10 Minute Guide to Word for Windows 95

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Setting Margins and Line Spacing

In this lesson, you'll learn how to set page margins and line spacing. Word provides default margins and line spacing, but you can easily adjust them to suit your purposes.

Setting Left and Right Margins with the Ruler

The Ruler displayed across the top of the Word for Windows work area makes setting margins easy. You can work visually rather than thinking in terms of inches or centimeters. The Ruler is designed to be used with a mouse. To use the Ruler to change margins, you must be working in Page Layout mode (select View Page Layout).


Timesaver Tip: Displaying the Ruler If your ruler is not displayed, select View Ruler to display it.

Margin settings made with the Ruler affect the entire document. The white bar on the ruler shows the current margin settings, as shown in Figure 12.1. To change the left or right margin, point at the margin symbol on the ruler, at the left or right end of the white bar (the mouse pointer will change to a two-headed arrow). Then, drag the margin to the new position.


Plain English: Margins The left and right margins are the distances, respectively, between the text and the left and right edges of the page.

Figure 12.1
The ruler displays a white bar showing the current left and right margin settings.


Note that the margin symbols on the ruler are the vertical edges of the white margin bar, not the small triangular buttons. These buttons are the indent symbols, which you'll learn about in Lesson 14. If your mouse pointer has changed to a 2-headed arrow, then you know you have found the margin symbol.


Timesaver Tip: Changing Margins To change the margins for only a portion of a document, change the left and/or right indent (covered in Lesson 14).

Setting Left and Right Margins with a Dialog Box

If you prefer not to use the ruler, or want to enter specific values, you can set the left and right margins using a dialog box. This technique also allows you to set the margins for only a part of the document:

1. If you want the new margins to affect only a portion of the document, move the insertion point to the location where the new margin settings should begin.

2. Select File Page Setup, then click the Margins tab to display the Margin options (see Figure 12.2).

3. In the Left box, click the up or down arrows to increase or decrease the left margin. The numerical value is the distance in inches between the left edge of the page and the left edge of text. The sample page in the dialog box shows what the settings will look like when printed.

4. In the Right box, click the up or down arrows to increase or decrease the right margin. The value is the distance between the right edge of the page and the right edge of text.

5. Open the Apply To box and select where the new margins should be used: Whole Document or This Point Forward.

6. Select OK.

Figure 12.2
The Page Setup dialog box with the Margins options displayed.

Setting Top and Bottom Margins

You also use the Page Setup dialog box to change the top and bottom margins. These margins specify the distance between text and the top and bottom of the page. As with the left and right margins, the top and bottom margin settings affect the entire document.

1. Select Format Page Setup to display the Page Setup dialog box.

2. If necessary, click the Margins tab to display the margins options.

3. In the Top box, click the up or down arrows to increase or decrease the top margin. In the Bottom box, click the up or down arrows to increase or decrease the bottom margin. The sample page in the dialog box shows what the settings will look like when printed.

4. Select OK.


Timesaver Tip: Header and Footer Margins Top and bottom margins do not affect the position of headers and footers.

Changing Line Spacing

Line spacing controls the amount of space between lines of text. Different spacing is appropriate for different kinds of documents. If you want to print your document on as few pages as possible, use single line spacing to position lines close together. In contrast, a document that will later be edited by hand should be printed with wide line spacing to provide space for the editor to write comments. Word offers a variety of line-spacing options. If you change line spacing, it affects the selected text; if there is no text selected, it affects the current paragraph and text you type at the insertion point. To change line spacing:

1. Select Format Paragraph to display the Paragraph dialog box. If necessary, click the Indents and Spacing tab (see figure 12.3).

2. Pull down the Line Spacing list and select the desired spacing. The Single, 1.5 Lines, and Double settings are self-explanatory. The other settings are:

Figure 12.3
The Paragraph dialog box with the Indents and Spacing options displayed.


In this lesson, you learned how to set page margins and line spacing. The next lesson shows you how to use and set tabs.


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