Layout naturally governs how the document is formatted in relation to margins, orientation, actual print page size, columns, breaks, indents, spacing, and the relationship of text to illustrations and tables.

MARGINS

This menu gives you options to set the page margins, including mirrored margins on facing pages where the margins near the gutter between the pages are the same, and the margins on the outside are the same. You can also customise the margins to your preference. This relates to margins throughout the entire document.

ORIENTATION

The Orientation menu allows you to apply either the Portrait or Landscape page display. Portrait means the page is presented in the default format of the height of the page being longer than the width. Landscape presents the width as longer than the height.

SIZE

Size refers to the actual page size that is printed, and will affect how much text fits on a page. There are the usual options of A4, A5 and so on, including photo sizes for printing photos onto special grade papers. Printing preferences are separate to this, so it is important that you ensure that your printer is set for the same size, and has the correct size page installed.

COLUMNS

You can set the number of columns with this menu, and they can be the same width or there are some options to apply smaller columns on the left or right side of the page. The column setting will be applied to all the pages in the section where you have placed the cursor. Only Section Breaks will stop the columns format from extending to other pages. Column settings will extend past any Page Breaks before or after the point where you apply the column setting. That means that if you wanted to just have columns applied to certain pages, you would need to put Section Breaks before and after the pages where you want the columns. The other pages would then not have columns unless you applied a different column format.

BREAKS

You will be already familiar with the Page Break and the Section Break, but this menu gives you more options to break text in other ways as well.

The Column Break – If you have two or more columns, then you can use this option to break the text anywhere down the column and send the following text to the next column on that page.

Section Break variations – The default Section Break acts in a similar way to a Page Break, in that the following text after the break will begin on the next page. The difference is that you can apply different formats to each section. In this menu, you have a choice to apply a section break within a page, and starting the next section on the same page. This is useful if you want to apply, for example, columns, to just one part of the page. This is called a Continuous Section Break. The next two options are the Even Page and Odd Page Section Breaks. This starts the new section on the next even page and odd page respectively.

Text Wrapping is the last option under the Breaks menu. This is used when you have an illustration on one side of the page, and need to take the text around the picture in what is called ‘wrapping’ the text around an object. This application is for web pages and does not apply to normal documents where you should use the picture’s own text wrapping options.

LINE NUMBERS

This is a menu that can be useful if you want to know the number of lines in a document or in each section of a document, or on individual pages. The options include Continuous, which will count the lines through the whole document; Restart Each Page – numbers the lines on each page separately; Restart Each Section – numbers the lines through each section separately; Suppress for Current Paragraph – Does not count the lines in the paragraph that you have your cursor.

HYPHENATION

Word’s default setting is not to hyphenate words that will not fit on the end of a line. Hyphenation allows you to do this, and is especially helpful when you are using justification to both the left and right margins. The ‘automatic’ setting will apply hyphenation to the entire document. You also have the option to switch to ‘manual’ hyphenation where you determine where to hyphenate words at the end of a line. The manual setting will take you through the document and offer you with options on where in a word to hyphenate.

PARAGRAPH SPACING

This section gives you the options to determine the indents and spacing of highlighted paragraphs in a document. The Left and Right Indent options provide up and down arrows to adjust the distance of the paragraph from the left and right margins. The Before and After spacing options govern the number of points of spacing you want to provide before and/or after a paragraph. The diagonal arrow at the bottom of the Paragraph Spacing section will give you the window for formatting all the spacing options for a paragraph. This is the same as the Paragraph window accessed under the Home tab.

ARRANGE

The Position, Wrap Text, Bring Forward, Send Backward, Group, and Rotate icons will all be dimmed and therefore cannot be accessed until you click on an object such as a picture or graph.

POSITION

When you have selected a picture or other object, you can click on this menu to position it on the page, incorporating how the text will be arranged in relation to the picture or object.

WRAP TEXT

Wrap Text basically is a menu for placing the text around, on or under the picture or object on the page. Waving your mouse arrow over the options will let you preview each option before deciding what you prefer.

BRING FORWARD/SEND BACKWARD

These two menus can only be accessed if you have two or more overlapping pictures or objects. As the menu names imply, you can place one or another picture or object in front or behind the other(s), and if you had say, three pictures, you could place one at the front, another in between, and the other at the back. To position the middle picture, you need to either bring it forward of the back picture or backward of the front picture.

SELECTION PANE

If you have several overlapping pictures, objects, or text boxes, the Selection Pane will appear on the right side of your document when you click on this option. It will show all the pictures, objects, and text boxes that overlap in your document. The Selection Pane allows you to select objects, change their order or visibility.

ALIGN

The Align menu provides options to align any object in relation to the page and other objects. You can also show Gridlines to align any object exactly to a point on the page.

GROUP

What if you want to keep two objects linked together so they will move together if you add text or change the layout of a page. The Group menu specifically links objects so they stay together. You can also ungroup any objects that are already linked. To group objects, you need to hold down the Shift key while selecting each object in turn. Once the objects are selected together, you can then access the Group command to link them in their respective positions in relation to each other.

ROTATE

The Rotate menu gives you options to rotate and flip any object. You can also do this directly with the mouse when you select the object. A circular rotate icon appears at the top of the selected object, allowing you to click on it and rotate to any degree you wish.