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Margins

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About this lesson

Learn how to set margins to standard or custom settings.

Lesson versions

Multiple versions of this lesson are available, choose the appropriate version for you:

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. ​

Hints & tips

  • 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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  • 00:05 The margins on a document are traditionally the left, top, right, and
  • 00:09 bottom one inch around the entire paper.
  • 00:13 And in the earlier lesson of headers and footers,
  • 00:15 we learned how we could type inside the top and
  • 00:17 the bottom margins that is where you'll be able to type into the left and right.
  • 00:21 But you can certainly adjust them.
  • 00:23 There's three ways to do that.
  • 00:24 First of all, we have the Layout ribbon.
  • 00:26 So right up on top, we have Layout and
  • 00:28 we have around the left hand side we have an option that, of course, says margins.
  • 00:32 When you click that, you have an entire list you can choose from and
  • 00:34 click on any of those and change your margins.
  • 00:36 Or right over here at the very bottom, it says custom margins.
  • 00:40 When you come in here, notice it takes us to this dialog box called
  • 00:43 Page Setup where we can change our margin settings.
  • 00:46 Now Microsoft, over the years, has changed the industry standard to 1 and
  • 00:50 a quarter but traditionally it was only a 1 inch margin.
  • 00:54 I prefer that, I prefer the traditional margin settings, so I typed the 1111.
  • 00:59 But I don't wanna ever make that change again.
  • 01:00 So down here at the bottom, I can hit, Save As Default, and Yes,
  • 01:05 all my new documents will always be 1 inch all the way around.
  • 01:10 Okay, there's a second place to find that.
  • 01:11 The Print Preview screen or press Ctrl+P.
  • 01:14 I'll press Ctrl+P on my keyboard and it takes me and
  • 01:17 shows me an image of my document.
  • 01:19 And over on the left hand side way at the bottom, it says, normal margins.
  • 01:23 I really like this cuz I can take a look at the way it's going to lay out when
  • 01:26 it's printed.
  • 01:27 Plus if I need to make a change,
  • 01:28 I don't have to go back to Page Layout to make the change.
  • 01:31 I've got the tools right here on my Print Preview screen,
  • 01:34 the same as the ones I had on my print layout.
  • 01:37 All right, I will go back here.
  • 01:38 Now, there's another way, you can actually look at the rulers, the top and
  • 01:42 the left-hand rulers.
  • 01:43 This gray area on the left is my left margin.
  • 01:46 Over here, the gray area on the right is my right margin.
  • 01:49 Over here, the top gray area is my top margin, and of course,
  • 01:52 I have another one at the bottom.
  • 01:54 Now notice, I can float my mouse and it tells me I'm about to adjust
  • 01:58 my top margin, I can literally click and drag that line and adjust it on the ruler.
  • 02:02 Same thing over here, on my top ruler.
  • 02:05 When I float my mouse, it says Right Margin.
  • 02:07 I can click and drag and adjust my right margin.
  • 02:09 There's another trick about the ruler.
  • 02:11 If I float my mouse inside the white area of the ruler and double-click,
  • 02:15 click, click, up opens my Page Setup.
  • 02:18 You saw that earlier when I went to my custom margins.
  • 02:21 So in here, notice I adjusted my top margin to 1.19.
  • 02:24 I can correct that.
  • 02:26 And I adjusted my right margin to 1.27, I can correct that as well.
  • 02:30 Take a look at this setting though, it says gutter and
  • 02:33 gutter position on the left or we have a drop down at the top.
  • 02:37 So what in the world is a gutter?
  • 02:39 Well, let me show you.
  • 02:40 I'll go ahead and hit OK.
  • 02:41 I've got this image on the screen.
  • 02:43 Any time you have binding affecting a document, you can set the gutter
  • 02:49 to basically make room for the binding plus give you your 1 inch of margin.
  • 02:53 So the gutter is basically where the binding is going to
  • 02:56 eat up some of your paper but you still wanna fold 1 inch beside the gutter.
  • 02:59 So this is called the comb binding or wire binding.
  • 03:02 So if your document will be bound, you can of course go in,
  • 03:06 I'm gonna double click right here and go in.
  • 03:09 And I can tell it that I need a quarter inch gutter and
  • 03:12 then everything will be fine with my document and I'll still get a full 1 inch.
  • 03:16 Notice my ruler is set for 1 and a quarter inch but it's only on that side.
  • 03:20 So all right, have fun with those margins and remember,
  • 03:23 it's very common to be in there and changing the settings.

Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.

Symbols
03m:48s
Paper Orientation and Size
03m:45s
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