Adjusting the Page Setup

The Page Setup dialog box allows you to adjust a wide variety of options that affect the general appearance of the pages throughout your entire document or in one or more document sections. These options include the document margins, the paper size, the vertical alignment of text on the page, and line numbering.

NOTE

---

If you're creating a Web-page document, keep in mind that none of the settings you make in the Page Setup dialog box will affect the way the page appears in a browser.

To set any of these options, follow these steps:

1. Select the portion of your document that you want to modify by doing one of the following:

• If you want to modify the entire document, place the insertion point anywhere within the document.
• If you want to modify the document from a given position to the end of the document, place the insertion point at that position.
• If you want to modify a portion of the document, select that portion.
• If you have divided the document into sections, place the insertion point in the section you want to modify, or select several sections.

2. Choose Page Setup from the File menu to open the Page Setup dialog box, which has four tabs: Margins, Paper Size, Paper Source, and Layout.
3. In the Apply To list (which appears on all tabs), choose the part of the document you want to modify:



In general, you can modify either the entire document or one or more document sections. The specific choices that appear in the Apply To list depend on the part of your document that you have selected and whether you have divided your document into sections. Note that if you choose the This Point Forward option (which appears if you didn't select text), Word will insert a section break at the position of the insertion point, and if you choose the Selected Text option (which appears if you selected text), Word will insert a section break at the beginning and at the end of the selected text. Choosing one of these options is a convenient way to divide your document into sections without having to manually insert section breaks.

4. If you want to use the options you select as the default settings, click the Default button (which appears on all tabs) and respond Yes. Word will assign the current settings on each of the four tabs to the document and to the document template so that the settings will apply to any new documents you create based on this template.
5. Select the page setup options you want. The options displayed on each of the four tabs are discussed in the following four sections. Notice that the Preview area shows the effect of the options that are currently set on all the tabs.

Adjusting the Margins

To set the page margins, do the following:

1. Click the Margins tab of the Page Setup dialog box. (See Figure 11-3.)
2. If you're printing on both sides of the paper and want the margins on facing pages (called a spread by book designers) to be symmetrical, select the Mirror Margins option.



3. If you want to print two half-sized document pages on each piece of paper, select the 2 Pages Per Sheet option.



Figure 11-3. The Margins tab of the Page Setup dialog box.

The pages will be printed one above the other if you choose the Portrait orientation, or side by side if you choose Landscape orientation. (Orientation is discussed in the next section.) This option is useful if you're planning to cut the sheets in half, perhaps to make a booklet.

4. Set the page margins in the Top, Bottom, Left, and Right boxes; the corresponding margins are shown in Figure 11-4.



Figure 11-4. The page margins that the Top, Bottom, Left, and Right boxes of the Page Setup dialog box set when you deselect the Mirror Margins and 2 Pages Per Sheet options.

If you selected Mirror Margins, the boxes will be labeled Top, Bottom, Inside, and Outside; the corresponding margins for a two-page spread are shown in Figure 11-5.



Figure 11-5. The page margins that the Top, Bottom, Inside, and Outside boxes of the Page Setup dialog box set when you select the Mirror Margins option.

TIP

---

If you're printing on both sides of the paper, you can also make the headers or footers symmetrical by selecting the Different Odd And Even option on the Layout tab of the Page Setup dialog box and formatting your headers and footers appropriately.