The strait and narrow: using columns

Article contributed by Suzanne Barnhill and Dave Rado

When you open a new blank document in Word, you begin typing at the left side of the screen/page and continue typing to the right margin, where Word wraps your text back to the left so you can start again. All your lines of text are full width. But sometimes you need to divide your text into two or more columns.

Types of columns (tables, snaking columns, or ??)

Word gives you several different ways of lining up columns of text. Which one you use depends on what you want the text to do.

Tabs
If you want to enter text in one column, then text in another column on the same line, then more text in the first column (but on the next line), and so on, and if each of the entries will fit on one line, you may be able to align the columns using tabs. What you're doing here is creating a “tabbed table”:

Just be sure you set a specific tab stop for each column location; don't use Word's built-in tabs.

Tables
If you want to be able to enter some text in one column, then text in another column aligned with it, then text in the first column again, then the second (and possibly a third, fourth, or more), and if the text in each column must be able to wrap to the next line, then what you want is a table. A table allows you to align text vertically as well as horizontally. Whenever you need to “synch” the columns, you begin a new row.

Table columns are especially good for things like opera scores, where you need the text in the original score and the translation to line up with each other vertically.

Text Box columns
It is possible to get text to flow from one Text Box to another. To do this, click on the first Text Box, then click on the Link button on the Text Box toolbar which will now be visible, and click on the second textbox.

The idea of Text Box columns is that, unlike snaking columns (which are covered in detail below) they can be used to cater for articles which start on page 1 of a publication and continue in the middle of page 14. An example is to be found in the (appallingly formatted!) Newsletter Wizard which is supplied with Microsoft Office as standard.

However, Text Box columns don't work well and are best avoided. If you need the ability to flow text between non-consecutive pages, you will save yourself a lot of heartache by using a DTP package such as MS Publisher or Adobe PageMaker. But for most purposes, snaking columns work admirably.

Snaking columns
If you want the text to fill the first column and then snake into the next and fill it, continuing from Column A to Column B, then Column A on the next page, then you want newspaper-style columns, the subject of this article. (Note that this type of columns is not appropriate for text to be aligned vertically across the page; for that you need to use a table).

If you can make any sense of the above passage, 
you should have no trouble learning to work with columns!

Parallel columns
If you are coming to Word from WordPerfect, you may be used to having another option: parallel columns. Word doesn't offer this option, but you can achieve the same effect using a one-row table with the required number of columns. Be aware, though, that Word can be uncomfortable with very long single-row tables, which may lead to document corruption. Usually you will want to start a new row occasionally, anyway, to line up text in the two (or more) columns.

How many 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 use smaller type without creating an unreadable line length. (A general rule of thumb is to have no more than 1½ alphabets, or 40-60 characters, in a line.) For some documents, such as newsletters, the number of columns can vary, and columns may be of unequal widths. For other documents, such as a three- or four-panel brochure, it makes sense to have one column of text for each panel (though sometimes a column or other design element will spread over two or more panels). However many columns you decide to have, and whether they are of equal or unequal widths, you can easily create them in Word.

Getting started

Sometimes you will want just one portion of your document to have multiple columns. We'll discuss later how to accomplish that. For now, however, let's assume that your entire document will be multicolumn. For illustration purposes, let's say that it is a four-panel brochure on legal-sized paper in landscape orientation.

Planning your columns
Since the document will be folded, you will want to allow enough space between the columns to leave 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 of an inch, but that might be pushing the limits of your printer or a photocopier, so let's say you'll set 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 Columns  button on the Standard toolbar, drag to select four columns, and release. Your document will now be divided into four columns.

What you will see
If you are working in Page Layout (Print Layout) view and have text boundaries displayed, you will see that the text area has been divided into four rectangles (you will have to set Zoom to Page Width to see all four at once). If you don't have text boundaries displayed, you can select this 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 see will be in the ruler, but when you type you will find that your line now wraps at a shorter length. For this reason, make sure that you don't have very large paragraph indents. If one of your styles, for example, has a one-inch indent both left and right, there won't be much left of it in a column less than three inches wide!

Completing the setup
At this point, you will still have only 0.5" between columns. To change this to 0.6", you will need to visit the Columns dialog. You can access it from the Format menu or from the ruler. To get there from the ruler, mouse over the space between columns until your pointer changes to a double-headed horizontal arrow and the ScreenTip says “Left Margin,” “Right Margin,” or “Move Column”; then double-click.

Check the box for “Equal column width.” You'll notice that all the columns except Column 1 are now 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 you like 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 between columns. You can also put a line between columns if you like; this line is of a fixed weight (which cannot be changed), but you can have it in any color you like, so long as it's black.
  

Working with snaking columns

You can now begin entering text. You will start typing in the first column. When it is filled, text will flow into the second column. If you're editing text near the top or bottom of a column, the constant text reflow may be distracting (and Word may find it challenging to update the display accurately). In such cases, you may find it easier to work in Normal view, where you can type in a single long column. This is all very well if you're typing continuous text, such as a newsletter article, but this is supposed to be a brochure, so you probably have several distinct portions. You may want to work in the second or third or fourth column before you finish the first. So how do you get there? Insert a column break with Ctrl+Shift+Enter. This will take you to the top of the next column. Note that column breaks, like page breaks, inherit their formatting from the following paragraph; this can sometimes be a problem. Also, sometimes you will eventually fill the first column so full that there is no need and indeed no room for a column break; in that case you may have to delete it. A column break in a filled column can be difficult to see in Page Layout (Print Layout) view, however, so you may need to switch to Normal view to select and delete it.
  

Multicolumn sections in single-column documents

Sometimes you will want to divide just a portion of your document into more than one column. This is useful for long, narrow lists that would otherwise waste a lot of paper. Since columns are a section property, you will need to insert Section Breaks before and after the text you want to divide into multiple columns. Because you want the multicolumn 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 or all of the text you want to format into multiple columns, plus at least one 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 drag the desired number of columns from the Columns toolbar button palette. Word will take care of inserting the Continuous Section Breaks for you.

Whenever you have a multicolumn section in the middle of a page, Word will automatically balance the columns for you. If you want the columns to break differently (that is, unevenly), you can either insert a column break (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 Next Page 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 you insert a Continuous section break in addition to whatever other break you have used.
  

Some snaking column gotchas

There are a few limitations and danger areas you should be aware of when working with columns.

Columns within columns
When you have divided your document or a portion of it into multiple columns, you can do almost 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 multiple columns within a column. Not even if you use a text box, since columns aren't permitted in text boxes, either. If you need to have multiple columns within a column, you will have to use either a table or tabs to align the columnar material.

Footnotes
Another limitation of columns is that they don't play well with footnotes. Footnotes in a multicolumn document will be wrapped to the column width. Moreover, if the footnote occurs in a multicolumn section in a single-column document, that section will insist on being on a page by itself even though you have used Continuous Section Breaks before and after it.

The workaround for this is so clumsy that you may well decide it is not worth it, but if you must combine footnotes with columns and insist on full-width footnotes (and especially if the multicolumn section is part of a primarily single-column document), here's how to solve the problem:

Headers and footers
This is not a problem with columns specifically, but whenever you have a short section in the middle of a page (which often happens when you use columns for just a portion of a document), you may develop problems with page numbering or other header/ footer-related aspects. That's because headers and footers are a 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 access its header; because it's not at the bottom of the page, you can't get to its footer. If you suspect that header/footer problems are originating in these inaccessible locations, you have little choice but to remove one or both of the Continuous Section Breaks, deal with the problems, and then restore the breaks by selecting the text and reapplying the column formatting. Alternatively, using the information in the section above, you could force the multicolumn section to a page of its own (temporarily) by inserting a footnote! Fix the header or footer, then delete the footnote.

Headings spanning columns
If you want a heading to span all of your columns, you need only leave it in the single-column section before your multicolumn section. 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 the columns button, and selecting 1 column; Word will then create the necessary Section Breaks for you.

But what if you want a heading to span just some of the columns? In our four-panel brochure example, suppose you want text to span two of the four columns. Once you have four columns, you can't redivide just part of the page into two or three columns. You will therefore need to put your heading text into a text box or frame and position it as needed (the problems of positioning text boxes and frames could provide material 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 the Borders toolbar button (select No Border). Remove the border from a text box by selecting No Line on the Colors and Lines tab of the Format | Text Box dialog.

If you use a frame, it doesn't seem to matter whether you set wrapping to None or Around. For a 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 a column 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).

You may want to wait till you're fairly far along in entering text before you insert a text box or frame because the effect of doing this is to reduce the text boundaries to the amount of text you have entered (instead of showing the four rectangles you saw when you first created the columns). This can be rather disconcerting.

Summary

Avoid Text Box columns. Use snaking columns when you need text to flow from one column to another, and table or tab columns when you don't. Table columns are especially good for things like opera librettos, where you need the text in the original score and the translation to line up with each other vertically.