardless of who triggered it or when.
5. True Omnichannel Document Delivery
Customers expect communications through their channel of choice. A modern document automation platform enables delivery across print, email, SMS, secure portals, and digital channels — with channel-specific formatting applied automatically.
6. Scalability That Grows with Your Business
Manual processes require proportionally more headcount as volume grows. Automation breaks that relationship entirely — whether you add 100 customers or 100,000, your document production capacity scales without scaling your operational costs.
7. Consistent Brand Identity Across All Documents
Centralized template management locks in approved logos, fonts, colors, and legal boilerplate across every document type. The result is a professional, on-brand output every time — regardless of team, system, or time pressure.
8. Empowered Business Users — No IT Bottleneck
A low-code document automation platform puts template creation and management in the hands of compliance officers, operations leaders, and marketing teams — without requiring developer involvement for every change.
9. Improved Data Accuracy and Error Elimination
Direct integration with source systems replaces manual data entry with rules-based precision. Documents are accurate by design — not by luck — reducing the downstream work that errors create.
Document Automation in Action: Real Results from Enterprise Organizations
The best way to understand what professional document automation delivers in practice is to see it through the organizations that rely on it every day. Across industries — financial services, healthcare, construction technology — MHC’s customers are using MHC NorthStar CCM to solve real operational challenges: reducing manual overhead, meeting tighter compliance requirements, and delivering a faster, more consistent experience to their customers. Here are four stories that show what’s possible.
Procore Technologies Embeds MHC Into the World's Leading Construction Management Platform
Procore needed a document engine that could deliver pixel-perfect, branded documents at scale — across 17,000+ customers and $1 trillion in construction volume.
By embedding MHC NorthStar CCM directly into its platform (a partnership in place since 2012), Procore now generates 365 million+ document pages annually, with self-serve template editing, governed flexibility, and zero bottlenecks for its global customer base.
Healthcare TPA Modernizes Billing and Slashes Per-Document Costs
A national third-party administrator managing 1M+ annual communications was paying up to $4 per document through an outsourced print provider, with turnaround times stretching into weeks.
By deploying MHC NorthStar CCM alongside MHC NorthStar AP Payments, the organization brought document composition in-house, slashed per-document costs, and reduced turnaround from weeks to hours — while integrating 54,000 ACH payments and 10,000 checks annually into the same platform.
Read the full healthcare document automation customer story >
Optum Home & Community Speeds Time to Market for Health Plan Communications
Optum Home & Community — supporting 12 million members across the U.S. — was managing patient communications across multiple disconnected platforms, creating errors and slowing plan rollouts.
After implementing MHC NorthStar CCM with 100+ templates and automated HIPAA-compliant approval workflows, the organization achieved faster time to market, an accelerated revenue cycle, and the scalability to support continued growth without adding operational overhead.
Optum Home & Community Speeds Time to Market for Health Plan Communications
Optum Home & Community — supporting 12 million members across the U.S. — was managing patient communications across multiple disconnected platforms, creating errors and slowing plan rollouts.
After implementing MHC NorthStar CCM with 100+ templates and automated HIPAA-compliant approval workflows, the organization achieved faster time to market, an accelerated revenue cycle, and the scalability to support continued growth without adding operational overhead.
Create Newsletters Legal Contracts Smart Invoices Labels Customer Dashboards Statements Bills Receipts Letters Business Reports Marketing Docs Proposals Legal Agreements Invoices POs Tax Documents Rundown of Insurance Coverage Explanation of Benefits Portfolio Statements Checking Account Statements Hospital Discharge Statements Prescriptions
Producing professional-looking communications and documents is important to any business looking to make a strong impression and inspire confidence. The 15 steps detailed above provide an excellent framework for all organizations, and software solutions from MHC make it easy to implement those practices.
MHC understands just how many documents flow through your organization and to your customers every minute of every day. Your needs are legion, and unique. From newsletters to bills to legal documents, our document automation software boasts the flexibility to create and pivot based on what documents your company needs to function and succeed. Here are only some of the documents you can create with MHC NorthStar CCM:
- Newsletters
- Legal Contracts
- Smart Invoices
- Labels
- Customer Dashboards
- Statements
- Bills
- Receipts
- Letters
- Business Reports
- Marketing Docs
- Proposals
- Legal Agreements
- Invoices
- POs
- Tax Documents
- Rundown of Insurance Coverage
- Explanation of Benefits
- Portfolio Statements
- Account Statements
- Hospital Discharge Statements
- Prescriptions
Power Up Your Professional Documents with MHC
Ready to learn more about the many ways document automation can help to ensure that your business is creating professional documents that communicate what they need to? Check out MHC’s document automation page to get more details and schedule a free demonstration of our industry-leading document automation software.
DOCUMENT AUTOMATION SOFTWARE
Automate the entire document creation process, from production and assembly to personalization and omnichannel delivery. Experience the difference with MHC NorthStar CCM. Discover the features and benefits!
Team MHC
Team MHC consists of a multitude of roles, functions, and expertise within MHC. With extensive combined experience in accounts payable and customer communication management, Team MHC has a unique insight into how to empo wer people using solutions that streamline processes while enhancing customer communication. Working alongside field experts in various industries and company sizes, Team MHC has garnered impressive thought leadership knowledge that we are excited to share with our readers. Including Aragon’s 2022 Women in Tech winner Gina Armada, CTO Dan Ward, VPs of Finance and Customer Service, and other talent that runs the spectrum of technology ability, Team MHC offers a mastery of skills to benefit our customers and prospects alike.
