Section Formatting

Tips, Tricks, and Answers

The following articles are available for the 'Section Formatting' topic. Click the article's title (shown in bold) to see the associated article.

Adding a Background to Your Document
Document backgrounds come in handy if you plan on converting the document to a Web page. Here's how you can add a background of your choice to your document.

Adjusting Bottoms of Pages
When you allow Word to naturally flow your text through a document, you may find that the text on each page ends at a different vertical position. If you want each page's text to end at the same place, you need to adjust the vertical alignment for the document, as described in this tip.

Adjusting Margins in Print Preview
Print Preview is a great way to give a document the final "once over" before printing. Word allows you to do some minimal editing in Print Preview, such as adjusting document margins. Here's how to make the change.

Allowing for Letterhead
Using letterhead for your printout? What about for the second page, where there is no letterhead and you need the margin set differently?

Avoiding a Section Break Booby Trap
Section breaks got your document formatting all messed up? It could be because of the way you added the section breaks in the first place.

Breaking Your Text
Want to modify the way your text flows between pages in a document? Word allows you to insert several types of breaks that control the flow for you.

Changing Page Margins
One of the most basic of layout determinations is what margins you will use for the pages in your document. Word allows you to set margins on a section-by-section basis in a document. This tip explains how.

Changing Page Orientation
Learn about different page orientations and how to change them.

Changing Sections
A section is an organizational unit within a document that enables you to change different page-level formats in the same document. Sections are very helpful for some formatting needs, but you may not get the anticipated results when you choose to delete sections you no longer need. This tip explains why.

Determining a Column Width
When you start to create a document, you need to "lay it out" so that it is inviting and helpful to readers. This tip discusses some of the things you'll want to consider as you determine how wide your text columns should be.

Determining Page Layout
Word allows you to specify quite a few parameters concerning the pages in your documents. Collectively, these parameters define your page layout. This tip explains some of the considerations you need to take into account whenever you create your own page layout.

Formatting a Cover Page
Cover pages, which often need to be formatted different than the main body of a document, can easily be created in Word. The trick is to add a section break between the cover page and the body. You can then format each section independently of the other. This tip explains this concept and how to add the necessary section break.

Getting Identical Margins
Need to get the margins on your document exactly right? It can be a challenge to get the Word settings where you need them and then wrestle with the printer so it does what you expect. Here are some things to keep in mind.

Getting Rid of Section Breaks, But Not Section Formatting
Delete a section break and the portion of the document before the break adopts the same section formatting as the portion of the document after the break. If you don't like the way that Word handles such deletions, you'll need to change the way you treat section breaks. This tip describes the best way to do that.

Making Wider Footer Margins
Want the margins used in your footers (or headers) to be wider than the margins used in the rest of your document? There are a couple of tricks you can use to get the desired width.

Moving Section Breaks
Section breaks can be edited just like any other character in your document. This tip explains how you can use standard editing techniques to move a break to exactly where you need it.

Quickly Displaying the Page Setup Dialog Box
The Page Setup dialog box is indispensable in setting up the overall look of your document. You can display the dialog box quickly by knowing where to click on the rulers, as described in this tip.

Removing Breaks
Word supports all types of breaks in a document. Once they are in place, it can be confusing figuring out how to get rid of them. As described in tis tip, breaks are nothing but a special character that you can edit just like other characters.

Selecting a Paper Size
Your printer may be able to print on many different sizes of paper, but if you don't format your document correctly it will never know which of those paper sizes to use. This tip explains just how easy it is to format your document for a particular paper size.

Shifting Margins Evident in Word 2002
When you open a document in one version of Word and compare it to what you see for the same document in a different version of Word, you may notice some differences. Many times these differences are caused by "rule changes" from one version of Word to another. This tip explains how you can use the compatibility options in Word to help documents be treated the same.

Skipping Numbering
Got a numbered list, but you want to add other types of non-numbered paragraphs in the middle of the list? It's easy to do if you follow the steps in this tip.

Squeezing Everything In
Do you have just a line or two of text that "spills over" onto another printed page? Here are some ways you can compress your text and squeeze it all by that extra page.

Starting a New Section on an Odd Page Number
How to force a section to the next odd-numbered page.

Two Page Numbering Schemes in the Same Document
Word is great at numbering pages if you only need a single, consistent numbering scheme through the document. If you need two separate numbering schemes, you need to apply some workarounds described in this tip.

Unable to Set Margins in a Document
If you find that you cannot set the margins in a document, chances are good that it is due to document corruption. Here's how to try to recover the document.

Understanding Mirror Margins
Rather than have the margins of your documents always be the same, you can use what Word calls "mirror margins." Here's how to set those margins and how they will affect your printed output.

Understanding Sections
Sections are handy if you want to subdivide a document so you can apply different document formatting to those subdivisions. Word provides several different types of breaks that you can use to signal the start of new sections.

Understanding the Gutter Margin
Word gives you complete control over the margins defined in a document. One special type of margin you can define is the gutter margin, which is an "additional" margin space helpful for binding or hole-punching needs.

 

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