Word two columns and one column

Is this article up to date?

I am trying (and failing) to create a Microsoft Word document that has two columns on the first page, and one column on every succeeding page.

The idea is that the first page has a list of people in the organization down the left-hand edge of the page in a narrow column, and the wider right-hand column has the text (letter or report text).

I can sort-of make this work if I insert a section break at the page break, but the section break keeps moving down the document, and I want to explicitly change sections at the second page (so that each succeeding page is just normal text in one column).

I thought I could put a section break at the end of the page, but that doesn’t seem to be an option.

Failing that, if someone has any other suggestions as to how to achieve what I need, that’d be great!

If it makes a difference, I’m using MS Word for Mac 2015.

/en/word2013/breaks/content/

Introduction

Sometimes the information you include in your document is best displayed in columns. Not only can columns help improve readability, but some types of documents—like newspaper articles, newsletters, and flyers—are often written in column format. Word also allows you to adjust your columns by adding column breaks.

Optional: Download our practice document.

To add columns to a document:

1. Select the text you want to format.

   Selecting text to format

2. Select the Page Layout tab, then click the Columns command. A drop-down menu will appear.
3. Select the number of columns you want to create.

   Formatting text into columns

4. The text will format into columns.

   The formatted text

To remove column formatting, place the insertion point anywhere in the columns, then click the Columns command on the Page Layout tab. Select One from the drop-down menu that appears.

Removing column formatting

Your column choices aren’t limited to the drop-down menu that appears. Select More Columns… at the bottom of the menu to access the Columns dialog box. Click the arrows next to the Number of columns: to adjust the number of columns.

The Columns dialog box

If you want to adjust the spacing and alignment of columns, click, hold, and drag the indent markers on the Ruler until the columns appear the way you want.

Adjusting the column

Adding column breaks

Once you’ve created columns, the text will automatically flow from one column to the next. Sometimes, though, you may want to control exactly where each column begins. You can do this by creating a column break.

To add a column break:

In our example below, we’ll add a column break that will move text to the beginning of the next column.

1. Place the insertion point at the beginning of the text you want to move.

   Placing the insertion point

2. Select the Page Layout tab, then click the Breaks command. A drop-down menu will appear.
3. Select Column from the menu.

   Adding a column break

4. The text will move to the beginning of the column. In our example, it moved to the beginning of the next column.

   After adding a column break

To learn more about adding breaks to your document, visit our lesson on Breaks.

Challenge!

1. Open an existing Word document. If you want, you can use our practice document.
2. Select the text you want to format into columns. If you’re using the example, select the two bulleted lists in the New Online Resident Portal section.
3. Format the selected text into two columns.
4. Add a column break. If you’re using the example, add a column break before Communicate with Lime Grove staff.

/en/word2013/headers-footers-and-page-numbers/content/

If you are working on a text heavy document, or would like to make better use of your page by splitting it in half adding a column is your answer.

Columns split your page into a newspaper style layout, the text will run down two or three narrow columns which can be useful if you are trying to split your content across one page, create a flyer, brochure, report, step by step instructions or even a terms and conditions document.

When inserting a column, Microsoft will spit your page vertically with the text running down the first column before starting at the top of the second and so on.

In this post we will show you how to add one or multiple columns to your Microsoft Word document.

Adding a Column to your Word Document

1. Open Microsoft Word
2. Click the Insert Tab

1. Under the Insert Tab, Click Columns
2. Select the number of Columns you would like to insert

Microsoft Word’s Column Options Explained

One, Two, Three will insert that number of even vertical columns into your document

Left, Right will insert a column smaller on the described side and larger on the other. For example, a Left column will create two columns with the left side covering around a quarter of your document leaving the right side covering the remaining space.

More Columns will give you the option to insert more than three columns and customise.

Looking for an easier way to Merge your Microsoft Word Documents together?

These days we are all about finding the most efficient way of doing things, from saving our eyes with dark mode so we can work without straining them to collaborating with your team on a Microsoft Word document without having to worry about merging two files together at the end.

It’s a simple ask, that Microsoft hasn’t quite solved for just yet.
Microsoft has a feature called ‘merge’ that shows you the differences between the two documents and allows you to manually pull across the accepted changes from each. Its a start, but it’s still fairly manual and can be time-consuming.

With that in mind, the smart guys over at Simul Docs – a very fancy new tool that makes collaborating in Word easy added a simple, merge feature to save you time.

Simul Docs will automatically pick up when two people are simultaneously working on the same document, create two new, separate versions for you, then flag with the document owner that there are now two versions that require their review before they can be merged.

See Simul won’t automatically merge the two files for you without asking, because it also knows you may not want to accept all of the changes in both. So it gives you the chance to run your eyes over both files, take as much or as little time as you like and then when you are happy – press merge. At the click of a button, you can merge the two documents back into one and continue collaborating with ease.

When you merge two documents in Simul, rest assured that all of the tracked changes, comments and fancy formatting will remain the same. Nothing will be lost during the process, unless of course you decided during your review process that you didn’t want to take that comment or change over in the merge. Its completely up to you!

Simul also offers some other pretty fancy features to help you collaborate such as version control, tracked changes, edits and comments, easy sharing and accessibility.

Because so many of us do find ourselves working offline, it’s important to Simul Docs that you can access and collaborate from anywhere, even where there isn’t a strong internet connection.

Simul is accessible from anywhere, if you are offline that’s ok, Simul will allow you to continue working as normal, with all of their nifty features and then the moment your device finds a connection Simul will update a live file and share it with the team.

With the ability to work offline, comes the risk of two or more team members working on the document at once without us knowing. Which is why the merge function exists, so you don’t have to worry about who is working when, or from where. Simul has you covered.

With Simul in your team, you can collaborate without concern. Knowing that Simul will have you covered, making merging, collaboration and working offline as easy as it should be.

You may find yourself needing to separate your document, or at least part of it, into parallel columns, the good thing is Word makes it easy to do so. When separating the text into columns, it flows from one column and continues to the other one next to it. You can also separate just a part of your text. This is useful for writing a newsletter, a scientific paper, or just separating your content and making it easier to read.

So, in this guide, you will learn how to create columns in Word using different methods.

How to make two columns in Microsoft Word

With this method, you will be able to split your Word document into two separate columns.

1. First, we have to open the document we want to edit. It can be a blank document but it needs to have some text first to separate it into columns.
2. Select the text that you want to separate into columns.
   
   
3. Click on the Layout tab (Formerly Page Layout for Word 2007 and 2010)
   
   
4. Click the Columns button on the Page Setup section
   
   
5. This opens up a list that lets you select the number of columns you want to separate your text. We will choose two columns.
   
   
6. Once you have selected two columns, Word will separate your text into two columns.
   
   
7. The text you write in will go from the left column to the right.

How to make three columns or more in Microsoft Word

Sometimes you are in the need of separating your text into more than two columns. The amazing thing about Word is that it lets you separate it into three or more columns. Here are the steps for doing so:

1. Open up the document you want to edit
2. Select the text you want to separate into columns
   
   
3. Click on the Layout tab (Formerly Page Layout for Word 2007 and 2010)
   
   
4. Click the Columns button on the Page Setup section
   
5. If you need to separate the text into three columns, click on Three, and the text will be separated into 3 columns.
   
   
6. If you need to have more than 3 columns, click on More columns
   
7. There you will be able to manually enter the number of columns you want. 
   
   Pro tip: In this section, you can also specify the Width and Spacing of the columns
8. You can select if you want to apply the columns to the selected text only, the whole document, or from a specific point forward.
   
   

Now you may be asking, “how do I control where the column ends?”. Well, Microsoft Word has a function that lets you do that, and it’s called Break. Let’s break it down

How to make a column break on Microsoft Word

If you are using columns and want the text you have to start atop the next column, you can use a column break. Here are the steps

1. Click on the beginning of the text you want to start the next column
   
   
2. Click the Layout tab (formerly known as Page Layout for Word 2007 and Word 2010)
   
   
3. In the Page Setup section, you will find the Break button. This will show you the different options for Page breaks and section breaks. In the Page break portion, click on Column
   
   
4. Now the column will start at the point you have selected
   
   

And that’s it! You are now a pro at creating columns in Microsoft Word. You can repeat these steps anytime you need them.

If you are still craving more tips on how to use Word or other Office apps, why don’t you subscribe to our newsletter by entering your email below? You can also check the SoftwareKeep Blog to help you boost your productivity!

Showing the content in full width of a document may quickly bore the reader. Sometimes, it is a good idea to create your document like newspaper layout with multiple columns. This is one of the easy ways to show attractive content similar to newsletters and brochures. It helps to add different types of content in a single page and highlight the actionable part. In this article, we will explain how to insert columns in Word documents and arrange text using columns. If you have a long content, then make sure to add table of contents for easy accessibility of headings.

Using Default Templates with Columns

Though creating a custom column layout is easier, it takes
time to setup the layout. However, Microsoft offers predefined column templates
that you can choose for your use.

• Launch your Word application. On the backstage view, you can see the predefined layouts to select under “Featured” section. If you do not see backstage view, navigate to “File > New” menu and look under “Featured” section. You can also search for the column layouts using the search box.

• Select the template and Word will download it from the Microsoft Office library.
• As you can see, there are lot of beautiful columned layouts for resumes, brochures and events that you can choose from and modify.

Creating
Columns in Your Documents 

If you do not want to use the template and start from the
scratch, you can create your column layout. It is possible to set a whole text,
a selected area or a section into columns. Let us take an example document
having two text paragraph like below:

In order to break the two paragraphs into two columns, simply
go to “Layout” menu. Click on “Columns” dropdown and select “Two”. Word will
automatically split the two paragraphs into two columns as shown below.

Related: How to create eBook in Word?

Inserting
Manual Column Break

In the above example, you do not have to highlight the
section when you have two paragraphs. Just place the cursor in the section to
split into two columns based on the previous section break. If this does not
work for you or you want to manually decide the column break point, then follow
the below instructions.

• First click on the search box on the top menu and type
  “show”. Select “Show All” option to show all formatting markups on your
  document.

• Position your cursor where you want to create a column
  break.
• Switch to the “Layout” tab and click on the “Breaks”
  list box.
• Select “Columns” option to set a column break in the
  selected cursor position.

• You can see the “Column Break” markup on your document
  and Word will move the content below the column break to next page.  
• Now go to “Layout > Columns” and select “Two” to
  create two columns at the column break point.

You will notice that Word continue the content from the first
column to next. The column break will make your document like a newsletter or
newspaper layout that continues from one column to next. However, you can also
manually type different content after creating columns.

Adjusting
the Column Width

By default, Word will adjust the columns to have equal width.
However, you can change the width of each column as per your need. In order to
adjust the column width, go to “Layout > Columns > More Columns” option.

You can customize the following options:

• Presets – choose one of the existing preset layout options.
• Number of columns – change the number of columns.
• Line between – enable the checkbox to insert a line between the columns.
• Equal column width – disable this checkbox and setup custom width and spacing for your columns.
• Apply to – apply the changes to whole document or only to this section.

After customizing your column layout, you can continue to
type in a columned layout.

Related: How to change embedded file name in Office?

Using
Markers in the Ruler

When you are working with columns, Word will split the
document into sections. You can view the width of the sections on the marker
available in top ruler.

Simply, double click on the ruler marker to open “Columns”
pop-up box to customize the options as explained above. Alternatively, you can
also set the width by dragging the markers in the ruler using mouse.

Undoing
Column Layout

If
you do not need the distribution into columns anymore, you can simply undo this
setting. Afterwards your text will appear in the original structure.

• In order to do so, open the “”Layout > Columns” list box and select the entry “One”.
• The formatting markups will remain intact. You can remove the column break by placing the cursor in front of the formatting symbol and remove it using the delete key.

Creating
Mixed Layout

You
can also easily create columns and full width layout sections in a single
document.

• In order to exit the column layout and go to full width section,
  position your cursor at the end of the last column.
• Go to “Breaks > Continuous” and apply a section break on the same
  page. Now your cursor will go to next section and you can see a section break
  in the formatting markup.
• Go to “Columns” and select “One” to disable the columns and continue in
  a full width.

Tips and Tricks

• In order to divide a section of your document into columns, select it with the mouse and create columns. When creating columns, Word defines the area automatically for individual sections.
• You can apply column break only to particular section of your document when your document has multiple sections.
• Use keyboard shortcuts, “Control + Shift + Enter” to create a column break.
• You can adjust the column width via the markers in the ruler only when you have selected “Equal column width” checkbox in the “Columns” dialogue window.
• Column changes are an important element to structure texts with multiple columns.