Working with the Document Grid

Specifying Document Grid Settings

Using the Document Grid tab, you can control the text flow, number of columns , number of characters per line, character pitch (spacing between characters), number of lines per page, and line pitch. To use these features, follow these steps.

1. Click the Page Setup Dialog Box Launcher on the Page Layout tab to open the Page Setup dialog box. Then click the Document Grid tab.

2. If you want text to be displayed vertically, flowing from top to bottom as you type, click Vertical in the Text Flow section. Otherwise, for right-to-left text display, leave Horizontal selected. If you want, specify a number of columns in the Columns box. Notice that the Preview image adjusts to display your page setup settings while you work.

3. To enable the grid feature, select one of the following options.

   • Specify Line Grid Only Makes only the settings in the Lines area of the Document Grid tab available. You can choose the amount of space between lines (by selecting the number of lines you want to appear per page) and the pitch, or spacing, between lines.

   • Specify Line And Character Grid Makes all settings in both Character and Lines areas available. This setting enables you to choose both the number of characters per line and the number of lines per page. You can also choose the pitch of both characters and lines.

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     Text Snaps To Character Grid Disables the pitch settings, and lets you choose the number of characters per line and the lines per page.

4. Click the Apply To arrow, choose the option that specifies the portion of the document to which you want to apply the grid settings, and then click OK.

If you changed the text direction on the Document Grid tab for the whole document, Word automatically updates any existing content after you click OK. If you retained the original text direction for pages ahead of the insertion point and applied the This Point Forward setting, Word applies the grid effects for existing and new content after the insertion point. If necessary, Word begins a new page to separate content with different formats.

Displaying the Drawing Grid

You can display the drawing grid on your page to help you align objects and text, regardless of your language settings. To toggle the display of gridlines, click the View tab and then click Gridlines in the Show/Hide group .

If your setup supports East Asian languages, you can click the Drawing Grid button on the Document Grid tab in the Page Setup dialog box to access drawing grid settings. Figure 8–10 shows the Drawing Grid dialog box.

Figure 8–10: You can customize the display of the drawing grid by modifying settings in the Drawing Grid dialog box.

You can see the drawing grid only when you’re working in Print Layout view.

Adding and Controlling Line Numbers

If you’re working on a document that requires line numbering, such as a legal document or formal literature piece, line numbers can serve as useful references. Line numbers appear in the margin next to each line in a document. They enable quick references to specific lines in a document.

To add line numbers, you can select an option from Line Numbers on the Page Layout tab or choose settings from the Line Numbers dialog box, which can be accessed from the Layout tab in the Page Setup dialog box. Figure 8–11 shows both the Line Numbers options and the Line Numbers dialog box. Using these tools, you can choose whether to number the lines of an entire document continuously, restart numbering on each page, restart numbering in each section, or stop numbering for specific paragraphs. In addition, you can use the Page Setup dialog box to apply numbering to selected parts of a document in the same way you control margins and other page setup options.

Figure 8–11: The Line Numbers feature enables you to add and control line numbering for a section, selected text, or the entire document.

To use the Line Numbers command on the Page Layout tab to control line numbering, follow these steps.

1. Position your insertion point in the document or section in which you want to add line numbers.

2. On the Page Layout tab, click the Line Numbers button, and then choose an option.

To use the Line Numbers dialog box (accessible from the Layout tab in the Page Layout dialog box) to control line numbering, follow these steps.

1. Click anywhere in a document you want to number, or click in a section you want to number.

2. On the Page Layout tab, click Line Numbers, and then click Line Numbering Options, or click the Page Setup Dialog Box Launcher in the Page Setup group on the Page Layout tab.

3. In the Page Setup dialog box, click the Layout tab if necessary.

4. On the Layout tab, click Line Numbers. The Line Numbers dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 8–11.

5. Select the Add Line Numbering check box. In the Start At box, type the number with which you want numbering to begin.

6. In the From Text box, specify number placement by using the up or down arrows, by typing a number (by default, the From Text spacing is measured in inches), or accept Auto (the default setting).

7. In the Count By box, enter a value to specify which lines should be accompanied by numbers. For instance, if you want to show a number next to every other line, you would enter 2 in the Count By box. To display a number next to each line, retain the default Count By setting of 1 .

8. In the Numbering section, click Restart Each Page if you want each page to be individually numbered, click Restart Each Section if you want the numbering to begin again with each subsequent section, or click Continuous if you want to number each line consecutively throughout the document.

9. Click OK to close the Line Numbers dialog box and return to the Page Setup dialog box. Click OK to close the Page Setup dialog box.

Making Room for Line Numbers

If you’ve created heading styles that extend all the way to the left margin of your page, you might find them truncated when you add line numbering. You can fix this by displaying the Line Numbers dialog box and changing the From Text setting. By default, From Text is set to Auto, but by decreasing the amount of space between numbering and text, you can usually make room for both line numbering and headings.