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About this lesson

Learn how to set margins to standard or custom settings.

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2013, 2016, 2019/365.

Exercise files

Download the Word document used in the video tutorial and try the lesson yourself.

Margins .docx
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Quick reference

Page Layout: Margins

Learn how to set margins to standard or custom settings

When to use

Margins are a vital setting on EVERY document.  You don’t finish a document without verifying your margin settings.

Instructions

Three places to find Margin settings:

  1. Page Layout Ribbon
                  
  2. Print Preview screen (or Ctrl P)            
     
  3. Top Ruler and Left Ruler


Tips to know:

  • Gutters are only used if a large manuscript will be bound at a print shop.  You would verify with them before placing a measurement, usually .3, into the gutter setting box. Generally a gutter setting is not used, but it is nice to know what it is for.
                         
  • If you find that you change your margins every time you use Word, then set the default margins once and for all:
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  • 00:04 Hello, in this video I'm gonna talk to you about margins.
  • 00:08 Margins are one of the most important things about a Microsoft Word
  • 00:11 document, and
  • 00:12 you don't get finished with word document until you have checked your margins.
  • 00:16 So that is on the page layout ribbon.
  • 00:19 This is step number one, or place number one to find your margins.
  • 00:23 When you have click on the page layout ribbon over on the left hand side you'll
  • 00:26 see the margins button.
  • 00:27 Click that and it shows you the most commonly used margin settings.
  • 00:33 At the very bottom, there is a button that says custom margins.
  • 00:36 You can click in here, and you can simply hit your Tab key to move from one box to
  • 00:40 the next, and set them at whatever you want.
  • 00:43 Now for decades, the traditional margin settings have been one inch top,
  • 00:48 bottom, left, right.
  • 00:49 For some reason, Microsoft changed those settings to one and a quarter; left and
  • 00:52 right.
  • 00:53 But you can change them back, one last and final time, by setting them to one inch
  • 00:58 all the way around; coming down here to the bottom where it says set as default.
  • 01:02 When you click that,
  • 01:03 forevermore those margins will be changed to one inch all the way around.
  • 01:07 We're gonna go right back there because I want to show you one more thing
  • 01:10 in the custom margins.
  • 01:12 There's a little setting here called gutter.
  • 01:13 Now gutter is where a binding of a manuscript would
  • 01:18 occupy on a sheet of paper.
  • 01:20 It is the one third of an inch from the left edge of the paper.
  • 01:24 If you have a large manuscript that would be bound, you would call the printer and
  • 01:28 ask them, do I have to account for a gutter measurement?
  • 01:31 If yes, how much is a gutter, and they'll tell you typically it's point three of
  • 01:35 an inch, so you'll set your left margin at 1 inch, your gutter at point three, but
  • 01:40 in actuality, your margin will align at 1.3 inches on your paper.
  • 01:45 It's just good information to know what a gutter is.
  • 01:47 All right, I'll go ahead and click okay on here, and let's go to the second place to
  • 01:51 find find your margins, and that is on the print preview button.
  • 01:55 Print preview, which happens to be on the click access bar.
  • 01:59 You can also access this through Ctrl + P, which means print.
  • 02:03 Ctrl + P, it will take you to the same screen.
  • 02:07 So you can hit Print Preview or Ctrl + P.
  • 02:09 You'll get a nice little view of your document.
  • 02:12 And over here, on the left, near the bottom, there's your margins again.
  • 02:16 So when you click that, you see the same list.
  • 02:19 And you also have custom margins at the bottom, and
  • 02:22 you can change your settings here as well.
  • 02:24 All right, there's a third place to find your margins.
  • 02:27 So I'm going to hit this back arrow to get back to my document screen.
  • 02:32 And the third place is the rulers on the screen.
  • 02:35 So if you are not viewing your rulers,
  • 02:37 I need you to actually turn those on right now.
  • 02:40 Your rulers are on the view ribbon up on top, and
  • 02:43 put a check mark into the ruler roof square, and now you see your rulers.
  • 02:47 Now the gray represents the top margin and
  • 02:49 the white represents a typing area of your document.
  • 02:52 If you float your mouse on the line between the gray and the white,
  • 02:56 the tool tip says, top margin, and you can literally click and drag, and
  • 03:00 you can see the guideline go across the screen,
  • 03:02 and you can change your margin simply by using the ruler.
  • 03:06 Same applies above, the ruler above the sheet, this would be the grey
  • 03:11 area of the left margin, and the white is a typing area of your paper.
  • 03:16 Now, yes, we do have our indent marker up here, but
  • 03:18 if you float your mouse in there, you will see the left margin setting.
  • 03:23 There it is.
  • 03:24 The left margin tool tip come up.
  • 03:26 At that point, you can click and drag and move your left margin back and
  • 03:29 forth wherever you want it.
  • 03:31 So those are the three ways to find your margins.
  • 03:33 The page layout ribbon, the print preview screen or Ctrl + P, and the top and
  • 03:38 left ruler.

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