Tip #13: [Word] Word it like in the papers

what do these icons mean?

Today's tip will be the first ever tip for a Microsoft Office application, that is, Microsoft Word to be exact. I will mostly cover Office 2007 for Windows, however when possible, I will try to provide alternative steps for Office 2003 for Windows as well as Office 2008 for Mac. To eliminate the need of explaining which versions of Office a tip applies to, I will place icons of the relevant versions of Office applications. In the case of today's tip, it applies to Word in Office 2003 for Windows, Office 2007 for Windows and Office 2008 for Mac.

Today, I will show you how to position text in your Word documents like columns in newspapers. Before that, type your whole text or news article, since it's easier to select and format text, rather than typing with formatting.

Now, you are ready to transform your piece into a form fit for the local tabloid.

Using Office 2007:

1. On the Ribbon, select the Page Layout tab. (The Ribbon is the new toolbar across the top of the window)
2. Highlight the portion of your text which you want to be formatted as columns. This could exclude the headline or by-line, dependent on your preferences.
3. Choose Columns from the Ribbon, and pick either two or three columns. If you're feeling adventurous, you can choose More Columns to set as many columns as you like, as well as the individual widths of each column and the spacing between each.
4. Done!

Using Office 2008 for Mac:

1. Highlight the portion of your text which you want to be formatted as columns.
2. Click on Columns in the toolbar, and choose either 2, 3, or 4 columns as you wish (you can drag the mouse towards the right to add more than 4 columns). Or, you can also click on the menu bar Format > Columns to manually set the number of columns (is 10 maybe a bit too much?), column width and spacing.
3. Done!

Using Office 2003: 

1. Highlight the text you want to format into columns.
2. Click on the Columns icon in the Standard toolbar. Choose how many columns you want. If you want more than 4, drag the mouse towards the right.
3. If you can't seem to find the Columns icon, Format > Columns will show the advanced settings, where you can manually specify the number of columns, column width and spacing. Note that Office 2003 has the tendency to hide unpopular items in menus, if this is the case, click on the arrow pointing downwards in the menu to show all options.
4. Done!
   

To make your work easier to read and look more professional, consider setting the text alignment to Justify instead of the default Left align. The Justify icon is next to the Right align icon (in the Home tab in Office 2007), or you could just press Ctrl+J / Command+J.

Phew! Now pat yourself on the back for the Nobel prize winning article you just wrote.