How do I... Even up columns in a Word document?

by Jody Gilbert | Jul 19, 2006 7:00:00 AM

Tags: Word processors, Jody Gilbert, Microsoft Word

Takeaway: Balancing columns in a document is not a monumental task, yet there's a trick to it that few users are aware of. If you find yourself supporting Word users (or simply want to fine-tune your own skills), this is a good technique to know. Learn (and share) the answer to this How do I�? riddle with the help of this graphical walk-through.

Creating a multiple-column layout on the page in Word is easy enough--but users often hit a snag. Word creates snaking columns, which means they run from the top of the column to the bottom until they run out of text. Figure A shows how this works.

Figure A

Word's snaking columns often mean uneven columns--generally not the layout effect of choice.

A lot of times, users want the columns evenly balanced to avoid all that white space in the second column. The solution is easy but not remotely intuitive, so it's worth learning the trick for future reference. Here's a quick walk-through to illustrate the process.

Applying a column format

To apply a multiple-column layout to a Word document, you just click the Columns button on the Standard toolbar and use the drop-down grid to specify the number of columns you want (Figure B). We'll go with two columns for this demo.

Figure B

Use the Columns button to specify the number of columns you want for your document.

Word will immediately change the document layout to reflect your selection. (Note that you'll need to be in Print Layout view or Print Preview so see the effect.)

Achieving balance

To force Word to balance the columns, click at the end of the text and choose Insert | Break. In the Break dialog box (Figure C), select Continuous under Section Break Types and click OK. Figure D shows the effect on the sample document we looked at earlier.

Figure C

Enter a Continuous section break at the end of the text.

Figure D

The section break forces the text to balance between columns.

Depending on how your text is formatted (and whether the number of total lines of text is evenly divisible by the number of columns), you might have to do a little tweaking to achieve perfect alignment. For instance, we cheated a little with our example, applying the Keep With Next format to the heading "M" to push it to the top of the next column. This created proper alignment as well as ensuring that the heading stayed with its entries.

An extra twist

This trick works fine on such a simple example. But users may be grappling with a more complex document--say, one with more than one section. Let's suppose that they already have a section break at the bottom of the sample document--a Next Page break they threw in to keep the alphabetical listing on the first page, begin the main text on the second page, and return to one-column formatting for the second and subsequent pages.

You'd think that having a section break already there would balance the columns, but that's not the case. The break that evens up columns must be a Continuous one. Luckily, you can put in two breaks to achieve the desired effect. Just insert the Continuous section break right above the Next Page break, as shown in Figure E.

Figure E

Even if you have a Next Page section break at the end of your text, you'll still need to enter a Continuous break to force Word to balance the columns.

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