Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Quickly Changing Columns.

Quickly Changing Columns

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 23, 2019)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


Word provides a tool on the toolbar you can use to modify the number of columns in your document or in a text selection. If you click on the Columns tool (which is, by default, just to the left of the Drawing tool), Word shows a small dialog box containing four columns. To use this tool, you select the number of columns you want in your document or text selection. For instance, if you want three-column text, you would click on third column out of the four. If you click on a column and hold down the mouse button, you can drag the mouse to choose up to five columns. As you drag the mouse, the Cancel label (below the column layout) changes to indicate the number of columns that Word will create. When you release the mouse button, Word applies the selected column formatting to the current section of your document.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (162) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Quickly Changing Columns.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Concise Directory of Available Symbols

Need to know what the different codes are that you can use with the Alt key, along with the characters resulting from ...

Discover More

Watermarks in Excel

Excel is great at printing numbers on a piece of paper, but terrible at printing watermarks. This is apparently by ...

Discover More

Making Sure a Document Always Has an Even Number of Pages

For some documents, you may want to make sure that a printout always has an even number of pages. Word has no intrinsic ...

Discover More

Do More in Less Time! Are you ready to harness the full power of Word 2013 to create professional documents? In this comprehensive guide you'll learn the skills and techniques for efficiently building the documents you need for your professional and your personal life. Check out Word 2013 In Depth today!

More WordTips (menu)

Changing the Number of Columns in the Middle of a Document

Need to have multiple columns in a page layout that normally consists of a single column? You can change the column ...

Discover More

Jumping between Columns

Need to jump from one column to another on a page? You can use the handy shortcut keys described in this tip.

Discover More

Setting Up Multi-page Columns

Do you need a page layout that features columns that progress vertically across pages instead of horizontally across a ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 8 + 5?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.