Word 2016
- Columns Back to Tutorial
Introduction
Sometimes the information you include in your document is best displayed in columns.
Not only can columns help improve readability, but some types of documents—like
newspaper articles, newsletters, and flyers—are o en written in column format. Word
also allows you to adjust your columns by adding column breaks.
Optional: Download our practice document.
Watch the video below to learn more about columns in Word.
Word 2016: Columns
To add columns to a document:
1 Select the text you want to format.
Word 2016 - Columns Back to Tutorial
2 Select the Layout tab, then click the Columns command. A drop-down
menu will appear.
3 Select the number of columns you want to create.
4 The text will format into columns.
Word 2016 - Columns Back to Tutorial
Your column choices aren't limited to the drop-down menu that appears.
Select More Columns at the bottom of the menu to access the Columns
dialog box. Click the arrows next to Number of columns: to adjust the
number of columns.
If you want to adjust the spacing and alignment of columns, click and drag
the indent markers on the Ruler until the columns appear the way you
want.
Word 2016 - Columns Back to Tutorial
To remove columns:
To remove column formatting, place the insertion point anywhere in the columns, then
click the Columns command on the Layout tab. Select One from the drop-down menu
that appears.
Adding column breaks
Once you've created columns, the text will automatically flow from one column to the
next. Sometimes, though, you may want to control exactly where each column begins.
You can do this by creating a column break.
To add a column break:
In our example below, we'll add a column break that will move text to the beginning of
Word 2016 - Columns Back to Tutorial
the next column.
1 Place the insertion point at the beginning of the text you want to move.
2 Select the Layout tab, then click the Breaks command. A drop-down menu
will appear.
3 Select Column from the menu.
4 The text will move to the beginning of the column. In our example, it moved
to the beginning of the next column.
Word 2016 - Columns Back to Tutorial
To learn more about adding breaks to your document, visit our lesson on
Breaks.
To remove column breaks:
1 By default, breaks are hidden. If you want to show the breaks in your
document, click the Show/Hide command on the Home tab.
2 Place the insertion point to the le of the break you want to delete.
3 Press the delete key to remove the break.
Word 2016 - Columns Back to Tutorial
Challenge!
1 Open our practice document.
2 Scroll to page 3.
3 Select all of the text in the bulleted list below Community Reminders and
format it as two columns.
4 Place your cursor at the beginning of the fourth bullet in front of the word
Visitors.
5 Insert a column break.
6 When you're finished, your page should look something like this:
Word 2016 - Columns Back to Tutorial
Continue
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Word 2016 - Columns Back to Tutorial
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