Here you can disable the Equal Column Width checkbox and, instead, set your own column widths and custom inter column spacing.

Use two columns for training materials and two or three for newsletters.īy default columns are created equal in width but if you want to change this, choose More Columns from the dropdown list to view the Columns dialog.

Typically, for A4 or Letter size paper two or three columns is plenty. To format a document with columns, choose Page Layout > Columns and select the number of columns to use. You can create columns before typing text or after it is typed. Use the columns feature to create a newspaper type document in Word.Ĭolumns are best viewed in Print Layout view so you should switch to this view before using columns - do this by choosing View > Print Layout. In addition, text is more easily read when in columns because the line of text is shorter. You may find you get more text on the page if you use columns and it looks neater and more professional. This column feature is also known as newspaper columns and they are obviously handy for newsletters but they also work well for training documents. If not, a new page is begun and the text begins to fill the first column of the new page. When this column is full, the text snakes up and begins to fill the third column, if there is one. The Word columns tool lets you divide the page vertically into two or more columns in such a way that text that you type into them runs down the first column until it is full and then it snakes over to start again at the top of the second column. I'll explain each of these features and explain when you should use each and when.

Here I will show you how to organize text in columns in Word and how to create a document that looks like it is formatted in columns but, in fact, uses tables instead.įinally, I'll show you how you can get the look of columns using linked text boxes are useful when you want text to flow around a document. Columns not only help you to organize text in a newspaper style format where text runs through a series of narrow columns but they are also useful for step by step documents and even some reports and brochures. Microsoft Word columns help you to create a better looking document when that document is text heavy. Helen Bradley How to organize text in columns in Microsoft Word.

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