Locked lesson.

Upgrade

About this lesson

Learn how to set margins to standard or custom settings.

Lesson versions

Multiple versions of this lesson are available, choose the appropriate version for you:

2013, 2016, 2019/365.

Exercise files

Download the Word document used in the video tutorial and try the lesson yourself.

Margins .docx
57.5 KB

Quick reference

Page Layout: Margins

Learn how to set margins to standard or custom settings.

When to use

Margins are a vital setting on EVERY document. You don’t finish a document without verifying your margin settings.

Instructions

Three places to find Margin settings:

  1. Page Layout Ribbon. ​ ​
                  
  2. Print Preview screen (or Ctrl P​.) ​           
  3. Top Ruler and Left Ruler. ​

Hints & tips

  • Gutters are only used if a large manuscript will be bound at a print shop.  You would verify with them before placing a measurement, usually .3, into the gutter setting box. Generally, a gutter setting is not used, but it is nice to know what it is for.
    ​                     
  • If you find that you change your margins every time you use Word, then set the default margins once and for all.

 

​​

 

Login to download
  • 00:05 The margins on a document are traditionally the left, top, right, and
  • 00:09 bottom one inch around the entire paper.
  • 00:13 And in the earlier lesson of headers and footers,
  • 00:15 we learned how we could type inside the top and
  • 00:17 the bottom margins that is where you'll be able to type into the left and right.
  • 00:21 But you can certainly adjust them.
  • 00:23 There's three ways to do that.
  • 00:24 First of all, we have the Layout ribbon.
  • 00:26 So right up on top, we have Layout and
  • 00:28 we have around the left hand side we have an option that, of course, says margins.
  • 00:32 When you click that, you have an entire list you can choose from and
  • 00:34 click on any of those and change your margins.
  • 00:36 Or right over here at the very bottom, it says custom margins.
  • 00:40 When you come in here, notice it takes us to this dialog box called
  • 00:43 Page Setup where we can change our margin settings.
  • 00:46 Now Microsoft, over the years, has changed the industry standard to 1 and
  • 00:50 a quarter but traditionally it was only a 1 inch margin.
  • 00:54 I prefer that, I prefer the traditional margin settings, so I typed the 1111.
  • 00:59 But I don't wanna ever make that change again.
  • 01:00 So down here at the bottom, I can hit, Save As Default, and Yes,
  • 01:05 all my new documents will always be 1 inch all the way around.
  • 01:10 Okay, there's a second place to find that.
  • 01:11 The Print Preview screen or press Ctrl+P.
  • 01:14 I'll press Ctrl+P on my keyboard and it takes me and
  • 01:17 shows me an image of my document.
  • 01:19 And over on the left hand side way at the bottom, it says, normal margins.
  • 01:23 I really like this cuz I can take a look at the way it's going to lay out when
  • 01:26 it's printed.
  • 01:27 Plus if I need to make a change,
  • 01:28 I don't have to go back to Page Layout to make the change.
  • 01:31 I've got the tools right here on my Print Preview screen,
  • 01:34 the same as the ones I had on my print layout.
  • 01:37 All right, I will go back here.
  • 01:38 Now, there's another way, you can actually look at the rulers, the top and
  • 01:42 the left-hand rulers.
  • 01:43 This gray area on the left is my left margin.
  • 01:46 Over here, the gray area on the right is my right margin.
  • 01:49 Over here, the top gray area is my top margin, and of course,
  • 01:52 I have another one at the bottom.
  • 01:54 Now notice, I can float my mouse and it tells me I'm about to adjust
  • 01:58 my top margin, I can literally click and drag that line and adjust it on the ruler.
  • 02:02 Same thing over here, on my top ruler.
  • 02:05 When I float my mouse, it says Right Margin.
  • 02:07 I can click and drag and adjust my right margin.
  • 02:09 There's another trick about the ruler.
  • 02:11 If I float my mouse inside the white area of the ruler and double-click,
  • 02:15 click, click, up opens my Page Setup.
  • 02:18 You saw that earlier when I went to my custom margins.
  • 02:21 So in here, notice I adjusted my top margin to 1.19.
  • 02:24 I can correct that.
  • 02:26 And I adjusted my right margin to 1.27, I can correct that as well.
  • 02:30 Take a look at this setting though, it says gutter and
  • 02:33 gutter position on the left or we have a drop down at the top.
  • 02:37 So what in the world is a gutter?
  • 02:39 Well, let me show you.
  • 02:40 I'll go ahead and hit OK.
  • 02:41 I've got this image on the screen.
  • 02:43 Any time you have binding affecting a document, you can set the gutter
  • 02:49 to basically make room for the binding plus give you your 1 inch of margin.
  • 02:53 So the gutter is basically where the binding is going to
  • 02:56 eat up some of your paper but you still wanna fold 1 inch beside the gutter.
  • 02:59 So this is called the comb binding or wire binding.
  • 03:02 So if your document will be bound, you can of course go in,
  • 03:06 I'm gonna double click right here and go in.
  • 03:09 And I can tell it that I need a quarter inch gutter and
  • 03:12 then everything will be fine with my document and I'll still get a full 1 inch.
  • 03:16 Notice my ruler is set for 1 and a quarter inch but it's only on that side.
  • 03:20 So all right, have fun with those margins and remember,
  • 03:23 it's very common to be in there and changing the settings.

Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.

Gift this course