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: Removing Line Numbering.

Removing Line Numbering

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 24, 2024)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

Once you have turned on line numbering, you may later want to remove the line numbers added by Word. For instance, during development of a document you might want to have line numbers, and then you want them removed for the final document. To disable line numbering completely, follow these steps:

Choose Page Setup from the File menu. This displays the Page Setup dialog box.
Make sure the Layout tab is selected. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Layout tab of the Page Setup dialog box.

Click on the Line Numbers button. You will see the Line Numbers dialog box. (See Figure 2.)

Figure 2. The Line Numbers dialog box.

Disable line numbers by clearing the Add Line Numbering check box.
Click on OK to close the Line Numbers dialog box.
Click on OK to close the Page Setup dialog box.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1176) 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: Removing Line Numbering.

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. Learn more about Allen...

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