# Using "Columns" in Word 2003



## PCPatrick (Apr 12, 2006)

Hello, everyone. I'm new to the forum and having troubles using the "Columns" feature in Word. I've created a table using "Columns" with 4 columns of information on the first half of my Word document. For the last half of my document which is on the same page as my 4-column table, I need to switch back to one column so I can write a paragraph. However, when I switch back from 4 to 1 column, all of my info. in my 4-column table screws up. I've tried several options on the "Columns" feature and everytime my table screws up. Can anyone help? Thanks!


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## ChuckE (Aug 30, 2004)

There are at least several ways of making this work.
1) Word has the *Table>Draw Table* command, where you can use a "line draw" cursor to draw out exactly what lines (columns, rows, whichever) you want in your table; or
2) Of your existing 4 column table, you could select the portion of the table that you now want it to be just a single column, and merge the cells; or
3) You could place a blank line between two separate tables (one the 4 column, the other a single column) and use that. Later you can remove the blank line to get the two different tables to touch each other.

I am sure there are other ways as well.


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## PCPatrick (Apr 12, 2006)

I appreciate your input, ChuckE. I have to build a table using the "Columns" feature, so using "Table" is unfortunately not an option. I'm guessing that merging cells can only be used with the "Table" feature and not "Columns" in Word. And I tried #3, and unless I'm doing something wrong, I'm getting the same results--whenever I try to switch from 4 columns to 1, all of my info. in the 4 columns shifts all around and gets screw up. Anyone with any other suggestions? I'd really appreciate it.


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## cwwozniak (Nov 29, 2005)

I believe you need to insert a Continuous Section Break (Insert -> Break ... menu) at every point you wish to change the number of columns. Make sure your cursor is in the desired section and then change the number of columns as needed. Make sure you have it apply to the selected section and not selected text.

Oh, and welcome to TSG.


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## ChuckE (Aug 30, 2004)

Sorry PCPatrick, I totally misunderstood. cwwozniak is correct. You need to use the *Insert>Break>Section break type, Continuous* before changing the number of columns at that point.

I have attached an example here, all on one page.
I started with one column, 
changed to 4 columns, 
changed to one column, 
then to 3 columns, 
back to one column, 
then to 2 columns, 
then finally back to one column again.


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## The Villan (Feb 20, 2006)

And the beauty of having section breaks, is that you can print one section in portrait and the next section in lanscape, as well as having different headers and footers etc.


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## PCPatrick (Apr 12, 2006)

Guys,
I appreciate your input. I did what you instructed and when I insert the break a line runs across the page. Everything seems fine but when I print preview the document, it appears on 2 separate pages instead of one. Is there a way I can make it print like it appears on my screen (i.e., on one page)? Thanks!


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## ChuckE (Aug 30, 2004)

Print Layout View (one of the View buttons down in the bottom left corner of the Word window) is the representation of what it will print like. If it shows as 2 pages in Print Layout (or Print Preview), then 2 pages it will be.

The view you are seeing where is appears to be one page, is actually (probably) the "Normal" view, and not a page at all. It is a scroll. If you added twice, 3x, heck even 10x more data, it still will show as one long scroll - not a page.

I don't know whose cruel joke it was to call the scroll look "Normal" because, IMHO, it is not "Normal" at all. 

If, in Print Layout, you see your data is fitting on two pages - maybe just a little bit on that 2nd page, and you want to make it fit on one page, then you have to tweak it. Perhaps reduce the header, footer, left and right margins. Maybe reduce the font size or line spacing.

If you only have a bit of over-run on to the next page, and are willing to let Word figure out what to do to reduce your page count, then on the Print Preview page, there is a nifty button called [Shrink to Fit]

Here is what Word help says about what gets done using that [Shrink to Fit] button:
_*Note:* In order to shrink the document, Microsoft Word decreases the font size of each font used in the document. You can undo a Shrink to Fit operation by clicking *Undo Shrink to Fit* on the *Edit* menu. However, after you save the document and close it, there is no quick way to restore the original font size._


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## PCPatrick (Apr 12, 2006)

ChuckE,
I've attached my Word file. As you can see it is 6 columns of info. switching to 1 column. And although I followed instructions, in print preview, the two sets of columns would print on 2 different pages although they both should fit on one page.


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## cwwozniak (Nov 29, 2005)

For some reason, the column break after "1995" in last column of the top half seemed to throw the remainder on to the next page. I removed that column break and everything after the last paragraph. The attached file seems to preview OK. I don't have any B5 paper to test the printing


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## ChuckE (Aug 30, 2004)

PCPatrick, what is your desired output page size? What I see here is "B5-JIS (182mm x 257mm) (or 7.16" x 10.12"). Is that what you really want? That is not the common B5-ISO size. It is the Japanese Metric B5, whereas the ISO (European) B5 would be 176 x 250mm)

What I am guessing is you are trying to print on a physically smaller page than what your Word page is setup for. Thus, forcing your printer to print to a second page.

I have other suggestions too. But I will wait until you tell me what you really want the page size to be, before I give you my suggestions.


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## ChuckE (Aug 30, 2004)

I am going to guess some things here, and give you some examples (or fixes as I propose). In all these examples I changed the footnotes for you. The asterisks (*, **, and ***) do not show lined up, or easily seen, the way you had it. I set up a right tab and a paragraph indent to get them to present better.

I will also guess that the reason you set up such LARGE left and right margins was to keep the footnote text somewhat lined up under the 6 column text immediately above it. Well, first, using 6 columns to enter your data is really, really clumsy! That is because it takes a lot of your manipulation of the data (the right number of lines, etc.) to get things to properly align. Instead you really should use either a table or tabbed data.

With a table you can easily enter data into the correct column or row. You can even move or insert columns or rows of data without much fuss. If you don't want the table lines to print (perhaps that is why you went with the 6 column page to begin with) then just shut those table lines off. When using a table, it is also very easy to change the width of your table columns. A table is really the easiest way to go. One more thing about a Word table... you can enter in a formula to calculate - just like in Excel, your Totals or other cells, if you want. Although, I am not giving you examples here.

If, for some reason, you really do not want to use a table, then I am also giving you some tabbed text examples. Using tabs is not too much harder to set up, than a table, as long as you have all your lines selected as you alter or set your tab points. That way, you can easily see how adjusting things affects all of the lines at one time. Many people try to adjust tabs on a per line basis. Doing that, it gets confusing to try and make one line like the next, like the next, like the next, etc. So, if you just select all the lines (of your tabbed data), and set or change your tabs, you will see the results immediately for all those selected lines. That really makes it much easier to visualize. You can also still use a formula to calculate the Totals (and other things) by entering a formula in a field, but no examples of that are given here.

I am also going to guess that you somehow got your page size set to B5-JIS and did not realize it. So in most of these examples I have converted to the common US (8.5x11") paper size.

Last, if prior assumptions are somewhat correct, then I see no reason for the LARGE left and right margins, so I have made some changes on a couple of these examples also.

All examples have indicative names. I hope this helps.


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## PCPatrick (Apr 12, 2006)

cwwozniak, Thanks for fixing my document. I think I now have it figured out. I guess inserting the last column break made my document print on 2 separate pages. Thank you for the assistance.

ChuckE, Thanks for all of your help. I'm writing a book on Georgia football and my publisher wants my manuscript to fit on 7 x 10 paper with a 5 x 8 text block-the reason for my odd document dimensions. My publisher's "submission guidelines" state that I cannot create tables using the "Tables" feature because, according to my publisher, it does "...not look professional." Go figure. They suggest using "Columns" to create tables. Thanks for your help and the document examples you gave...


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## The Villan (Feb 20, 2006)

PCP
The probable reason for columns, is that they can bring it in as a story and let it fow into their columns. Tables are cells and the text wouldn't flow and that would give them problems. Maybe not explained very well, but I can understand why they need it like that.


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## ChuckE (Aug 30, 2004)

PCPatrick said:


> My publisher's "submission guidelines" state that I cannot create tables using the "Tables" feature because, according to my publisher, it does "...not look professional." Go figure. They suggest using "Columns" to create tables.


The appearance of a table in a document can change the supposed appearance of a document from casual reading to business-like. Which it sounds like what your publisher is trying to avoid. But, it sounds like they just do not want the appearance of the lines of the table. That is why I suggested shutting off the lines to the table.

Because your publisher is specifying the paper size and the dimensions of the text block (otherwise known as the live area) it sounds like your publisher is going to photo-set the pages for publishing. That is very "old method." For 20 of the past 25 years I was directly involved with the publishing of tremendous amounts of professional documentation for the largest printer/copier manufacturer in the world, and that was the way we used to do it (many years ago), in the very early days of individual contributers to photo-set publishing. That is not the way it is generally done now. Now-a-days, large publishers can handle electronic files - not caring about the physical dimensions of the hard-copy medium. And even if they still want to photo-set your hard-copy, there is little reason to specify an odd-ball page size. Those photo-set houses can setup for whatever page dimensions you use (as long as it is not too small, where they do not have a certain amount of border for their photo setup holding device). All that should be really necessary is for you to maintain your 5x8" live area, with sufficient areas of white all around (the borders) for their clamping rig. If you look at my prior "22_History II tabbed (US size).doc" example, you would see that it does contain exactly a 5" live area (purely by coincidence) since I just duplicated your 1.75" (L&R) and 1.5" (T&B) margins. By the way, the live area of your document is somewhat less than your specification of 5x8", isn't it?

If your publisher wants the hard-copy from you, without the lines of a table, and you do not print with any lines of a table, I can guarantee you that they have no idea whether you used a table or not. And it doesn't matter. There are many methods to get the text on the page to appear exactly the same way. From the hard-copy you can not tell which method was used. So, it benefits you to use whatever method that makes it easy for you. The column formatting on the page, and then you having to "eyeball" the horizontal lines of text, to get them to line up, is definitely not among the easiest of ways to get what you want.

Using the tabs, in two of my examples, satisfies both your publishers desire (at least your interpretation of them) and your desire.

Now, about the paper size. In Word you can actually specify a 7x10" page, not using the oddball B5-JIS size. In doing so, you can then print out on that, or any larger size of paper. Word will still maintain what you set as the page dimensions. When you specified a very-real paper-size, a "smart" printer will then halt printing and specify that you insert that same kind of paper. One of my printers is such a device. If I go to print your document my print will automatically switch over to the input bin that is holding that specific size of paper, or inform me to load up with that size of paper. But, I am just rambling, I was just wondering why you set up for that size paper. ... Also, if your publisher wants you to print on 7x10" paper, why would you then specify a slightly larger page? You used B5-JIS which is 7.16" x 10.12"

I have attached, here, another alteration of my earlier doc, this time called "22_History II tabbed (US size)b.doc" which mentions that specification in the header (which can easily be masked off by a photo-set process). I also altered the numerical data in the columns, to now better use decimal tabs, to get those numbers to line up on the units digit. It just looks better, and is more expected for such data.


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## ChuckE (Aug 30, 2004)

The Villan said:


> The probable reason for columns, is that they can bring it in as a story and let it flow into their columns. Tables are cells and the text wouldn't flow and that would give them problems.


While that is true, that is not the effect that PCPatrick is going for here. If you refer back to his document you will see that the area in question is a columnized data set, that must maintain the relative horizontal position to keep the data integrity. The flowing of data through the columns would disrupt that integrity.


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## The Villan (Feb 20, 2006)

yep you may have a point


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## PCPatrick (Apr 12, 2006)

What function in Word did you use to align the 3 lines of text correctly with the astericks at the bottom? Thank you.


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## ChuckE (Aug 30, 2004)

PCPatrick said:


> What function in Word did you use to align the 3 lines of text correctly with the asterisks at the bottom? Thank you.


You did not mention who you are addressing your question to, but I do have that sort of text on the bottom of my examples, I will assume that you meant me.
What did I use to align the text? ... a right-align tab at 0.25" to get the asterisks to line up and then the paragraph has a left indent at 0.33" so that all text (including successive lines) after the short tab, will align at that point. Just turn on the Ruler (command *View>Ruler*) to see it.


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## PCPatrick (Apr 12, 2006)

Thanks.


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