DOCX Export in Deckle

Export your manuscript as a Word document: either a clean, submission-ready file editors and beta readers can open directly, or a style-tagged file built for import into InDesign for professional typesetting.

What You Can Do

• Export as a standard Word .docx file, or an InDesign-ready variant with every paragraph type tagged with a style name you control.
• Turn on Standard Manuscript Format for a real submission-ready file: a proper contact-info/word-count title page and a running header with your name, title, and a real, recalculating page number.
• Get your comments carried over into the Word file so editors and beta readers can reply to them inline (Word variant only).
• Rename every paragraph style in the InDesign variant to match your own InDesign style sheet exactly, so import is a direct drop-in.

How to Export a DOCX from Deckle

1. Open Compile from your project.
2. On the Format tab, select DOCX.
3. Under Export Variant, choose Word or InDesign.
4. If you picked Word, optionally switch to the Options tab and turn on Standard Manuscript Format.
5. If you picked InDesign, enter your own paragraph style names so they match your InDesign style sheet exactly.
6. Click Export DOCX, choose where to save, and Deckle compiles it.

Word vs. InDesign: Which Should You Pick

• Word: for editors, beta readers, formatting review, or querying agents and publishers. Produces a clean, double-spaced manuscript using real Word paragraph styles (Body Text, Scene Break, headings, and more), plus Standard Manuscript Format's title page and running header if you turn it on. See formatting for literary agent submission for the full walkthrough.
• InDesign: for handing off to a typesetter or importing into your own InDesign layout. Skips the title page and header entirely, and instead tags every paragraph type (body text, headings, block quotes, verse, and the rest) with a style name you specify, so it maps directly onto your existing InDesign style sheet. See handing off to a professional typesetter for the full walkthrough.

A Couple of Things Worth Knowing

💡 Standard Manuscript Format only applies to the Word variant. InDesign export skips the title page/header layout entirely, since a typesetter builds those directly in the layout program.

💡 Comments only carry over in the Word variant. InDesign doesn't import Word comments, so they're left out of that export.

💡 The word count on a Standard Manuscript Format title page is rounded to the nearest 500 (e.g. "About 92,500 words"). This matches the standard convention agents and publishers expect, not your exact live word count.

💡 The running header reads "Surname / TITLE / page number," starting from chapter 1, with a real, recalculating page-number field, not a number that goes stale if you add or remove pages later.