Easily Split and Customize Columns in Word

When working with Microsoft Word, column division is an important skill to be able to create visually appealing and readable documents. Column division helps you organize content into discrete columns, create professional layouts, and present information more balanced. This is especially useful when you want to create reports, magazines or even write a presentation…

In today’s article, FPT Shop and you will explore how to divide columns in Word into equal columns, uneven columns, customize details, and remove columns when no longer needed.

Benefits of column division in Word

Column division in Word offers many benefits for designing and formatting documents. Here are some of its benefits:

• Organize information: Column division in Word helps you organize information in a clear and easy-to-read manner. By dividing columns in Word like this, you can organize the text into separate sections, making it easier for readers to find and read information by section.
• Create professional layouts: Dividing columns in Word creates professional and attractive layouts for your documents. This helps create emphasis and balance between the sections of the document.
• Enhance visual appeal: Column division in Word can help enhance the visual appeal of the document. You can use columns to display numerical data, lists, tables, images, and parallel text.
• Save space: When using column division in Word, you can maximize the space on the page. This is especially useful when you want to display a lot of information on one page without making the page too long.
• Easy editing and formatting: You can easily edit and format each column independently when using the column division feature in Word. You can change the size, spacing, and text formatting in each column without affecting other columns.

Explore ways to divide columns in Word

Although dividing Word documents may seem complex, in reality, it is a very simple process. Read on to learn some easy ways to divide columns in Word.

1. Dividing columns in Word with a blank page

Usually, with most users, if you want to divide columns in Word, you will enter the content first and then perform the column division command. However, if you want, you can also divide columns in Word with a blank page and then enter the content into the subsequent columns.

Step 1: On the ribbon toolbar, you access the Layout tab, then click the Columns button in the Page Setup feature group.

Step 2: From the Columns dropdown menu, select the Two, Three, Left or Right option depending on your needs. The blank Word page will immediately be divided into columns according to your selection.

Step 3: Now, if you type any content into the document page, you can see that the sentence is automatically split in the middle of the page and moved to the next line.

If you want to create some random text and see if column division in Word works as expected, just type the formula =rand(12,3) and press Enter . Word will automatically generate random text consisting of 12 paragraphs, each with 3 sentences.

Step 4: That’s it and now you can see that the content of the Word page is divided into 2 or 3 columns that are visually appealing.

2. Dividing columns in Word with equal width

One of the quickest ways to divide columns in Word with equal width is to use the Columns option in the Layout tab.

Step 1: Open the Word document that you want to divide columns in Word. Then, highlight and select the entire content of the text that needs to be divided into columns.

Step 2: Go to the Layout tab on the ribbon toolbar, then click the Columns button in the Page Setup feature group.

Step 3: From the Columns dropdown menu, choose the column division type that suits your document content, including:

• Two: This option will immediately divide the columns in Word into two columns with equal width.
• Three: This option will immediately divide the columns in Word into three columns with equal width.

Step 4: Immediately, the selected Word content will be divided equally into 2 or 3 visually appealing columns.

3. Dividing columns in Word with unequal width

If for some reason, you want to divide columns in Word as two or three columns but with columns of unequal width, you can follow the steps below to divide columns in Word.

Step 1: Open the Word document that you want to divide columns in Word. Then, highlight and select the entire content of the text that needs to be divided into columns.

Step 2: Go to the Layout tab on the ribbon toolbar, then click the Columns button in the Page Setup feature group.

Step 3: From the Columns dropdown menu, choose the column division type that suits your document content, including:

• Left: This option will immediately divide the columns in Word into two columns with the left column narrower than the right column.
• Right: The opposite of the Left option, this option will divide the columns in Word into two columns with the right column narrower than the left column.

Step 4: The selected content in Word will be divided into columns with corresponding widths according to your selection.

4. Dividing columns in Word into three columns or more

If dividing two columns in Word is not enough for your needs, you can also create three columns or even more columns in your Word document. Follow the steps below to divide columns in Word into three columns or more.

Step 1: Open the Word document that you want to divide into three columns or more in Word. Then, highlight and select the entire content of the text that needs to be divided into columns.

Step 2: Go to the Layout tab on the ribbon toolbar, then click the Columns button in the Page Setup feature group.

Step 3: From the Columns dropdown menu, enter the number of columns you want to divide in the Number of columns box. The changes in this box will be immediately reflected in the Preview pane so you can see how the column division will look like when completed.

Step 4: To change the width of the columns and the spacing between the columns to suit your needs, click the Width and Spacing arrows respectively. Deselect the Equal column width option below if you want to enter specific widths for each individual column. If the Equal column width option is selected by default, you will not be able to edit the width configuration of each column because this option will divide all columns into equal widths.

Especially, under the Apply to section, there are two other detailed options:

• Whole document: This option will apply column division in Word to the entire document content.
• This point forward: This option will apply column division in Word to the document starting from the mouse cursor position onwards. This means that if your cursor is placed in any position, the column division feature will be applied starting from that position.

Step 5: After selecting the appropriate sizes, click OK to close the Columns dialog box and your Word document will be divided into columns with the desired sizes.

5. Dividing columns in Word with custom column sizes

After dividing columns in Word, the width of the columns will be set to the default size of the application. However, depending on the content of the document, you may want to change the column sizes, expand or shrink column sizes. So, follow the steps below to divide columns in Word with custom column sizes.

Step 1: Open the Word document that you want to divide into columns of custom sizes. Then, highlight and select the entire content of the text that needs to be divided into columns.

Step 2: Go to the Layout tab on the ribbon toolbar, then click the Columns button in the Page Setup feature group.

Step 3: From the Columns dropdown menu, enter the number of columns you want to divide in the Number of columns box.

Step 4: Now, to change the column width and the spacing between the columns, click the arrows at the Width and Spacing boxes respectively. Uncheck the Equal column width option below if you want to enter specific widths for each individual column. If the Equal column width option is selected by default, you will not be able to edit the width configuration of each column because this option will divide all columns into equal widths.

Specialized under the Apply to section, there are two other detailed options including:

• Whole document: This option will apply column division in Word to the entire document.
• This point forward: This option will apply column division in Word to the document starting from the mouse cursor position onwards. This means that if your cursor is placed in any position, the column division feature will be applied starting from that position.

Step 5: After selecting the appropriate sizes, click OK to close the Columns dialog box and your Word document will be divided into columns with the desired sizes.

6. Dividing columns in Word and adding lines between columns

By default, when applying the column division command in Word, the space between columns is separated by empty spaces. However, to make things more explicit, you should add lines between the divided columns. You can do this by following these steps.

Step 1: Once again, start with the Layout tab, then click the Columns button in the Page Setup feature group. From the dropdown menu, select the More Columns option.

Step 2: Continue selecting the columns to be divided, adjust the column sizes to suit your needs in the Columns window.

Step 3: Then, observe the pane on the right, click the Line between option to add a vertical line between the columns. Finally, click the OK button to close the Columns dialog box and apply the changes.

Now, when you return to your Word document, you will see a line separation between the sections of the document. If you divide the columns in Word into 3 columns, there will be 2 lines, if you divide the columns in Word into 4 columns, there will be 3 lines…

7. Dividing columns in Word by creating a table

Another way to divide columns in Word that few users think of is the ability to create a table with different columns and then enter your document content or copy and paste content into the columns in Word. The steps are as follows. However, this method has a limitation that you can only create columns in blank spaces in the document. The steps are as follows:

Step 1: Open the document on your computer, then select the Insert tab on the toolbar and click Table in the Tables section.

Step 2: Assuming you want to create 2 text columns in your document, you will need to select a table with 2 columns and 1 row (2×1 Table).

Step 3: A new table with two columns and one row will be generated in your document. Right-click on the plus sign at the top left corner of the table. Then, click on the Table Properties… option.

Step 4: In the Table Properties dialog box, click the Row tab and make sure to uncheck the Specify height option and mark the Allow row to break across pages option.

Step 5: You can change the width of the columns in the table as desired. Then, select the table again, right-click on the plus sign at the top left corner of the table, and choose Auto Fit > Fixed Column Width.

If you don’t want to have borders on the table, you can right-click on the border of the table and select No Border in Borders and click the Close button to close the Format Shape window.

8. Dividing columns in Word by inserting linked text boxes

Dividing columns in Word by inserting linked text boxes is perhaps a feature that few users know about. In fact, this feature allows you to create boxes in Word and you can enter your document content into these boxes, similar to dividing columns in Word. The steps are as follows:

Step 1: Open a new document on your computer. Then, click on the Layout tab, and click on Blank Page in the Insert section to insert a new page.

Step 2: Now, go back to the first page and click on Text Box > Draw Text Box on the Insert tab.

Step 3: Then, draw 2 text boxes on the first page, one on the left and one on the right. Let’s name the boxes you just created A1 and B1.

Step 4: Repeat step 2 to insert another new page, which is page 3. This ensures that you can always insert a new page on a blank page without breaking the link between text boxes.

Step 5: On page 2, use the Draw Text Box tool to draw 2 more text boxes. Here, FPT Shop calls the boxes you just created A2 and B2.

Step 6: Make sure all text boxes are empty. Now, click on any text box and then click the Create Link button on the Format tab.

You will see that the cursor changes to a tea pot shape. Click the text box you want to link. In this case, it’s text box A2. And then use the same method to link the text boxes on the other side, such as B1 and B2. When the first text box is full, the content will automatically move to the linked box.

In order to remove the borders on the text box, you can right-click on the border of the text box and choose Format Shape. Then, select No line in Line and click the Close button to close the Format Shape window.

Conclusion

With knowledge of how to divide columns in Word, you can organize information, create logical layouts, and enhance the visual appeal of your documents. Dividing columns in Word not only makes the document easier to read but also provides flexibility in editing and formatting. Whether you want to create reports, brochures, resumes, or presentation materials, knowing how to divide columns in Word will help you achieve the desired results.

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