Creating designs in word

When you create a new document in Microsoft Word, it looks decent right off the bat. But sometimes you want to make your page look much better than the default. 

Use Microsoft Word’s page layout design tools to make easy-to-read documents that reflect positively on you and your business—even if you’re new to Word.

You can make page layout designs in Microsoft Word from scratch. Or, skip the grunt work by using Microsoft Word templates. 

Envato Elements and GraphicRiver are both great sources of print templates for Word. Each template is made by professional designers. Elements makes a compelling offer. Download unlimited templates, fonts, photos, and other creative assets for one fixed subscription price.

But, if you only need the occasional template for MS Word and prefer to pay for each single use, then look to GraphicRiver.

How to Make Awesome Page Layout Designs in Microsoft Word (Video)

If you create or modify documents in Word, you may want to change the standard Microsoft Word layout. There are a number of changes you can make.

Watch this quick screencast to find out what you need to know about Word page layout options:

To learn more about changing page layouts in Microsoft Word, study the complete written tutorial below:

Why Learn About Page Layouts In Word?

Page layout settings in Word determine how your document looks when you print it out. It includes the page orientation, margins, and columns, for example.

It’s important to pay attention to the page layout of your document for several reasons:

• It ensures consistency. This gives your readers a good experience while consuming your document.
• A good page layout makes your document more readable. When your document is aesthetically pleasing and has a consistent look, your audience is more likely to read, comprehend, and remember your content.
• A well-designed document reflects well on you. It reinforces your credibility and authority in your field.

Microsoft Word has robust page settings that allow you to control your page layout design. Everything is designed to be as simple and intuitive as possible. Yet, doing page layout in Word can be daunting if you’re new to the software.

This article breaks things down for you. So, you can follow along, step-by-step, and take control of how your document looks.

Types of Documents You Can Create in MS Word

You can create all kinds of printed documents in Microsoft Word.

Make business documents like:

• resumes
• cover letters
• business letters
• reports
• proposals
• invoices
• certificates
• forms

MS Word is also very handy for creating marketing documents. Create everything from:

• flyers
• brochures
• advertising inserts
• and more

For education or training use Word to prepare:

• handouts
• workbooks
• manuals
• certificates

You can also produce postcards, invitations, newsletters, and signs. If you can print it, then you can whip it up in Word.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to use Microsoft Word’s page layout tools to produce the print materials you need.

How to Work With Templates to Quickly Change Your Design

The quickest way to change or apply a page layout is by using a print template for Word. For the examples below, we’ll be using the SEO Proposal template from Envato Elements. 

When looking for a print template for Word, it’s a good idea to choose one that uses paragraph and character styles. The styles feature will allow you to quickly format text even in a long document.

Below are some roundups of Microsoft Word templates you can choose from:

Now that you’ve chosen a template with a good page layout in Word, it’s time to learn how to use it. 

1. Download the Template

Download the template of your choice to your computer’s hard drive. Unzip the file, then copy the template. This way, you’ve got the original template file intact, if you want to revert to it.

2. Customize the Template With Your Own Content

Replace the text with your own information.

If you want to change the text formatting, change the settings for fonts and paragraphs.

To add your own image, click on an image placeholder. The Format Picture dialog box opens. Under Fill, select Picture or texture fill. Under Picture source, click Insert….

Find and select the image you want to use. Click Insert.

Now, the image is inserted.

To replace an existing logo on the template, click on the logo, then click on the Picture Format tab.

Click the Change Picture button on the ribbon. Find and select the logo file, then click Insert.

If necessary, click-and-drag one of the handles of the logo to resize it.

Next, I’d like to change the color of the rectangle on the cover page. To do that, select the shape, then click the Shape Format tab.

The Shape Format ribbon is displayed. Click on the drop-down arrow beside the Shape Fill button. Select from the color options shown or click More Fill Colors… to specify the color you want to apply.

This is what the customized proposal cover looks like now:

Repeat these steps to customize the other pages of the template.

As you can see, when you start with a template for Word most of the design and page formatting decisions are already made for you by the template creator.

But, if you prefer to start your document from scratch, follow the steps below to change the default page format settings.

Type or paste your text into the document. Apply text and paragraph formatting to modify settings for fonts, spacing, alignment, and more. Then, you can move on to the page layout.

3. How to Set the Microsoft Word Page Orientation as Portrait or Landscape

To set the Microsoft Word page orientation of your document, go to File > Page Setup….

The Page Setup dialog opens. Click on the button for either Word portrait or landscape layout orientation.

4. How to Set the Print Size of the Paper

From the Microsoft Word Page Setup dialog, you can also change the paper size when you print the document. Click on the Paper Size field to show the different paper size choices available.

Select the size you wish to use. You can also click Manage Custom Sizes… to specify your own size.

5. How to Split Your Text into Multiple Columns

Sometimes you may want to divide your text into columns. This can make the document more readable and adds variety to an otherwise monotonous layout. Columns are popular in magazines, newsletters, and similar types of materials.

Arrange the Entire Document into Columns 

To change the MS Word layout to columns, follow these steps:

1. Go to Layout > Columns.

The Columns dialog box opens. 

2. Select one of the Presets or manually set the:

• number of columns
• width and spacing
• apply to the whole document or from that point forward

3. When you’re happy with the settings, click OK.

Apply Columns to a Part of the Document

You can also apply columns to only a specific part of the document.

1. Select the text you wish to display in columns.

2. Go to Layout > Columns.

3. In the Columns dialog box, choose the settings you want to apply.

Notice that you now have the option to apply the column settings to Selected text. Click OK.

Now, only the selected text has been broken into two columns. The rest remains in one column.

6. How to Add Page and Section Breaks

Sections in Microsoft Word enable you to apply different layouts to different parts of your document. This is useful for making creative layouts, especially to long documents.

Insert a Page Break in Word

A page break separates text, so that anything after the break is moved to a succeeding page. It’s useful for dividing up a document into chapters and sections.

To insert a page break, place the cursor at the point where you want the break to be, then go to Insert > Break > Page Break.

In our sample document, the title page is now on a separate page from the rest of the text.

Insert a Section Break in Word

If you wish to apply varying formatting on different parts of the document, then you’ll want to break it into sections. This includes varying the columns, headers and footers, pagination, borders, and other settings.

To create a section break, place the cursor where you would like the section break to be. Go to Insert > Break > Section Break.

Select the type of section break you want to insert:

• Section Break (Next Page) creates a section break and moves the next section into a new page.
• Section Break (Continuous) keeps the two sections on the same page while allowing you to apply different formatting settings for each.
• Section Break (Odd Page) starts a new section on the next odd-numbered page.
• Section Break (Even Page) starts a new section on the next even-numbered page.

Take Control of Your Page Layouts with Microsoft Word

Use Microsoft Word’s page layout tools to give your documents a consistent, readable, and professional look. You don’t have to be an expert in Word to take better control of your document’s page layouts. With Microsoft Word’s page layout tools, you can make any document look the way you want it to.

You don’t have to start from scratch, either. You can have professional designers make most of the design and layout decisions for you by using print templates for MS Word. If you want unlimited downloads of templates as well as photos, fonts, icons, and other creative assets—all for one small, fixed fee—then Envato Elements is the best source for you.

For one-off Word templates and other desktop publishing tools, look to GraphicRiver. Here, you can access everything you need to create impressive print materials on a pay-per-use basis.

And when you use a template, the skills you learned in this post will help you customize and adapt it to your needs.

Editorial Note: Video added by Alexis (Lexi) Rodrigo.

Microsoft Word can do more than bang out simple letters and plain text. Delve into its Design and Layout tools, and you’d be surprised at how much it can help even novices produce attractive layouts for brochures, flyers, and newsletters. 

The more complex your layout and contents, the more you will need a design professional’s help—and maybe a high-end desktop publishing package, too. But before you do that, give Word’s built-in design talents a try.

Work with a template…

The easiest way to create more elaborate documents in Word is to use a template. Word has hundreds of them, from newsletters and flyers to business cards and faxes. To get started, go to File > New in the left navigation bar, which brings up a selection of popular templates (including the default blank page) topped by the search window.

Templates come pre-populated with images and dummy text, both of which are easily replaceable with your own (you can either click on a block of text and start typing, or paste in text or images you’ve previously copied to the clipboard). But even if you want to change design elements (such as fonts, for example), you might start with a template just to pick up preset margins and other basic layout parameters that would be annoying to create from scratch.

…or work with themes

If you prefer to start from scratch on a blank sheet, you can set up page dimensions, margins, columns, and other basic defaults in the Page Layout ribbon. You might also want to click the Design tab and choose a theme—a collection of fonts for popular layout options such as titles, subheads, and plain text. You could, of course, specify these individually as you work, but the fonts in a theme are chosen and sized according to generally accepted design precepts so they’ll look good together.

The Design tab also provides collections of color palettes and effects you can apply to add character to your layout. You might choose one color from a palette for a border and another for subheads, for example. (Once you select a theme, the colors in the palette will show up when you click the Font Color icon on the Home ribbon.) You can experiment with different looks by hovering over a theme (or, for that matter, any other design element in the ribbon), which is then applied to the appropriate area in your document. To make the change permanent, you click on the desired element.

Another option in the Design tab lets you apply a background color, pattern, or even an image to your document. Click on Page Color to see these options—they’re a pleasant alternative to the usual plain white.

Play with typography

Nothing is more boring than a page full of plain text, but sometimes you don’t have a lot of images to relieve the monotony. Tools to make your layouts more interesting include drop caps, subheads, and pullquotes—and it’s relatively easy to apply them in Word.

Adding drop caps—large initial capital letters—to a paragraph is child’s play: In the Insert ribbon, simply click on the Add a Drop Cap icon in the Text tools. You can choose between having the enlarged initial capital letter embedded in the text or in the left margin. Drop Cap options let you change the font, the height (in number of lines of normal text) of the character, and its distance from the text.

A pullquote is a quotation from the text that you copy into a box and use as a design element, much the way you’d use an image. It’s a way of highlighting an important nugget from the story, while at the same time adding visual interest to a page. In Word, put the cursor in the general area you’d like to place a text box, and click the Text Box icon in the Insert ribbon. This brings up a menu of several pre-formatted text box options. When you choose one, it will appear—with canned text—in your document. You can then replace the dummy text and adjust options such as font size and color.

To the right of the box, a small icon lets you adjust how the box fits into the layout. You might, for example, opt to have text flow around the box, or you could choose to have it above and below (but not around) the box. You can also opt to fix the position of the box on the page or tie it to the copy around it, so that if the copy moves, so does the box.

The Word Art icon on the Insert ribbon lets you use colorful display fonts with flourishes and effects you won’t find in standard fonts. You can use these characters to liven up a page, but avoid going overboard: A little of this sort of eye candy goes a long way.

Adding images, charts, and other content

By now you may have noticed that Text tools take up only a small area on the Insert ribbon, since there are so many other items you can add to spruce up the look and impact of a document.

Images are an obvious choice. Current versions of Word include tools that let you perform basic image editing from within the app. As with the text box, you start by placing the cursor in the area where you want the image to appear. Then click on Pictures (or Online Pictures if you want to look for images in Office’s huge collection of clip art), and click on the image you want to insert.

A couple of things will happen: The image will appear in your document—if not exactly where you intended, close enough so that you can easily drag it to where you want it. You can also make fine adjustments with arrow keys when the image is in moving mode.

At the same time, the Picture Tools ribbon will appear, filled with options for everything from cropping to artistic effects and frames. As with text boxes, you also get an icon next to the image that gives you choices for how it fits into the text.

Word also has special tools for inserting shapes (for simple diagrams), SmartArt (for more complicated business diagrams), and even Excel-style charts that you create on the fly.

The newest graphic element in the Insert ribbon is the Screenshot icon: Click it and you’ll be able to insert any currently live screenshot on your Windows desktop—a useful tool for people who want to illustrate computer processes.

You can add captions to graphic elements using the Insert Caption feature in the References ribbon, but there’s a catch: Because the feature was intended for academic publications, it automatically assigns numbers to them (in sequence)—and it’s all but impossible to get rid of them in print unless you want to go into Word’s field codes. If you want your images to have captions that aren’t numbered, you have to either create a text box below (or beside) the image just for the caption or put them both in a box to tie them together, another complicated procedure.

Making adjustments

Many of Word’s tools can be applied on the fly, so if you don’t like the way something looks you can easily change it. For example, you can flow text into columns simply by selecting it all and clicking on the number of columns you want in the Page Layout tab.

If you’ve added several elements to a document and they aren’t behaving the way you want, you might find help in the Arrange section of the Page Layout tab. Here you can find features for aligning objects and bringing them in front of or behind other objects.

Finishing steps

Most commercial printers who work with small businesses will accept documents in PDF format, and Word lets you save documents as PDFs. There are, however, different types of PDFs, so make sure to check with a printer beforehand—ask if they can work with the PDF format generated by the Word version you are using.

Word can’t do everything a high-end desktop publishing program can do. For example, if you need crop marks on pages, Microsoft advises you to export your Word document to Publisher, the Office desktop publishing app. Desktop publishing packages can usually export to all major PDF types. High-end packages also let you create multiple master pages to serve as templates for complicated documents. While Word makes it easy to create pages with headers and footers, it’s not so easy to mix them up with other page styles in the same project.

But for people who are simply looking to enhance the appearance of everyday documents—flyers, brochures, booklets and the like—Word has much to offer. The learning curve isn’t too steep, and if it’s already on your desktop, the price is right.