If you are looking to speed up and customize some ways to work with Microsoft Word, you may find the recent article 5 Ways to Customize Word very helpful. On the iPad, there are limited wasy to customize settings while using Word.
In Word, tap on the gear icon on the bottom left and you will be presented with settings related to Storage, Notifications, and (currently) two settings related to auto format as you type and whether the Apple Pencil always draws ink.
The ability to customize the iPad version of Word is limited. Should you find yourself wanting to use Word on the iPad with some regularity, Apple’s Keyboard or an external keyboard is recommended as certain keyboard commands to speed up the process are easily utilized. For example, copy, paste, select all, italicize, bold, etc. are recognized with the keyboard input. This saves time by not having to tap on the screen to select the text, the select the action to perform.
A subscription to Microsoft is required to edit documents on the iPad. No subscription is required to read documents that may have been sent to you to review.
If you use Microsoft Word, the iPad is a great tool to help you focus on getting the words down on the screen. By using cloud sync services, such as OneDrive, you can then save your work in the cloud and continue later on your iPhone, Mac or other device. You can also save your work to a file on the iPad.
I couldn’t find the gear icon at the bottom left of the page
If you have started a document, then you need to tap the “<" to get to the screen where you create a new document. Once there, you will see the gear icon as shown in the screen shot.