Mixing
Page Orientations in a Word Document
Tech Tips. Vol. 2004 No. 09
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You probably know how to print a Word document in either portrait
(vertical orientation) or landscape (horizontal orientation)
using the Properties button on the Print screen. But what do
you do when you have a document where neither orientation is
the best for all pages? This situation often arises when a document
mixes text with charts, tables, pictures or the like. The text
lays out fine in portrait. But to fit a big chart or table into
this orientation requires shrinking it to the point that it
becomes difficult to read. Print the document in landscape to
accommodate the tables, and your text looks silly. Don't despair!
Change the orientation within the document
You can easily alternate between orientations within a single
document. Simply position your cursor immediately before the
point where you wish to switch orientations. Then:
1. Go to File, and choose Page Setup.
2. Choose the Paper Size tab (Word 2000) or Margins (Word
2002/2003).
3. Select the orientation to which you want to switch.
4. On the "Apply to" pull down menu, select "This
point forward".
Word implements your request by inserting "next page"
section breaks wherever you switch orientation. To make the
section break visible on your screen, press the "paragraph"
symbol (the funny looking backward P) on your toolbar.
When you get to the point where you want to switch back,
just repeat the process, but choose the original orientation.
Untangling related problems with headers and footers
If it's OK with you that your headers and footers are reoriented
along with page contents, you don't need to read further.
However, especially if you are binding your document in a
standard portrait orientation, you may want the headers and
footers to be at the "bottom" of all pages. That
is, if you were to flip through all the pages while holding
the document in portrait orientation, each page would have
a header at the top and/or footer at the bottom, even if the
content of the page appears in landscape (sideways). (This
is most often an issue with items like page numbers.) If this
is the case, you'll have to futz around a bit, and the exact
solution depends on which version of Word you are using. For
a good discussion of this whole issue, go to:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/LandscapeSection.htm
'From this point forward'
"From this point forward" is an option on all Page
Setup options, so you can use this method to vary margins,
paper size, paper source, etc. within a document. You can
also apply column formats to an entire document, or just "from
this point forward", allowing you to mix pages with different
column structure.
Copyright 2003-2005 by Shulman Clark
Associates, LLC. All rights reserved.
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