Using columns
The idea of Text Box columns is that, unlike snaking columns (which arecovered in detail below) they can be used to cater for articles which start onpage 1 of a publication and continue in the middle of page 14. An example is tobe found in the (appallingly formatted!) Newsletter Wizard which is suppliedwith Microsoft Office as standard.
However, Text Box columns don't work well and are best avoided. If youneed the ability to flow text between non-consecutive pages, you will saveyourself a lot of heartache by using a DTP package such as MS Publisher or AdobePageMaker. But for most purposes, snaking columns work admirably.
If you want the text to fill the first column and then snake into the next and fill it, continuingfrom Column A to Column B, then Column A on the next page, then you want newspaper-stylecolumns, the subject of this article. (Note that this type of columns is not appropriate for text to bealigned vertically across the page; for that you need to use a table).
If you are coming to Word from WordPerfect, you may be used tohaving another option: parallel columns. Word doesn't offer thisoption, but you can achieve the same effect using aone-row table with the required number of columns. Be aware, though,that Word can beuncomfortable with very long single-row tables, which may lead todocument corruption.Usually you will want to start a new row occasionally, anyway, to lineup text in the two (ormore) columns.
The most common reason for using newspaper-style columns is to create (as the name suggests)something like a newspaper. Dividing the page width into narrower lines allows you to usesmaller type without creating an unreadable line length. (A general rule of thumb is to have nomore than 1½ alphabets, or 40-60 characters, in a line.) For some documents, such asnewsletters, the number of columns can vary, and columns may be of unequal widths. For otherdocuments, such as a three- or four-panel brochure, it makes sense to have one column of text foreach panel (though sometimes a column or other design element will spread over two or morepanels). However many columns you decide to have, and whether they are of equal or unequalwidths, you can easily create them in Word.
Sometimes you will want just one portion of your document to havemultiple columns. We'lldiscuss later how to accomplish that. For now, however, let's assumethat your entire documentwill be multicolumn. For illustration purposes, let's say that it is afour-panel brochure on legal-sized paper in landscape orientation.
Since the document will be folded, you will want to allow enough space between the columns toleave a reasonable margin on each panel. This margin should be the same as the outside margin,meaning that the space between columns will need to be double the outside margin. By default,Word puts half an inch between columns, so you could make your outside margins a quarter ofan inch, but that might be pushing the limits of your printer or a photocopier, so let's say you'llset 0.3" left and right margins and plan to have 0.6" between columns.
After setting your document margins in File | Page Setup,click on the Columnsbutton on the Standard toolbar, drag to selectfour columns, and release. Your document will now be divided into fourcolumns.
If you are working in Page Layout (Print Layout) view and have text boundaries displayed, youwill see that the text area has been divided into four rectangles (you will have to set Zoom toPage Width to see all four at once). If you don't have text boundaries displayed, you can selectthis option by checking the appropriate box on the “View” tab of Tools |Options. You will also see a change in the horizontal ruler.
If you are working in Normal view, the only change you will seewill be in the ruler, but when you type you will find that your linenow wraps at a shorter length. For this reason, make sure that youdon't have very large paragraph indents. If one of your styles, forexample, has a one-inch indent both left and right, there won't be muchleft of it in a column less than three inches wide!
At this point, you will still have only 0.5" between columns. To changethis to0.6", you willneed to visit the Columns dialog. You can access it from the Formatmenu or from the ruler. To get there from the ruler, mouse over thespace between columns until your pointer changes to a double-headedhorizontal arrow and the ScreenTip says “Left Margin,” “Right Margin,” or “MoveColumn”; then double-click.
Check the box for “Equal columnwidth.” You'll notice that all the columns except Column 1 arenow dimmed. Use the spin button to change the Spacing 0.5" to 0.6" (note that Word adjusts the Width automatically).
You've done all you need to do for now, but take a look around if youlike before you OK out of the dialog. Notice that, if you don't choose “Equal column width,”you can change each column individually, along with the space betweencolumns. You can also put a line between columns if you like; this lineis of a fixed weight (which cannot bechanged), but you can have it in any color you like, so long as it'sblack.
You can now begin entering text. You will start typing in the firstcolumn. When it is filled, textwill flow into the second column. If you're editing text near the topor bottom of a column, the constant text reflow may be distracting (andWord may find it challenging to update the display accurately). In suchcases, you may find it easier to work in Normal view, where you cantype in a single long column.This is all very well if you're typing continuous text, such as anewsletter article, but this is supposed to be a brochure, so youprobably have several distinct portions. You may want to work in thesecond or third or fourth column before you finish the first. So how doyou get there? Insert a column break withCtrl+Shift+Enter. This will take you to the top of the nextcolumn.Note that column breaks, like page breaks, inherit their formattingfrom the following paragraph; this can sometimes be a problem. Also,sometimes you will eventually fill the first column so full that thereis no need and indeed no room for a column break; in that case you mayhave to delete it. A column break in a filled column can be difficultto see in Page Layout (Print Layout) view, however, so you may need toswitch to Normal view to select and delete it.
Sometimes you will want to divide just a portion of your documentinto more than one column. This is useful for long, narrow lists thatwould otherwise waste a lot of paper. Since columns are a sectionproperty, you will need to insert Section Breaks before and after thetext you want to divide into multiple columns. Because you want themulticolumn section to be on the same page with the single-column text,these will need to be Continuous Section Breaks.
Although you can insert these breaks from the Insert | Break dialog, there is an easier way. If you wait till you have typed some orall of the text you want to format into multiple columns, plus at leastone paragraph (it can be empty) of the following single-column text,then all you have to do is select the text to be multicolumn and dragthe desired number of columns from the Columns toolbar button palette.Word will take care of inserting the Continuous Section Breaks for you.
Wheneveryou have a multicolumn section in the middle of a page, Word willautomatically balance the columns for you. If you want the columns tobreak differently (that is, unevenly), you can either insert a columnbreak (Ctrl+Shift+Enter) or control text flow using the “Keep with next” and/or “Keep lines together” paragraph properties.
If a multicolumn section ends a page (because you have inserted a NextPage Section Break or a page break or formatted the next paragraph as “Page break before” or used “Keep with next”to force text to a new page), columns will not be balanced unless youinsert a Continuous section break in addition to whatever other breakyou have used.
There are a few limitations and danger areas you should be aware of when working with columns.
When you have divided your document or a portion of it into multiplecolumns, you can doalmost everything you can do in a single-column document or section.You can use all the normal paragraph formatting (including borders),you can insert tables, floating or inline graphics, text boxes,equations, and so on. The only thing you can't do is have multiplecolumns within a column. Not even if you use a text box, since columnsaren't permitted in text boxes, either. If you need to have multiplecolumns within a column, you will have to use either a table or tabs toalign the columnar material.
Another limitation of columns is that they don't play wellwith footnotes. Footnotes in a multicolumn document will be wrapped tothe column width. Moreover, if the footnote occurs in a multicolumnsection in a single-column document, that section will insist on beingon a page by itself even though you have used Continuous Section Breaksbefore and after it.
The workaround for this is so clumsy that you may well decideit is not worth it, but if you must combine footnotes with columns andinsist on full-width footnotes (and especially if the multicolumnsection is part of a primarily single-column document), here's how tosolve the problem:
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Insert the footnote in a single-column section as close as possible to the desired location of the actual footnote reference mark (so that the footnote will be on the same page and in the correct order). |
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Where you want the footnote reference mark, insert a cross-reference to the number of the footnote you just inserted: Insert | Reference | Cross-reference | Reference type: Footnote; Insert reference to: Footnote number (formatted). |
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Select the actual footnote reference mark (in the single-column text) and format it as Hidden (Ctrl+Shift+H). |
This is not a problem with columns specifically, but whenever you havea short section in the middle of a page (which often happens when youuse columns for just a portion of a document), you may develop problemswith page numbering or otherheader/ footer-related aspects. That's because headers and footers area section property. Your multicolumn section has a header and footer,but because it isn't at the top of the page, there is no way to accessits header; because it's not at the bottom of the page, you can't getto its footer. If you suspect that header/footer problems areoriginating in these inaccessible locations, you have little choice butto remove one or both of the Continuous Section Breaks, deal with theproblems, and then restore the breaks by selecting the text andreapplying the column formatting.Alternatively, using the information in the section above, you couldforce the multicolumn section to a page of its own (temporarily) byinserting a footnote! Fix the header or footer, then delete thefootnote.
If you want a heading to span all of your columns, you need only leave it in the single-column section before your multicolumnsection. If there isn't a single-column section there already, you'll need to create one– this is easily done by selecting the heading paragraph, clicking on thecolumns button, and selecting 1 column; Word will then create the necessarySection Breaks for you.
But what if you want a heading to span just some of the columns? In ourfour-panel brochure example, suppose you want text to span two of thefour columns. Once you have four columns, you can't redivide just partof the page into two or three columns. You will therefore need to putyour heading text into a text box or frame and position it as needed(the problems of positioning text boxes and frames could providematerial for another article, so I won't go into that here).
Whether you use a frame or a text box, it will have a border by default. Remove the border from a frame using the Format | Borders and Shading dialog (select None) or theBorders toolbar button (select No Border). Remove the border from atext box by selecting No Line on the Colors and Lines tab of the Format | Text Box dialog.
If you use a frame, itdoesn't seem to matter whether you set wrapping to None or Around. Fora text box, the default wrapping style is None, which will not work(nor will Through). Any other wrapping style seems to be satisfactory.And if the text box extends over two or more whole columns (not just acolumn or two and a fraction), it won't matter which “Wrap to” setting you choose (and of course if you've chosen “Top & bottom” as the wrapping style, you don't even have this option).
Youmay want to wait till you're fairly far along in entering text beforeyou insert a text box or frame because the effect of doing this is toreduce the text boundaries to the amount of text you have entered(instead of showing the four rectangles you saw when you first createdthe columns). This can be rather disconcerting.
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