Changing Margins and Orientation

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The page setup items you'll change most often are likely to be the margins and orientation settings. The margins of your document control the amount of white space at the top, bottom, right, and left edges of the document. You can also control the amount of space used for the gutter, which is the space reserved for binding. Now, in Word 2002, you can customize the gutter setting along the left or top margins of the page.

Tip - Plan your margins for double-sided printing

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If you'll be binding the document you create, be sure to specify a gutter margin large enough to accommodate the binding. If your document is printed single-sided, every gutter margin will show the spacing you enter along the left margin. If your document is to be printed double-sided, click the Multiple Pages down arrow and choose Mirror Margins to make sure the margin settings are applied to the left and right internal margins.

Entering Margin Settings

When you first begin working with a new Word document, the left and right margins are set to 1.25 inches. You can change margin settings in Word in two different ways:

• Drag the Left Indent and Right Indent markers on the horizontal ruler to the setting you want.
• Change the margins in the Page Setup dialog box by clicking in the appropriate box and typing the value.

Note

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When you select a value in the Gutter Position drop-down list, Word adds the gutter setting to the left margin (or alternating right and left, if you've selected Mirror Margins in the Multiple Pages drop-down list).

Choosing Orientation

The orientation of your document affects the way in which the text is printed on the page. Portrait orientation prints documents in traditional, 8.5-by-11-inch format; landscape orientation prints documents in a horizontal, 11-by-8.5-inch format. When should you use which orientation? Here are a few ideas:

• Portrait orientation might be used for traditional documents, letters, reports, newsletters, and invoices.
• Landscape orientation might be used for slides, signs, title pages, charts, and tables.

To change the orientation of your document, choose File, Page Setup to display the Page Setup dialog box and click the Margins tab. Click Landscape to change the orientation so that the document is printed with the long edge of the paper serving as the top of the page.

Note

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You can change the orientation from landscape to portrait and back again in a single document, if you choose. Simply place the insertion point where you want to change the orientation, display the Page Setup dialog box, click the Margins tab, and choose the appropriate setting in the Apply To drop-down list. Now click the orientation you want. After you click OK, Word begins a new page and shows the change in the page orientation as you specified.

Working with Multiple Pages

When you're working with more complex documents, you'll want to vary the margins depending on the type of document you're creating. A standard report might have equal margins on the right and left, but a document you want to bind, or a publication that's designed so that the left and right pages complement each other, requires a little flexibility in the page settings.

When you want to set up multiple pages so they have different page settings, follow these steps:

1. Choose File, Page Setup to display the Page Setup dialog box.
2. Enter the Margin, Paper, and Layout settings on their respective tabs.
3. In the Pages section on the Margin tab, click the Multiple Pages down arrow. Table 21-1 shows the different effects of the Multiple Pages choices.
4. Click your choice; then click OK. Word applies the changes to the existing document.

Table 21-1. Choosing Page Settings for Multiple Pages

Setting	Preview	Description
Normal		Creates single pages, with the same margin and header and footer selections for every page.
Mirror Margins		Creates a document in which the margins on the left and right pages to mirror each other.
Two Pages Per Sheet		Divides the current page into two pages.
Book Fold		Treats each left and right page as a spread, using a gutter and mirroring margins as applicable.