Navigate long documents easily with Word 2003's Thumbnails split view

by Mary Ann Richardson | Oct 05, 2005 12:56:00 AM

Tags: Word processors, Microsoft Office, Mary Ann Richardson, Thumbnails, pane, right edge, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Word 2003, Microsoft Office Suite Word Tips Newsletter

Takeaway: With Microsoft Word 2003, you can see thumbnails of each page of your document layout. Find out how the Thumbnails split view can save you time when you need to search for elements within long documents.

Before Microsoft Office 2003, you needed to go to Print Preview to see thumbnails of each page of your document layout. With Word 2003, you don't have to leave the document view that you are using for editing. Thumbnail views are now available in Normal, Print Layout, Outline, and Reading Layout views. You simply go to View | Thumbnails to display the Thumbnail pane to the left of your document.

Thumbnails let you view the layout of your entire document at once. For example, if you are working in Normal view and want to see where you placed your last footnote or header, you can check it by viewing a thumbnail of the page. You can also go to any page by clicking on its thumbnail in the pane.

You can resize the width of the Thumbnails pane by moving the mouse along the pane's right edge until the pointer turns into a double-headed arrow, then clicking and dragging the pointer along its right edge to the desired size. To close the Thumbnails pane, double-click its right edge.

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