Especially in academic publishing, manuscript can also refer to an accepted document, reviewed but not yet in a final format, distributed in advance as a preprint.
Manuscript formatting varies greatly depending on the type of work, as well as the particular publisher, editor or producer.
Writers who intend to submit a manuscript should determine what the relevant writing standards are, and follow them.
Although publishers’ guidelines for formatting are the most critical resource for authors,[1] style guides are also key references since "virtually all professional editors work closely with one of them in editing a manuscript for publication.
An ordinary manuscript only becomes a "publisher's preprint" if it somehow gets distributed beyond the authors (or the occasional colleague whom they ask for advice).