How to create newspaper columns in Microsoft Word

Newspaper columns are a great way to format content in brochures, flyers, newsletters, etc. They are especially useful in a document with a lot of text, as the narrow columns are easier to read. Fortunately, it’s easy to create newspaper columns in a Microsoft Word document.

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to format a whole document or part of a document with newspaper columns. I will also point out some issues that you need to deal with.

I’m using Microsoft 365 Desktop on a Windows 10 64-bit system, but you can use older versions. Word Online doesn’t support columns. You can make changes to the document without breaking the columns, but you won’t see them, nor can you add or change them in the web version. However, you will see them noted as “column breaks” in the document. You can download the Microsoft Word demo file for this tutorial.

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How to enable newspaper columns for an entire document in Word

Newspaper columns allow content to flow from one column to the next. You read the contents of the first column and then continue to the beginning of the second column.

You see these columns everywhere, and depending on the document type, narrow columns are easier to read than text that stretches from the left to the right margin. Figure A shows a plain document with standard one-inch margins.

Figure A

To arrange the entire document in columns, click the Layout tab and then click the Columns drop-down list in the Page Setup group. Select the desired number of columns (Figure B). As you can see, you can choose up to three.

Figure B

in the Figure C, the content for the entire document now flows through two columns on each page. Page two doesn’t look balanced because the second column is so short. This is one of the problems I alluded to earlier, but the solution – a column break – is simple.

Figure C

How to insert a column break in Word

When you format content in columns, Word fills the columns completely until you run out of text. Consequently, the last column is often shorter than the others. Sometimes it doesn’t matter because you plan to insert a graphic or other content to fill the column.

If you want the last column to be a similar length to the others, you can add a column break. This is easy, but you may not get it right the first time. It is unrealistic to look for an exact match; even when the columns are full, both edges do not always match.

The bottom of the first page is a good example. The bottom rows are narrow, but the right column is slightly shorter. That’s because Word automatically moves a line to the next column to avoid a widow — the last line of a paragraph that stands alone at the top of a page.

When trying to decide where to insert the column break, you usually want the two columns to be roughly the same length. This means that content from the left column is moved to the right column. As a general guide, if the lengths are not exactly the same, the left column should be the longer column. That’s a rule you can break if you can balance the imbalance.

Now let’s add a column break to the first column on page two:

1. Position the cursor at the beginning of the fifth full paragraph. It starts with “Themes and styles also help your….”
2. If necessary, click the Layout tab.
3. In the Page Setup group, click the Breaks drop-down menu.
4. Choose Column Break (Figure D).

Figure D

The results may not be as close as you would like, as shown in Figure Ebut Word didn’t wrap a paragraph between the bottom of the left column and the top of the right column, which you should avoid doing if possible.

Figure E

If you want the bottom margins to be more even, in this case you need to split a paragraph. In this case, click the Undo button to reset both columns. Then do the following:

1. In the fourth full paragraph, position the cursor at the beginning of the fourth line. It starts with “each other. For example, you can add a….”
2. Add a column break as before.

Figure F shows the results. That’s as close as you can get. If you move up another row, the left column becomes longer than the right one.

Figure F

You can also create newspaper columns with some content, but before we do that, let’s look at how to remove newspaper columns.

How to remove newspaper columns in Word

You may not know it, but by default your content consists of a single column. Remember when you set the content to two columns and the dropdown list had a “One” option? This is the default. To remove columns, select them as follows:

1. Click the Layout tab.
2. In the Page Setup group, click the Columns drop-down menu.
3. Choose a.

Word removes the two columns and stretches the content between the left and right margins – it’s one column.

Now let’s turn a few paragraphs into multiple columns.

How to enable newspaper columns for part of a document in Word

Occasionally you will see a document with a section that spans more than one column in the middle of a document. To achieve this look, simply select the content you want to display as columns before selecting the number of columns. For example:

1. On page one, select paragraphs five through eleven.
2. Click the Layout tab.
3. In the Page Setup group, click the Columns drop-down menu and select Two.

Figure G shows the results. You may immediately notice that the results are out of whack. That’s because you have a wrapped border next to a flush border.

Figure G

It just looks weird, but there’s a quick fix. With the columns still selected, click the Home tab, and then click Justify in the Paragraph group. This stretches the contents of both columns between the left and right edges of each column, as shown in Figure H.

Figure H

stay tuned

Enabling columns in a Word document can add a little extra attention to a section or improve the readability of the entire document. Once you have the columns in place, there are more options for fine-tuning the look. In a future article we will review these options.