Among other formatting options, Microsoft Word lets you adjust the page layout of a document. Two key factors in this respect are the margins and page orientation. Both of these have a big effect on how a document looks, so check out our guide below to find out how they work.
The margins in a document are the spaces at the edge of each page. You may need to change these to leave space to make notes (e.g., in a college paper). Or you may simply want to control where text appears on the page. In either case, you can adjust the margins in a document by:
In Microsoft Word for Windows, you can also access the Page Setup menu by clicking the arrow in the bottom right of the relevant section on the ribbon. Margin options available here include:
You can also use the Apply To options in the Page Setup menu to control which part of the document you format (e.g., Whole document, This section only, or This point forward). However, you may also want to add your own section breaks for full control over where margin formatting is applied.
Page orientation refers to whether the document is landscape or portrait. Most documents will be portrait, which is the default in Microsoft Word. But the landscape format can be useful in some cases, such as when a document contains illustrations or charts too wide to fit on a portrait page.
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To adjust the page orientation in a whole Microsoft Word document:
To change the orientation of part of a document, you will need to either:
This will let you present one page in a landscape format (e.g., to fit in a chart). But make sure to add section breaks before changing the orientation.
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