To make a marriage biodata in MS Word, set the page to A4 and insert a table with two columns, field name on the left and your detail on the right. Put the photo in the top right corner and fill each section. Then save it as a PDF and send the PDF, not the .docx file. On a laptop it takes about an hour the first time.
This page is for families who already have Word on a laptop and want full control over every line. If you only have a phone, read our guide on making a biodata on mobile instead.
Set Up the Page First
Do this before typing a single word. Changing the page size later moves everything around.
- Open a blank document.
- Go to the Layout tab, click Size and choose A4. Many copies of Word open on Letter size, which is a little shorter and wider than A4, and Indian print shops use A4 paper.
- In the same tab, click Margins. Word's default is one inch (2.54 cm) on every side. Microsoft's help page on changing margins in Word shows where Custom Margins sits. For a biodata, 1.5 to 2 cm on each side gives you more room without the text touching the edge.
- Keep Orientation on Portrait.
An A4 page is 210 by 297 mm. That is the size relatives will print, and the size a phone shows when they open the PDF.
Build the Layout with a Two-Column Table
A table is what keeps a Word biodata neat. Without one, the colons never line up and the text jumps when you change one name.
Go to Insert, then Table, and draw a table of 2 columns and about 12 rows. Drag the middle line so the left column is narrow, about one third of the width. The left column holds labels like Date of Birth and Height. The right column holds the details.
Make one table per section, with a heading above each: Personal Details, Horoscope, Education and Career, Family Details, Contact Details. Separate tables are easier to move than one long table.
When the layout looks right, select each table, open Table Design, then Borders, and choose No Border. The lines disappear but the alignment stays. Most good biodatas look like this, with no visible grid.
Add the Header and the Photo
The top of the page usually carries a small god image or symbol in the centre, then the name in a larger font. Ganesha, Om, a cross, 786 or Ik Onkar are common, depending on the family. Keep the image small, about 2 cm wide.
For the photo, insert it with Insert, then Pictures. Right-click the photo, choose Wrap Text, then In Front of Text, and drag it to the top right corner beside the Personal Details table. A passport-size box is 3.5 by 4.5 cm. Crop the photo to that shape first (Picture Format, then Crop), then set the height to 4.5 cm under Size and Position, and the width follows.
The usual problem comes next. You type a long college name, the table grows, and the photo slides over the text. Fix it by making the photo part of a table cell: add a third column to the Personal Details table, merge its cells top to bottom, and put the photo inside. Now it moves with the table and never covers a line.
Fill Each Section
Follow the order families expect, person first, then horoscope, then family, then contact.
| Section | Rows to add |
|---|---|
| Personal Details | Full Name, Date of Birth, Time of Birth, Place of Birth, Height, Religion, Caste, Marital Status |
| Horoscope | Rasi, Nakshatra, Lagna, Gotra, Manglik (only if your family uses them) |
| Education and Career | Education, Job / Occupation, Company, Work Location, Annual Income |
| Family Details | Father's Name and occupation, Mother's Name and occupation, Brothers, Sisters, Native Place |
| Contact Details | Contact Person, Relation, Mobile Number |
Write "5 ft 9 in", not "5.9". Write the date as 9 August 1995, not 09/08/95, because a reader in another state may read the day and month the other way round. Our list of what to write in a marriage biodata explains every row.
Fonts, Borders and Colours
Pick one font for everything and change only the size. Calibri, Cambria or Georgia at 11 or 12 points is easy to read on a phone. Make the name 18 to 22 points and the section headings 13 or 14 points, in bold.
Two colours are enough: black for the text and one colour, say maroon or dark blue, for the headings. A page border from Design, then Page Borders, can look nice, but choose a thin one. Thick clip-art borders eat space and print badly.
Leave out WordArt, shadows and glowing text. They look fine on a laptop screen and blurry on a phone.
Typing in Your Own Language in Word
Word can show Indian scripts, but your keyboard has to type them. On Windows, open Settings, then Time and Language, then Language and Region, and add Hindi, Marathi or Tamil. Switch between English and the new language with the Windows key and the Space bar.
Some of those keyboards type by sound, so "ram" becomes राम, while others follow the old typewriter layout, which takes practice. Another way is to type the line in Google Docs, which offers phonetic input tools for Hindi and other languages, and paste it into Word.
For fonts, Nirmala UI comes with Windows 10 and 11 and covers Devanagari, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, Gujarati, Gurmukhi and Odia. Mangal is an older Hindi font many offices still use. Do not pick a decorative English font for Hindi text, or you will see empty boxes in place of letters.
Save as PDF Before Sending
Always send the biodata as a PDF. If you skip Word altogether, you can make your biodata as a PDF straight from a form. A .docx file opens differently on every phone, and some phones cannot open it at all without an app. The fonts can change too, so the other family sees a layout you never made.
On Windows, Microsoft's page on saving as PDF in Office gives these steps: click File, then Save a Copy or Save As, pick a folder, choose PDF in the file type list and click Save.
On a Mac, click File, then Save As, open File Format at the bottom of the window, pick PDF and save.
On the Word app on a phone, open the three-dot menu, then Export or Print, and choose PDF. Name the file after the person, like "Ananya-Iyer-Biodata.pdf", so the other family can find it in their downloads.
Common Word Problems and Their Fixes
| Problem | Fix |
|---|---|
| A blank second page appears | Click at the end of the page and press Backspace. If the last table pushes it, reduce the space after that table to 0. |
| The photo covers text | Put the photo in a merged table cell, as above. |
| Colons do not line up | Put the colon at the end of the left column, not in the right one. |
| Hindi shows as boxes | Change the font of that text to Nirmala UI or Mangal. |
| The PDF has a different font | Use a font that comes with Windows, like Calibri or Cambria, before exporting. |
| Two pages instead of one | Cut the About Me to four lines and drop rows nobody asked for, like weight. |
Marriage Biodata Format in Word
People often search for a ready Word file to download and edit. On Hello Biodata you fill a form, download the biodata as an A4 PDF or a JPG image, and the next screen offers Download Word File. That gives a .docx of the same biodata, free with every PDF, which opens in Microsoft Word.
The fonts and spacing in that Word file can come out a little different from the PDF, because Word lays out the text itself. So send the PDF to families and keep the Word file to edit.
If you want to design every line yourself, the table method above gives you your own format in about an hour, and you can reuse it for a brother or sister later.
If you would sooner skip the formatting, pick a design and fill the form. Rasi, nakshatra and lagna fill in from the birth date, time and place, and the layout fits itself to the page. A free download carries a small line at the foot, "Made free at hellobiodata.com", and the Word file has the same line as a small footer.
To see the field order before you build your Word table, look at our marriage biodata format page.
For a laptop without Word, our guide on making a biodata on a laptop with Google Docs covers the free route. The full process, from collecting details to sending, is in how to make a biodata for marriage.
Common questions
Is Making a Marriage Biodata in Word a Good Idea?
Yes, if you are comfortable with tables and have an hour. The result is fully in your hands. The weak spot is the photo and the layout, which move whenever a line gets longer.
What Font Size Should I Use in a Word Biodata?
Use 11 or 12 points for the details, 13 or 14 for section headings and 18 to 22 for the name. Smaller than 10 points is hard to read on a phone.
How Do I Convert My Word Biodata to PDF?
Click File, then Save As or Save a Copy, and choose PDF as the file type. On a Mac the PDF option is under File Format in the same window.
Can I Type Hindi or Marathi in Word?
Yes. Add the language in Windows settings, switch to it with the Windows key and Space, and use a font such as Nirmala UI or Mangal so the letters show properly.
Can I Edit a Word Biodata on My Phone?
You can, with the free Word app, but tables and photos are hard to adjust on a small screen. Make the layout on a laptop and use the phone only for small text changes.
Sources
Related Guides
Still at the Biodata Stage?
Pick a design, fill in your details and download your biodata as a PDF or an image.