Word 2007: How to Change the Margins for One Page out of Many Pages
March 7th, 2008 | by Loren |In Word you can over-ride the set margins by using Section Breaks. Margins would be considered Page formatting – it affects the document on a “page” level, like the Orientations Portrait and Landscape, paper size, or headers and footers. These directions are to insert a Next Page type of section break, which will force a new page that would have the different margins, orientation, or header/footer. Below the content on that new, different page there will be another Next Page break, and the following pages could either have the original page formatting or a different set of page formats.
This can be done on an existing document or while creating a new document.
To insert a Section Break:
- Move the cursor to where the different formatting the will start.
- On the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup group, click Breaks.
- In the menu that pops out, choose Next Page break. The cursor and any content after it will be moved to the top of the new page.
- Move the cursor to the point where the changed page formatting will end.
- Insert another Next Page break. You should have inserted two section breaks, which mark the beginning and ending of the different page formatting.
- Move the cursor anywhere in between the page breaks and change whatever page formatting you want to. The change will be confined to the area between the two page breaks.
Extras:
- To see the Section Breaks, turn on the Show/Hide Paragraph marks.
- To remove Section breaks, turn on Show/Hide Paragraph marks, move the cursor directly in front of the Section Break code and delete.
- When you add Section Breaks breaks, Word automatically numbers each section. The first page of the document would be section 1, section 2 would start after the Next Page section break, and so on. To see the Section number on the status bar (the bar at the bottom of the Word screen where it has Page # of #) right-click on the Status bar and choose Section. Now it should say: Section: 1 on the Status bar.
- You can use the Section: 1 area on the Status bar to move to the beginning of any section by clicking it, (opens Find and Replace box) under Go to what:, click Section, under Enter section number: type in the number and Enter (or click Go To).
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9 Responses to “Word 2007: How to Change the Margins for One Page out of Many Pages”
By Katie on Jan 13, 2010 | Reply
This site is awesome! Thank you!
By Mon on Sep 8, 2009 | Reply
I am having the same issue. I have a margin that is different on page one as page two. When I add data to page one, I have to correct the margins on the added data. Can Word set margins differenly on page one as subsequent pages so that no matter where you add the data the page pargins stay the same.
By Tara on Sep 4, 2009 | Reply
I am working with a merge document in Word 2007. I want the margins on the second page and continuing pages to be different from the first page margin. I cannot set a section break to change the margin because the information that merges in is always different. Sometimes it will all print on one page and sometimes it may print on multiple pages. Can you assist me with this? Thanks!
By Loren on May 13, 2009 | Reply
Hi Ari – you can adjust the header or footer margin, or distance it sits from the edge of the page through the Header & Footer Tools, Position group. Use the Header from Top to move the header in relation to the edge of the page.
You won’t see the Header & Footer Tools tab unless you’re in the header or footer in a document – then it will be in the Word title bar area.
Hope that helps, good luck!
By ari on May 5, 2009 | Reply
how do i adjust my footer margin in word 2007?
By kyle on Apr 7, 2009 | Reply
Great information, thank you for posting this. I used the “break-next page” option because I am putting together a marketing portfolio. I wanted to include my resume in the portfolio and to do so required that I change the margins on the page that my resume was on.
To make a long story short, it worked and I was able to keep the normal sized margins on the remainder of the report.
THANKS!!!
By Craig on Dec 7, 2008 | Reply
Hi,
I need to adjust the top margin with select pages within my thesis, and I have tried almost everything, but something always seems to go wrong. The latest thing I tried was highlighting the text and going to page layout to drop the margin to 2″ but then it forced a blank page on the next page which I could not get rid of.
Can someone please help me?
Many thanks,
Craig
By Loren on Apr 25, 2008 | Reply
Hi Paul – a way to do this would be to use a different header and footer on your first page to define your margins, rather than changing the margins and using section breaks.
1. Create a 2nd page in your template, insert a header or footer on that page. In Header & Footer Tools, Design tab, Options, check Different First Page. Maybe you want to add a page number while you’re in there.
2. Go into the header or footer on the first page. If you need the top margin wider, you could use Enter to get the header wider or use paragraph spacing to get it more precise. If you need the bottom margin wider, do the same thing.
3. If you need the left or right margins wider, insert a borderless text box into the header of the first page. If you need both the left and right margins wider, you’ll add two text boxes, one for each side. Start or insert the text box in the header and resize or draw it all the way down to the footer; it will keep text in from the sides of the page, and act like a margin.
4. Save it as a template. If you want to remove the second page before saving, it should still look like it has the different “margins.”
Your first page text will stay inside what you put into the header/footer, so it will look like the margins are different.
Hope that helps – if you need more detail, I will probably post this in a more detailed version next week. Great question Paul, thanks for bringing it up.
By Paul on Apr 24, 2008 | Reply
In Word 2007, is there a way to create a template that has a certain margin on the 1st page but then a different margin on all other pages? I need this to work so that when I finish typing on page 1 (even in mid-paragraph) the text will continue on page 2 but in a different margin set up. Thanks.