Word’s rulers let you control the margins of your page and the indentation of paragraphs. They’re great for precisely lining up images, text, and other elements. If you’re printing a document, the rulers can help ensure that what you see on your screen translates into what you’ll get on the printed page.
Jun 06, 2014 To change the internal margin of a text box, right click on the border of the text box. From the drop-down menu, select 'Format Shape'. Under 'Shape Options' choose the icon of the text. Note that changing margin settings can affect the page count of your document, as reducing or increasing the margin size will increase or decrease the amount of text that can fit on each page. Summary – How to change page margins in Word 2010.
The trouble is, rulers aren’t even visible by default in Word anymore. Here’s how to turn them on, and how to make the most out of them.
Note: We’re working with Office 2016 in this article. The rulers have been around pretty much forever, though, and work similarly in previous versions of Word.
Activate the Rulers
First, make sure you’re in Print Layout view. On the Ribbon, switch to the “View” tab (all the way on the right). If “Print Layout” isn’t already highlighted, click it now.
Now look towards the center of the Ribbon. In the “Show” section, enable the “Rulers” option. You should immediately see the horizontal ruler above your document and the vertical ruler to its left.
Note: The horizontal ruler is also visible in Web Layout and Draft view. The vertical ruler is not.
Access the Page Setup Window
Double-click any empty space on the ruler to open the Page Setup window. This is the same window you can open from the Layout tab on the Ribbon.
The “Page Setup” window shows you most of the physical layout properties of the document. The “Margins” tab lets you set the margins for the top, bottom, left, and right, which you can verify with the markers on the ruler (see below). The Gutter is extra space on the page, usually used as an extra blank space for things like comb binding (those little plastic corkscrews that make a cheap notebook). It’s set as blank by default. You can also use this tab to control page orientation.
If you’re printing your document, the “Paper” tab lets you can change the physical size of the paper to match different paper sizes in your printer. The default is 8.5 inches by 11 inches, the standard “Letter” size for US paper printing (215.9 x 279.4mm). You can see the result of this setting in the digital rulers on the page, with the default 1-inch margins resulting in a 7.5-inch horizontal ruler and a 10-inch vertical ruler. If you’re planning on printing via a standard home printer or you’re using the primary tray in your office printer, leave this as is.
Ms Word For Mac Change Margins On Part Of Text CellChange Margins On the Fly
Margins are indicated on the ruler by the gray and white areas. The gray areas at either end of the ruler represent your margin; the white areas the active page. The scaling of the rulers seems a little strange at first. It actually starts on the far left (or top for the vertical ruler) with a number indicating the size of your margin and then counts down. When it reaches the white, active area, it starts counting up again. You can see this in the image below, where I’ve set the margin to two inches.
In Word’s default 8.5 by 11-inch page setup, the horizontal ruler starts at 1 (indicating a one-inch margin), then resets at zero where the margin ends, then counts up to 7.5 for the remaining horizontal space. Ditto for the vertical ruler: starts at one for a one-inch margin, restarts at zero at the white space, and only goes up to ten.
Note: Word’s rulers show whatever measurement you have set in File > Options > Advanced > Show Measurements In Units Of. You can change measurements to centimeters, millimeters, points, or picas. Be aware, though, that this settings controls the units of measurement used throughout Word—not just the ruler.
You can also quickly adjust margins right from the ruler. Hold your mouse over the line separating the white and gray area. You’ll see the pointer turn to a double arrow and will likely see a tooltip letting you know you’re point at the margin. Now, just click and drag that line left or right to adjust that margin.
Change Indents on the Fly
Those little triangle- and box-shaped markers on the ruler are quite handy. They control the indenting of individual paragraphs. Just position your cursor in the paragraph you want to adjust and slide them around. If you want to change multiple paragraphs, select the paragraphs you want to change. And if you want to change indents throughout the whole document, just hit Ctrl+A (to select everything), and then adjust the sliders.
Here’s how each indent works.
Dragging the Left Indent marker changes the indentation for all lines of a paragraph. As you slide it, the other two indent markers move as well. Here, I’m moving the Left Indent half an inch in from the left margin.
Dragging the First Line Indent marker changes indentation for only the first line of a paragraph.
Dragging the Hanging Indent marker changes the indentation of all lines except the first line.
Ms Word For Mac Change Margins On Part Of Textbook
On the right end of the ruler, you’ll find only one marker: the Right Indent marker. Drag it to constrain the paragraph on the right side.
Add Tab Stops
A tab stop is the location your cursor moves to when you hit the Tab key. A default Word document has no tab stops, so each time you hit the Tab key, the cursor jumps ahead about eight characters. Setting tab stops lets you better control and line up text.
Of course, Word offers enough options that things get a little more complicated than that. If you look all the way to the left edge of your document, just above the vertical ruler, you’ll see the Tab Stop button.
Clicking this button lets you cycle through the different types of tab stops Word makes available. Here they are:
A little tip for you. If you’re cycling through tab stops and don’t remember what each symbol means, move your mouse away from the button and then back to activate a tool tip describing that tab stop.
To insert a tab stop, just use the button to select the type of stop you want. Now, point your mouse anywhere on the white portion of the horizontal ruler (toward the bottom of the ruler line), and then click. A symbol appears indicating the type of tab stop you’ve placed. This is a tab marker, showing where the text will jump to if you press the Tab button on your keyboard.
Here’s an example. In this paragraph, the Left Indent is half an inch from the left margin, the First Line indent is another half inch further in, and I’ve set a tab stop at two inches. I pressed the Tab button with my cursor in front of “Lorem,” so the text jumped to my manually-set tab point.
How To Change Margins In Google Docs
You can insert multiple tab markers if you want, and you can click and drag them around to reposition them on the fly.
To get rid of a tab marker, just drag it down (away from the ruler) and release the mouse button.
And, if you prefer to set up your tab stops manually (and a little more precisely), double-click any tab marker to open the “Tabs” window.
The ruler is just one of the little features in Word that packs a whole lot more functionality than most people realize. It provides a quick way to control margins, set various indents for a paragraph, and keep things in line using tab stops. Why Word leaves it turned off by default is beyond us, but at least now you know how to turn it back on and put it to use.
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Not all documents fit inside Word’s default one-inch margin between the text and the edge of the page. When you want to change the margins in your Word documents, you have several choices, from predefined margins that make it easy to apply a different size margin, to the customized margins you can adjust to fit your needs.
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Not all versions of Word are created equally; these directions work with the PC versions of Word and Word for Mac, while Word Online has limited margin capabilities.
Quickly Change Margins in Word
When you want to make the margins in your document smaller or larger, use Word’s predefined Narrow, Moderate, or Wide margins. If you plan to print your document on both sides of the paper and put it in a three-ring binder, use the predefined Mirror margin setting.
Mirror margins cannot be set in Word Online. However, if you view a document with mirror margins in Word Online, the mirror margins are preserved.
To apply a predefined margin, select Layout > Margins and choose the predefined margin you want to use.
In Word Online, Word 2010 and Word 2007, the Layout tab is labeled as Page Layout. The steps to change margins remain the same.
Use the Ruler to Adjust Margins in WordChange Margins On Pdf
The horizontal ruler displayed below the Word menu provides another way to quickly change the margins in your document.
Before you begin, you’ll need to make sure the ruler is displayed. If the ruler is not displayed above your document, select View and place a checkmark next to Ruler to display the ruler. You’ll also need to work in Print view. Select View > Print Layout to display the document in print view.
The ruler is not available in Word Online.
Here’s how to change the margins using the ruler:
Create Custom Margins
When you need a certain size margin for a document, use the custom settings.
Ms Word For Mac Change Margins On Part Of Text Box
Here’s how to set a custom margin size:
Create Gutter Margins
Documents that will be bound need extra margin space for the binding. This gutter margin ensures the binding doesn't interfere with the white space around the text.
To add a gutter margin, select Layout > Margins > Custom Margins and type a width in the Gutter box.
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You cannot create gutter margins in Word Online. Switch to the desktop version of Word to set gutter margins.
Create Mirror Margins
Documents printed on both sides of the page and bound, such as books and magazines, use a special margin setting. These mirror margins ensure the right and left pages are mirror images of each other.
To create mirror margins, select Layout > Margins and select Mirrored. If you want to change the size of the mirror margins, select Layout > Margins > Custom Margins and change the size of the Inside or Outside margins.
Set Margins for a Section of Your Document
When your document is divided into sections, you can apply different margin sizes to different sections. This feature is not available in Word Online.
To change the margins for a single section:
View Page Margins
Word can display boundary lines that show you where the margins are in your document. These boundary lines appear as dotted lines. The margin boundaries cannot be viewed in Word Online.
To view the page margins:
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