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To select a preset to modify, click the desired preset button in the “Presets” section. Choose your column options by using the buttons, spinner boxes, checkboxes, and drop-down in this dialog box. The “Columns” dialog box lets you set the number, width, and spacing of the columns. To apply a preset column layout in Word, then click one of the listed preset column options.Īlternatively, to apply a custom column layout in Word, click the “More Columns” command to open the “Columns” dialog box. Then click the “Columns” drop-down button. Then click the “Layout” tab in the Ribbon. Alternatively, you can select the text to separate into columns. To create columns in Word, place your cursor where you want the columns to start. You can either select the text first or you can create a different section to which to add the columns. If you want to add columns to only a part of your document, you have two options. Also note that you can add columns to your whole document or to a selected section within a document. When you create columns in Word, the text flows from one column to the next on the same page.
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This is helpful for separating text vertically. This long flow of text is ideal for editing the text.You may need to create columns in Word for documents that need them, like a newsletter. Instead you will see one long, narrow column, although the ruler reflects the correct column settings. If you change to Normal view, you will not see the columns side-by-side. When you are on the bottom line of the left column, what key should you press to go to the top of the next column? Page Down? Right Arrow? Yes, but that's very awkward! But Print Layout view is not so handy for editing text. This is handy to view the columns side-by-side, exactly as they will appear when printed. When you apply newspaper-style columns, Word automatically changes to Print Layout view. The choices you made are reflected in Print Layout view and Print Preview, where you can see the line between the columns, the exact column width, and the placement of the text in snaking columns.
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If the pages were printed in long lines that ran the width of the page, the text would be quite difficult to read, and not much fun to look at. Newspaper-style columns are used whenever you have a lot of text to fit on a page, particularly a large page. To establish this multi-column format, you'd use the Columns button in Word.
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MS Word provides a different feature that lets you create "snaking" or newspaper-style columns, where the text flows down the page in a narrow column and then continues to the next column. Although tables are used to present text that must remain in side-by-side columns, they would be clumsy to use when creating a newsletter.
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