9. Formatting Pages

Just when your head is about to explode from all the formatting options available in Microsoft Word, it’s time to show you some more! This chapter concentrates on formatting you can apply to entire pages to make them look polished and easy on the eyes. Page formatting includes features such as setting page margins, turning text into columns, adding headers and footers, and controlling vertical alignment. Whereas text formatting and paragraph formatting makes your document’s content look good, page formatting is all about making your pages look good—and when your documents look good, you look good.

Page margins are also where some special page elements hang out, such as page numbers, headers, and footers (you’ll learn more about these features later in this chapter). By default, every blank document in Word starts with 1-inch margins on all four sides. This default margin scheme is affectionately known as the Normal margin setting. You can make adjustments to your margins using the Margins tool on the Page Layout tab, as shown in Figure 9.1. When you click the Margins button you can choose from several preset margins or you can create your own custom margin(s). That’s right, you can control just one margin on a page, several, or all four. How’s that for flexibility?

FIGURE 9.1 Find Word’s margin controls on the Page Layout tab.

To set your own margins, click the Custom Margins option at the bottom of the Margins menu. This opens the Page Layout dialog box to the Margins tab, as shown in Figure 9.2. You can also access this same dialog box by clicking the Page Setup icon—the tiny icon with an arrow on it located in the bottom-right corner of the Page Setup group of tools on the Ribbon’s Page Layout tab.

FIGURE 9.2 You can also open the Page Setup dialog box to set your own margins.

In the Page Setup dialog box, you can specify a value—measured in inches—for the top and bottom of the page, and the left and right sides. You can change just one margin, or as many as you want. Click the spinner arrows to adjust the value or type directly into the box you want to change. The Preview area at the bottom of the dialog box gives you a thumbnail preview of what the new margin(s) will look like. Click OK to exit the dialog and apply the changes.

Remember the ruler you learned how to use in Chapter 8, “Formatting Paragraphs,” to set indents and tabs? Well, you can use it to set margins, too. Click the Ribbon’s View tab and click the Ruler check box to display the horizontal and vertical rulers. The margin area is marked in a darker shade on the ends of the rulers. Move the mouse pointer over the edge of the margin shading, then click and drag the border to adjust the margin, as shown in Figure 9.3. As you drag the margin, a temporary line appears across the page, helping you to see where the new location for the margin will be when you release the mouse button.

FIGURE 9.3 You can use the rulers to set margins.

If you want to return to the default margins, display the Margins drop-down menu and choose Normal.

FIGURE 9.4 Use the Columns button to assign column formatting.

To create columns, follow these steps:

1. Select the text you want to turn into columns.

2. Click the Page Layout tab.

3. Click the Columns button (see Figure 9.4).

4. Click the number of columns you want to create and Word immediately applies the column formatting to the selected text.

If you need to create custom columns, you can open the Columns dialog box, as shown in Figure 9.5. You can use the dialog box to specify the number of columns, their width and spacing, and even include vertical lines to separate the columns. To display the dialog box, click the More Columns command at the bottom of the Columns menu (shown earlier in Figure 9.4).

FIGURE 9.5 You can create custom columns using the Columns dialog box.

If you type new text at the bottom of the last column, Word assumes you want to keep using the column formatting. If you do, but need to insert a break of some kind, you can insert a column break. This breaks the column and starts a new column. To do this, click the Page Layout tab, click the Breaks drop-down arrow, and choose Column.

Vertical alignment isn’t quite as obvious as horizontal alignment, unless you only have a few lines of text or paragraphs on a page. However, you might find vertical alignment useful when creating title pages or other types of pages where vertical text is important.

You can find Word’s vertical alignment controls tucked away in the Page Setup dialog box, as shown in Figure 9.6. To display the dialog box, click the Page Setup icon, the tiny square with an arrow in it located in the bottom corner of the Page Setup group of tools on the Page Layout tab. After the dialog box is open, click the Layout tab and click the Vertical alignment drop-down arrow to choose another alignment. Click OK to exit the dialog box and apply the new setting.

FIGURE 9.6 Control vertical alignment through the Page Setup dialog box.

Take a look at Figure 9.7 to see how vertical alignment affects a title page. In this example, the Bottom alignment is assigned and all the lines of text stack up against the bottom margin.

FIGURE 9.7 In this example, vertical alignment is set to Bottom.

The great thing about this special area is that the information you place here prints on every page, which is quite helpful when organizing your documents.

Longer documents can really benefit from page numbers, and in a busy workplace environment, including the author information, document title, or dates at the top of every page can help other users know where the document came from or when it was created (see Figure 9.8).

FIGURE 9.8 Headers and footers appear between the page margins and the actual edge of the page.

FIGURE 9.9 You can choose from a variety of preset headers.

If you don’t see anything you like from the preset elements, you can look for more headers on the Microsoft Office website. You can also choose a header and edit to suit your own needs and then save it to the Header Gallery as a template piece to reuse again.

The Footer menu shows a similar setup but with some presets designed for the bottom of pages.

To actually assign a header or footer, just choose it from the appropriate menu. After doing so, you can replace any placeholder text with your own, as shown in Figure 9.10. When you insert a header or footer, Word instantly puts the cursor in the header or footer area and one or more special tabs appear on the Ribbon. You can use the Header & Footer Tools Design tab to add more preset fields (such as a date and time or filename) and customize your header or footer text, as well as assign any special options or positioning controls. You can also use the Design tab to navigate between the two areas of the page, if your document uses both header and footer information.

FIGURE 9.10 Word switches to a special editing mode to work on headers and footers, and displays special tabs of tools to help you with the task.

If the header or footer you choose utilizes a special design element, the Table Tools or Drawing Tools tabs might appear offering access to more tools for customizing header or footer appearance.

To start filling in header or footer information, click the placeholder text and type in your own. When you finish creating your header or footer, you can click the Close Header and Footer button on the Header & Footer’s Design tab, or you can double-click anywhere else on the document page.

To return to the header or footer area and make changes, double-click in the header or footer area. To remove a header or footer, click the Insert tab, click the Header or Footer menu and choose Remove Header or Remove Footer.

To assign page numbers, click the Insert tab and click the Page Number drop-down arrow. Next, choose a position for the numbers and choose a design from the library. Word immediately applies the page numbers to your document (see Figure 9.11).

FIGURE 9.11 Use the Page Numbers feature to insert page numbers as headers or footers on your document pages.

Like regular headers or footers, when you insert page numbers, Word opens the special editing mode for working with header and footer text, depending on where you chose to insert the page numbers. You can double-click anywhere else in the document to exit the special editing mode. To return to the header or footer area and make changes to the numbers or formats, double-click in the header or footer area. To remove the page numbers entirely, click the Insert tab, click the Page Numbers drop-down menu, and choose Remove Page Numbers.

You can also insert instant cover pages for your documents. A cover page typically includes some sort of document title, and information about the author, company, or creation date. You can choose from a variety of cover page builtins—preset designs in which you add your own original content. Click the Insert tab and click Cover Page to display a drop-down menu of choices. Scroll through and click the one you want, then replace any placeholder text with your own information.

As you’re typing along, you can also use a keyboard shortcut to insert a page break: Press Ctrl+Enter.

If you click the Page Layout tab, as shown in Figure 9.12, the Breaks drop-down menu lists other page and section breaks you can add. You can use this menu to insert page breaks, column breaks, and several types of section breaks. Figure 9.13 shows an example of a page break.

FIGURE 9.12 You can use the Breaks menu to insert page and section breaks.

FIGURE 9.13 Here’s what a page break looks like in Print Layout view mode.

Section breaks work a bit differently than forcing a new page. You can divide a page into sections and utilize section header and footers for each section. Section breaks are typically used when you want to start a new area with new formatting. For example, maybe you’re creating a report that utilizes regular portrait-oriented pages (the page is taller than it is wide), but you need to add a graph that fits on a landscape-oriented page (the page is wider than it is tall). You can do this with a section break. Or maybe your research paper uses regular numbered lists in one part, but Roman numerals in another—a section break can help you format both separately.

With page breaks, the new page retains the same formatting as the previous page, but with section breaks, you can use completely different page formatting, including different margins, columns, or page orientation. You can choose from four different types of section breaks:

• Next Page Inserts a new page or continues text on the next consecutive page.

• Continuous Starts a new section without adding a page (common for columns).

• Even Page Inserts a new even-numbered page, or continues text on the next even-numbered page.

• Odd Page Inserts a new odd-numbered page, or continues text on the next odd-numbered page.