Thesis Formatting Guide: Margins, Fonts, Headings and Table of Contents

By the Mastermind PhD team · Last updated: 3 November 2026 · Editorial policy

Why is a thesis with sound content sent back before an examiner has read a page? Because the administrative check comes first. Someone in the graduate office places your PDF beside the university’s presentation rules and compares the title page, the margins, the page numbers and the contents list, and any mismatch returns the file to you.

This article is part of our guide How to Write a Master’s Thesis by the Mastermind PhD team and relates to our Thesis & Research Formatting service. Sources last checked: November 2026.

Formatting is also what makes 150 pages navigable: consistent headings, numbered pages, a table of contents that works. This thesis formatting guide separates the rules that almost every university shares from the ones that vary, compares five official guidelines we checked in October 2026, and shows how to apply the rules in Word with styles, section breaks and automatic tables. Where this article and your handbook disagree, the handbook wins.

Which rules does almost every thesis formatting guide share?

Across the guidelines we compared, the common core is small and stable:

• One readable font throughout, usually 11 or 12 points, in black; smaller sizes only in tables, footnotes and figures.
• 1.5 or double spacing for the main text, with single spacing allowed for long quotations, footnotes, captions and the reference list.
• A larger margin on the binding edge, and every margin large enough to survive printing.
• Every page counted in one logical sequence, whether or not a number is printed on it, with the title page unnumbered.
• A title page that follows the institution’s template word for word, including the degree statement and the year.
• The abstract immediately after the title page, within a stated limit.
• A table of contents with page numbers for every section, followed by separate lists of tables and figures when the thesis contains them.
• Headings in a consistent hierarchy, rarely more than three or four levels.
• One referencing style applied consistently, with access dates for online sources.
• Submission as a single PDF, increasingly as PDF/A with embedded fonts.

What varies by university? Five official guidelines compared

Three lessons follow. First, the same word (“double spacing”, “page 1”) means different things in different places: Manchester forbids Roman numerals, Toronto requires them. Second, several guidelines leave margins or fonts open and push the detail to departments, so your own school’s thesis formatting guide may add rules the university does not. Third, limits that matter for assessment (word count, abstract length) sit next to presentation rules in the same document, so read the whole policy once, early, and extract a one-page specification sheet to keep beside you while you work.

📱 Get your formatting checked before submission — Send your faculty’s style guide with the file; we apply it to the front matter, tables, margins and references.

How do you set up the page in Word?

Set the page once, before writing, and let styles carry the decisions. Under Layout, choose Size (A4 or Letter as required) and Margins, then Custom Margins, and enter the four values from your thesis formatting guide; for double-sided printing select Mirror margins so the larger margin alternates sides. Click Set As Default only if you want every new document to inherit the settings; otherwise save the document as a template.

Then modify the Normal style rather than formatting paragraphs by hand: font and size, line spacing, alignment (left-aligned is recommended by Manchester for readability; many handbooks accept justified text) and first-line indent or space after paragraphs, never both.

How do you build headings and numbering?

Apply Word’s built-in heading styles and modify their appearance instead of formatting headings directly: Heading 1 for chapter titles, Heading 2 for sections, Heading 3 for subsections, rarely a fourth level. York’s thesis formatting guide, for example, allows at most four levels and expects headings to be left-aligned except possibly chapter headings.

In each heading style enable Keep with next so a heading never ends a page alone, and give Heading 1 a Page break before so every chapter opens on a new page without blank paragraphs.

If your department wants numbered headings (1, 1.1, 1.1.1), define a multilevel list from the Home tab and link each level to the corresponding heading style; this is also what lets table and figure captions carry the chapter number (Table 4.3). Choose one numbering scheme and apply it to every chapter.

How do you number pages and build the front matter?

Page numbering fails when the whole document is one section. Insert a Next Page section break after the title page and another after the last preliminary page (Layout, then Breaks).

In the footer of the second section, switch off Link to Previous, then use Page Number, then Format Page Numbers to set the number format (lowercase Roman for universities that require it) and the starting value. Repeat in the main-text section with Arabic numerals starting at 1 where your thesis formatting guide requires a restart, or continue the sequence where it requires one run from the title page. Select Different First Page in the first section to hide the number on the title page while still counting it.

The order of the preliminary pages is prescribed and varies. York lists title page, abstract, contents, lists of tables and figures, list of accompanying material, preface, acknowledgements and author’s declaration before the text; Manchester requires title page, contents, other lists, abstract, declaration and copyright statement in that order, with the word count printed at the bottom of the contents page; MIT places the abstract immediately after the title page and requires lists of figures and tables whenever the thesis contains them. Copy the order from your own thesis formatting guide into the specification sheet.

How do you create the table of contents and the lists?

An automatic table of contents is built from the heading styles: References, then Table of Contents, then an automatic or custom table that shows the number of levels your thesis formatting guide allows. Tables and figures get captions through References, then Insert Caption, with the label Table or Figure, and each list is generated with Insert Table of Figures for the chosen label. Nothing in these fields is typed by hand.

Before every export, select the whole document and press F9 to update all fields, then check that the first and last entries point to the right pages. Our separate guide to automatic tables of contents and lists in Word covers the failures and fixes.

Worked example: a one-page specification sheet

A student writing an MSc dissertation at a UK university with a Manchester-style policy produced this sheet from the department’s thesis formatting guide before formatting:

• Page: A4; margins 40 mm binding edge, 20 mm elsewhere; single-sided PDF.
• Text: Times New Roman 12, 1.5 spacing, left-aligned, 6 pt space after paragraphs; single spacing in block quotations, footnotes (10 pt) and the reference list.
• Numbering: one Arabic sequence from the title page, number hidden on the title page, shown bottom center elsewhere; word count (14,620) printed at the foot of the contents page.
• Headings: Heading 1 at 16 pt bold with “Chapter 1” numbering and a page break before; Heading 2 at 14 pt bold; Heading 3 at 12 pt bold italic; no fourth level.
• Tables and figures: captions at 11 pt, “Table 4.3” above tables and “Figure 4.1” below figures; horizontal rules only; every table and figure called out by number.
• Referencing: the university’s Harvard variant, access dates for web sources.
• Front matter: title page, abstract (298 words), contents with three levels, list of tables, list of figures, abbreviations, acknowledgements, declaration.
• File: PDF/A with embedded fonts and bookmarks from headings; file name in the format required by the submission system.

Every item on this sheet corresponds to one Word setting (page setup, Normal, Heading 1 to 3, Caption, a reference-list style with a hanging indent, section breaks, two field-based lists), which is why the formatting took an afternoon instead of a week.

Which formatting mistakes are flagged most often?

• A title page that departs from the template: wrong degree wording, month included where only the year is allowed, or a name that does not match the student record.
• Page numbers that restart, skip or appear in two formats in one sequence.
• A contents list typed by hand, with page numbers that no longer match.
• Headings formatted by hand so that identical levels look different and the navigation pane is empty.
• Mixed fonts after pasting from other files, and tables wider than the text area.
• Captions missing or inconsistently placed, so the lists of tables and figures are incomplete.
• Spacing applied with empty paragraphs instead of style settings, which breaks when the text changes.
• A PDF exported without embedded fonts or bookmarks, or over the file-size limit.

How do you export the PDF safely?

Update all fields first, then use File, then Save As, with PDF as the type and Options ticked for “Create bookmarks using Headings” and, where the thesis formatting guide requires PDF/A, “ISO 19005-1 compliant (PDF/A)”. Check the page count, open the bookmarks panel, search the PDF for a word from the last chapter to confirm the fonts embedded as text, and compare the file name with the pattern your submission system prescribes. MIT asks for a validated PDF/A-1 file created from the source document rather than from an existing PDF, and warns against password protection; other universities are moving the same way.

📱 Ask on WhatsApp now — 5 years of experience across all disciplines and 14 academic services. Two-stage payment (80/20); revisions are free until supervisor approval, within 30% of the chapter.

Frequently asked questions

Should I use 1.5 or double line spacing?

Whatever your thesis formatting guide says. Birmingham specifies double spacing in the body, York 1.5, and Manchester accepts either; all three allow single spacing in quotations, footnotes and the reference list. If the handbook is silent, 1.5 is the more common default for theses in Europe.

Do page numbers start on the title page or after the preliminary pages?

It depends on the university. Manchester and York count the title page as page 1 in one Arabic sequence; Toronto numbers the preliminary pages in lowercase Roman numerals and Birmingham allows them to be numbered separately or left unnumbered. Set up the sections in Word to match your thesis formatting guide exactly.

Is Times New Roman 12 required?

Rarely. Manchester lists it among several acceptable fonts; York and MIT prefer a sans serif face; Birmingham recommends Arial. The requirement that matters is one readable font, consistently applied, with a minimum size.

What if my department has no written formatting guide?

Ask the graduate office or your supervisor for the regulations that apply, then look at two or three recent theses from the same department in the repository and match their conventions. Write your specification sheet from those sources and have your supervisor confirm it before you format.

Can I format the thesis after writing it?

You can, but it costs more. Set the page, styles and section breaks in a template before the first chapter; formatting then becomes a matter of applying styles while you write, and the final pass before submission is a check rather than a rebuild.

Sources

• University of Manchester. (2026, March). Presentation of Theses Policy. https://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=7420 (accessed October 2026)
• University of York, Research and Graduate School. Format your thesis. https://www.york.ac.uk/research/graduate-school/academic/thesis/format/ (accessed October 2026)
• University of Birmingham, Library Services. Formatting your thesis. https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/student/libraries/research/thesis/thesis-formatting.aspx (accessed October 2026)
• MIT Libraries, Distinctive Collections. MIT Specifications for Thesis Preparation (updated April 2026). https://libraries.mit.edu/distinctive-collections/thesis-specs/ (accessed October 2026)
• University of Toronto, School of Graduate Studies. Formatting (thesis formatting and submission). https://www.sgs.utoronto.ca/academic-progress/program-completion/formatting/ (accessed October 2026)
• Microsoft Support. Insert a table of contents; Insert a section break. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/insert-a-table-of-contents-882e8564-0edb-435e-84b5-1d8552ccf0c0 ; https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/insert-a-section-break-eef20fd8-e38c-4ba6-a027-e503bdf8375c (accessed October 2026)

Sources last checked: November 2026. This article is general educational guidance and does not replace your university regulations or your supervisor’s instructions. How we prepare our content.