Understanding Mirror Margins

Word includes a unique setting that allows you to "mirror" the margins of a page depending on whether the page is an odd or even page. Mirror margins are typically used to designate a page layout that will eventually be two-sided.

You set up mirror margins by using the Page Setup dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.) To display the dialog box in Word 2007, display the Page Layout tab of the ribbon and click the small icon in the lower-right corner of the Page Setup group. In earlier versions of Word select the Page Setup option from the File menu. In some versions of Word you specify mirror margins through a check box; in others you use the Multiple Pages drop-down list.

You can set top, bottom, inside (towards the binding) and outside (left and right) margins when you have mirror margins selected. You can also specify a gutter margin, which is the amount of space added to the inside margins to allow for binding of the final book.

If your document won't be printed on both sides of a piece of paper and you are not worried about any particular binding of the final output (including punching holes for use in a binder), then mirror margins won't be of any real value for you; you can safely ignore it. If, however, you will be duplexing your output and you do need to worry about binding, then choose mirror margins and play with your margin settings to get just the output that you need.