TEXT BOXES | Word Annoyances: How to Fix the Most ANNOYING Things about Your Favorite Word Processor

COLUMNS

Create Newspaper-Style Columns

The Annoyance:

More of a grumble, really: text in columns is difficult to control, and there aren't many changes you can make to the settings to make the text look the way you want.

The Fix:

It could be worse . The Columns dialog box (Format Columns) lets you choose the number of columns; control the width of each column, and the spacing between it and the column to its right; and choose whether to put a line between each column. If youre looking for more complex effects, you should probably be using a page-layout application rather than Word. But if you're stuck with Word, try the following:

Use heading styles and text styles as usual to differentiate the paragraphs in your columns.
To end a column early, choose Insert Break, select the "Column break option, and click the OK button.
Use a text box overlapping one or more columns to add variety or impact to your layout.
You can insert a picture in a column as usual (Insert Picture From File), and you can wrap text around it or even run text through it.
To put a table in a column, choose Table Insert Table, as usual.

Mix Different Numbers of Columns in a Document

The Annoyance:

I need to create a newspaper-style layout with a masthead across the top of the page, blurbs on the five top stories below that, and then a three-column layout for the rest of the page. But when I change the number of columns, everything I've laid out so far goes screwy.

The Fix:

This shouldn't happen unless you're selecting all of the text before you change the number of columns.

To fix this problem:

Select the first part of the text to which you want to apply a different number of columns, choose Format Columns, specify the number of columns, make sure that "Selected text rather than "Whole document" is selected in the "Apply to" drop-down list, and click the OK button.
Select the next part of the text that needs a different number of columns, choose Format Columns, and specify the number of columns for that text. Word automatically inserts a continuous section break between each section that has a different number of columns.

Tip: Press Alt+

to move to the top of the previous column on the page, and Alt+

to move to the top of the next column.