To autofit multiple columns / multiple rows, select them, and double click a boundary between any two column / row headings in the selection. To autofit the whole sheet, press Ctrl + A or click the Select All button and then, depending on your needs, double click a border of any column or row heading, or both.
About this tutorial: Video duration: 3:29 Microsoft Word Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts Video Series! All steps have been tested in Word 2007, 2010 and 2016. The videos are designed to show you simple ways to save time and increase productivity.
Some tips are ones I’ve been using for years, while others are new features now available in the latest version of Microsoft Word. This is video #18 in the series, and includes step-by-step instructions on how to distribute rows and columns evenly in a table in a snap. The videos are a companion for my book, Microsoft Word 2007 2010 2016 Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts, which is available on Incoming search terms:. Categories: / / by October 28, 2017.
I’ll admit it — I’m not a big fan of the Columns feature in Microsoft Word. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, per se.
It works fine (until ). But in a legal office environment, I usually format blocks of information with because they’re a bit easier to control. But I’ve seen lots of legal professionals use columns to format things like service lists in Certificates of Service. Hey, to each her his own.
So if you want to use this feature in your Microsoft Word documents, here’s what you need to know: Inserting Columns: The Basic Primer Everything starts from the Format menu in 2002 and 2003: In Word 2007 and 2010, this feature has been moved to the Page Layout Ribbon under Page Setup (the rest of the steps are the same in all versions): Once you click on that, you’re taken to a dialog box that allows you to set up your columns the way you want them. The default is one column — just a regular document. You can use one of the presets (the two-column layout is useful for the service list application I mentioned above).
Or you can customize it within an inch of its life. How wide do you want each one to be?
How much space between columns 1 and 2, or 2 and 3, or? How about a line between them (like a newsletter would have)? (If you don’t want your columns to all be the same width, be sure to uncheck the “Equal column width” checkbox at the bottom of the dialog box. That will open up more choices in formatting.) Navigating Between Columns This, to me, is the tricky part, and part of the reason I usually opt for tables rather than columns.
With tables, moving between the cells is easy — just use the Tab key. With columns, however, there are a few tricks. Say you’re typing in the first column of your document and you want to end that column there and start typing in the second column. To do that, you have to insert a column break.
You can do that in one of two ways:. Press SHIFT-CNTRL-ENTER simultaneously; or. Go to the Insert menu, choose Break, and choose Column Break In the Ribbon versions of Word, that’s found on the Page Layout tab: Personally, I’d go with Option 1 (assuming I remember the key combination in the heat of the moment). Once you’ve inserted a column break, your cursor is in the next column, ready for you to type.
When you insert a column break in your last column (the one farthest to the right), the cursor will go to the first column on the next page. Viewing Column Boundaries To me, it’s tough to work with columns (or tables, for that matter) if I can’t really see them.
To turn on the column boundaries so you can see your columns laid out on the page, click Tools, Options, then go to the View tab and check the box next to Text Boundaries: In the Ribbon-based versions of Word (2007 and up), go to the File tab and click Options, then click Advanced and check the box next to “show text boundaries”: When Columns Are Only Part of Your Document But what if you want to insert a two- or three-column block of text into the middle of a one-column, normal document? If you go back to the Format Columns dialog box, you’ll notice a drop-down at the bottom of the box: If you choose “This Point Forward,” that will allow you to insert columns at the point your cursor is sitting in. Once you’ve inserted your columnar data, then go back to the Format Columns dialog box and choose the One Column format (being careful to once again choose “This Point Forward” in that bottom drop-down), and your document will return to the single-column format without disturbing the multi-column insertion you’ve just worked so hard on. Elsewhere, we get into (which, as I mentioned earlier, I personally prefer), and you can decide from there which feature helps you in each situation. How do you see yourself using Columns in your documents? Hi, I’m not able to get the single spacing to truly be single spacing, I select “single spacing” but there is still 1.5 (it looks like) spacing between the lines in my column two.
Also, part of my text disappears and it’s a guessing game trying to figure out where he end of the line is located since I can’t see the text so that I try to advance it out to where it can be seen. How do I address this? Finally when you say “Viewing Column Boundaries To me, it’s tough to work with columns (or tables, for that matter) if I can’t really see them. To turn on the column boundaries so you can see your columns laid out on the page, click Tools, Options, then go to the View tab and check the box next to Text Boundaries:” This is great but where is the “tools” button you’re referring to? I’m using word 2007 and I’ve searched under all tabs and I cannot find it. @Terry: (1) The “single spacing” problem could be any number of things. I would suggest going to the Paragraph Format dialog box (click the “launcher” arrow in the lower right-hand corner of the Paragraph section of the Home tab) and checking not only the line spacing, but also the “between paragraph” spacing: (2) Sorry — I failed to update the instructions for the ribbon-based versions of Word for that instruction!
To get to what used to be Tools Options, click the Office Button (in the upper left-hand corner of your Word window) and go to Advanced. Legal Office Guru uses a technology known as 'cookies' to provide a better experience as you browse this site.
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