White Paper World 55, February 27, 2025
- Quick tip: 6 reasons to use “styles” in your white papers
- This just in: Save your web sources, in case they disappear
- How to: Use the Wayback Machine
- February book giveaway: Is this report slick… or ick?
Listen to this issue in 19 minutes here:
Quick tip: 6 reasons to use “styles” in your white papers
3-minute read.
Have you ever spent an hour fiddling with a white paper… only to realize you need to change fonts or spacing through the whole document?
There’s a better, faster way to do this: Use “styles” in Word.
Styles have been part of Word since 1983, but I’m still surprised how many writers don’t bother with them.
“That’s the designer’s job!” they say. “I do the words, not the look.”
But here’s the thing: Styles can save writers time and trouble, make us look more professional to our clients, and help our reviewers and designers do their jobs better.
With styles, you can quickly format a whole document and make global changes in seconds.
I’m not going to explain how to set up styles here. A quick search with Google or a look through YouTube will give you plenty of help with that.
But I will say this: Styles are so quick, easy, and helpful, I use them on every white paper I work on.
Here are six reasons why you should, too.
Reason #1: Save yourself time
It takes one click to apply a style that gives all the correct formatting to your selected text.
That’s way faster than using five to 10 clicks to fiddle with fonts, sizes, spacing, and alignment for every element in your paper.
Reason #2: Create a consistent, professional look
When you use styles, all your headings, body text, and other elements look consistent throughout your file.
No more haphazard spacing or mismatched fonts—you get a polished, well-put-together document.
And that helps you look far more professional to your client.
Reason #3: Clarify your paper’s structure
Using styles for headings (Heading1, Heading2, and so on) instantly shows how your sections are organized and nested.
And that helps your readers see the hierarchy of your white paper at a glance.
Then if you move around some sections, it will be clear to everyone how they fit together.
Reason #4: Generate a table of contents with ease
When all your headlines are styled properly, you can insert an automatic table of contents with just a couple of clicks.
In Word, select Insert > Index and tables… and use the panel shown above.
And if you make any changes, just right-click on the Contents list to regenerate it.
Reason #5: Help your reviewers
Styles create a consistent format and a visual hierarchy that makes your draft look finished to reviewers.
That way, they can quickly grasp the structure and focus in on the content.
Sure, you do the words. But why not deliver the words in a format that’s quicker and easier to grasp?
Reason #6: Set up your designer for success
Many designers know how to import a well-styled Word file into InDesign and map your styles to their own.
This saves time and makes sure your vision for the paper carries through to the final layout.
Even if the designer doesn’t follow this workflow, the styles in your draft still reveal your intentions clearly.
Bonus tip: A starter set of styles
You don’t need a ton of styles to format a white paper draft.
A dozen makes a good start, while 20 will likely cover everything you might ever need.
Here’s a sample of the core styles I use in white papers:
- Normal for body text
- Headings 1 to 4 for section headers, with Heading 1 the top level (and often I only need three levels)
- Caption for notes under graphics and tables
- Footnote Text for references
- Title and Subtitle for the front cover
- Footer for a running footer
- TOC Heading for the top level in the table of contents.
You can add to this list and customize each style the way you want it.
Conclusions
If you’re not using styles in Word, give them a try on your next white paper.
Allow about an hour to learn about styles and get them set up.
After that, you’re ready to save time and deliver professional-looking drafts.
This just in: Save your web sources, in case they disappear
2.5-minute read.
So you find a great source for a white paper on the web, but the next time you look for it…
As they say in Newfoundland: There it is, gone.
Online sources can be terribly unreliable: here today, and gone tomorrow.
Government research can disappear
It’s been happening with U.S. government websites as Donald Trump begins his second term as POTUS.
A recent story in Wired says 450 government domains disappeared entirely. Most of them covered areas that Trump and his team are trying to roll back, such as DEI, foreign aid, and transgender issues.
The New York Times reports that 8,000 government webpages were taken down in early February. These include pages on hate crimes, LGBTQ, vaccines, veterans, and thousands of medical and scientific research papers.
I don’t blame Trump for being completely unreasonable here.
Most new bosses want to put their own stamp on their organization’s website.
You’ve probably seen that at work, right?
But it’s a waste of taxpayer money when publicly funded research disappears from view.
Pages can disappear during site redesigns
Many website refreshes take down dozens or hundreds of pages.
This is less to do with ideology, and more to do with SEO and traffic. Seldom-seen pages are routinely removed, no matter how worthwhile the content.
I’ve had one part of a two-part series that I wrote disappear because it rated worse than the other part. That’s just silly: Either scrub both, or leave both up.
New bosses arrive and websites get redesigned every week in every domain: business, non-profit, and government.
And that vital source you found for your white paper can disappear.
You want to be ready.
What writers can do, before the fact
Here are a few things you can do to avoid losing your sources:
1. Save all your sources locally on your own PC. Don’t rely on finding them again on the web.
2. Then keep track of the URL. One simple way is to create a footnote/endnote and, as you write, paste the URL in there.
You can expand it into a full note later.
3. Name your source files something that makes sense to you. You don’t have to use the original names—which are often gibberish—as long as you know the original URLs.
For example, I save all my sources with filenames keyed to their footnote numbers, something like this:
| Footnote | Filename |
|---|---|
| 1 | source 1--cool-report-I-found.pdf |
| 2 | source 2--research-that-proves-my-point.html |
| 3 | source 3--webpage-from-industry-assoc.pdf |
4. Save your sources in a universal file format like PDF or HTML. That way, they’re easy to open and easy to share—even years into the future.
Here’s a basic guide on how to do this. (Your system may vary.)
To save a PDF report: Download and file it in your white paper folder.
To save an entire webpage as a PDF:
—in Chrome, press Ctrl+P (Command+P on a Mac), then select More Settings and look for a PDF option.
—in Safari on a Mac, press Command+P, then select PDF > Save as PDF…
To save an entire webpage as HTML:
—in Chrome, right-click and select Save As… then select Webpage, Complete.
—in Safari, right-click and press Command+S, then select Web Archive.
What writers can do, after the fact
What if the page you quoted from is already down?
Then you’ll have to roll back time to see an earlier version of that website.
Is that even possible?
Yes it is, using a website called the Wayback Machine as described below.
Conclusions
Online sources can come and go without notice. So it’s a best practice to save your white paper sources as soon as you find them.
How to: Use the Wayback Machine
1.5-minute read.
Need to check out how a website looked in the past?
You need the Wayback Machine.
This indispensable service from the Internet Archive records snapshots of many websites over time. By now, it has archived more than 900 billion webpages!
It’s simple to use: Type any URL (or keyword) into the textbox shown below:
Then you see a graphic that looks something like this, showing all the dates the site was archived:
Click on any year. You see a calendar of when snapshots were taken.
Those dates show up as blue circles. The bigger the blue circle, the bigger the snapshot.
Click on any date. If you have a choice of hours, click on any hour.
The site’s archive will show up. Most of the linked webpages will be there. So will most of the downloads.
If you can’t see what you need, try another date.
When you get to your source, capture it as described in the article above.
A blast from the past
Just for fun, here’s what the home page of thatwhitepaperguy.com looked like 24 years ago.
How time flies when you’re having fun!
An homage to a classic cartoon
Do you remember the cartoon show Rocky and Bullwinkle?
One segment featured the genius dog Mr. Peabody teaching history to his adopted son Sherman using his time machine called the WABAC machine.
The Wayback Machine is a modern-day homage to that cartoon.
There’s also a movie that captures the spirit of the original, called Mr Peabody and Sherman.
I recently watched this with my kids. They were enthralled as the WABAC machine whisked the characters through whirlwind visits with people like King Tut, Agamemnon, Leonardo Da Vinci, and George Washington.
You can watch it on Netflix until the end of February, or find it on YouTube or most other streaming services for about $5. Happy time travels!
Click the cover to see the report
Book giveaway: Is this report slick… or ick?
1.5-minute read.
I just came across an annual report with a look different from anything I’ve ever seen.
The report in question was published by the National Security Cyber Centre. I assume it’s aimed at IT professionals and managers in the UK.
It lands at 76 pages total, with lots of graphics and photos. Some of these are stock, and, in some, the centre’s managers posed for a shot.
Here are six sample pages in miniature: Three are mainly text and three mainly graphics.
To see the whole report, click the big cover at the start of this article.
Or download it here: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/files/NCSC_Annual_Review_2024.pdf
So, what do you think: Slick… or ick?
Does this typography make you want to read on?
Or click away for visual relief?
I noticed a lot of visual elements that suggest programming:
- pseudo-code on the cover and section titles
(something like Python but not really) - line numbers in the left margin
- >>>> to suggest comments in code
- the body typeface with its noticeable Øs
- this part of the header:
Did I miss any?
But all that turns me off. I feel like this report isn’t for me, since I’m not a coder.
What do you think?
Drop me a line with your opinion, and I’ll enter you into my next book draw.
I’ll pick one entry at random and send you your choice from the books listed here:
My recommended books on white papers and everything else
So drop an email to gordon@thatwhitepaperguy by 6 PM Eastern Sunday March 2.
I’ve already given away 14 books. You could be next! All you have to do is enter.
If you like this newsletter…
Here are three ways to support it.
Thank you to all the people who have—that’s been great!
2. Buy my book White Papers For Dummies. It’s been called “priceless… terrific… outstanding… fantastic… excellent in every way.”
And for less than $20, it’s a steal.
3. Pass it on: Forward this newsletter to any of your writer buddies who would appreciate these useful tips and guidance.
Gordon Graham
That White Paper Guy
To get every future issue, visit: www.thatwhitepaperguy.com/subscribe/
See all the previous issues here:
www.thatwhitepaperguy.com/newsletters/
Listen to the audios here:
https://thatwhitepaperguy.com/podcasts/
And remember to watch for an issue coming soon where I’ll reveal the “white paper” I found from 1818.
