AI readiness checklist: making your documents AI-friendly

Category

What to do

Metadata

• Fill in Title, Author, Keywords in File > Info

Structure with headings

• Use built-in heading styles (Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3) for titles and sections
• Don’t manually bold text to fake headings

Logical hierarchy

• Start with Heading 1 → Heading 2 → Heading 3, in order
• Avoid skipping heading levels

Paragraph formatting

• Use actual paragraphs, not hard line breaks
• Avoid pressing Enter multiple times

Fonts & styles

• Use “Normal” style for body text
• Avoid WordArt or decorative styles

Lists

• Use Word’s bullet/number list tools (not manual typing of “-” or “1.”)
• Maintain indentation

Tables

• Use Word’s built-in table tool
• Include header rows

Images

• Add alt text and captions to all images

Hyperlinks

• Use Word’s link tool (Insert > Link)
• Avoid plain-text URLs

Language settings

• Set the document’s language: Review > Language > Set Proofing Language

Page layout

• Use actual page breaks, not repeated Enter or Space keys

Clean layout

• Avoid floating text boxes, columns, WordArt, or sidebars
• Keep layout simple

PDF export settings

• If exporting to PDF, use “Save as PDF” with accessibility tags enabled