5.1 Understanding Page Setup — The Concept

Before touching any Page Setup control, it helps to understand what you are actually configuring:

Where to Find Page Setup Controls

All Page Setup commands live in one place: the Layout tab on the Ribbon.

• Layout → Page Setup group — contains Margins, Orientation, Size, Columns, Breaks, Line Numbers, and Hyphenation buttons
• Dialog Launcher ↗ — the small arrow at the bottom-right of the Page Setup group opens the Page Setup dialog box, which provides access to all settings in one tabbed window with a live preview
• Double-clicking the grey area of the Ruler — also opens the Page Setup dialog directly

5.2 Paper Size

Paper size must match the actual paper loaded in your printer. A mismatch causes clipped content, unexpected scaling, or printing errors. Always set paper size before formatting your document.

Setting Paper Size — Step by Step

1. Click the Layout tab
2. In the Page Setup group, click Size
3. A dropdown gallery of preset sizes appears — click your required size
4. For a non-listed custom size: click "More Paper Sizes…" at the bottom of the dropdown to open the Page Setup dialog on the Paper tab

Standard Paper Sizes — Complete Reference

Setting a Custom Paper Size

1. Layout → Size → More Paper Sizes…
2. In the Page Setup dialog, click the Paper tab
3. In the "Paper size" dropdown, select Custom size
4. Enter the exact Width and Height in centimetres or millimetres
5. Click OK (or Set As Default if this will be your standard size)

5.3 Page Orientation

Orientation determines whether the page is used in its tall position (Portrait) or its wide position (Landscape). The paper itself does not change — orientation simply rotates the printable area.

Changing Page Orientation — Step by Step

1. Click the Layout tab
2. In the Page Setup group, click Orientation
3. Click Portrait or Landscape
4. The entire document switches orientation immediately

The Page Setup Dialog — Orientation Tab

1. Layout → Page Setup group → Dialog Launcher ↗
2. The Page Setup dialog opens on the Margins tab
3. The Orientation section is at the top — two icons represent Portrait and Landscape
4. Click the desired icon
5. In the "Apply to" dropdown at the bottom, choose:
   • Whole document — applies orientation to all pages
   • This point forward — inserts a Section Break and applies orientation from the cursor position onward
   • This section — applies only to the current section (if you have already set up sections)
6. Click OK

5.4 Margins — Setting Up Your Page Borders

Margins are the blank space between the edge of the paper and the start of your content. They serve three purposes: visual breathing room around the text, space for printing (most printers cannot print right to the edge), and space for binding or filing.

Setting Margins — Method 1: Preset Gallery (Quick)

1. Click the Layout tab → Margins
2. Choose from the preset gallery:

Setting Custom Margins — Method 2: Page Setup Dialog (Precise)

1. Layout → Margins → Custom Margins… at the bottom of the dropdown
2. — or — Layout → Page Setup group → Dialog Launcher ↗ (opens directly on the Margins tab)
3. In the Margins tab, enter exact values in centimetres for:
   • Top — space above the first line of text on each page
   • Bottom — space below the last line of text on each page
   • Left — space to the left of all text (also called the Inside margin on mirrored documents)
   • Right — space to the right of all text (also called the Outside margin)
   • Gutter — extra binding space (see Section 5.5)
   • Gutter position — Left or Top (for top-bound documents)
4. Check the Preview on the right to see your margin layout before confirming
5. In the "Apply to" dropdown, choose: Whole document, This point forward, or This section
6. Click OK — or — click Set As Default to save these margins as the default for all new documents

Setting Margins Using the Ruler (Visual Method)

1. Ensure the Ruler is visible: View → Show → tick Ruler
2. On the horizontal Ruler, the dark grey sections at each end represent the margins; the white section in the middle is the text area
3. Position your cursor exactly on the boundary line between the grey and white — the cursor changes to a double-headed arrow ↔
4. Click and drag left or right to adjust the margin
5. Hold Alt while dragging to see exact measurements displayed on the Ruler as you drag

5.5 Gutter Margins — Setting Up Binding Space

When a document will be physically bound (comb-bound, ring-bound, saddle-stitched, or perfect-bound), the binding consumes some of the inner margin. A gutter adds extra space to compensate so text is not hidden inside the binding.

Configuring a Gutter Margin

1. Layout → Margins → Custom Margins…
2. In the Gutter field, enter the extra space required (typically 0.5 cm to 1.5 cm depending on binding thickness)
3. Set Gutter position to:
   • Left — for most single-sided or double-sided documents bound on the left spine (most common)
   • Top — for top-bound documents such as flip charts or top-spiral notebooks
4. Click OK

Mirrored Margins for Double-Sided Bound Documents

1. Layout → Margins → Mirrored (or Custom Margins → Multiple pages dropdown → Mirror margins)
2. When mirrored is selected, Left/Right margin labels change to Inside/Outside:
   • Inside margin — the margin adjacent to the binding (left on odd pages / right on even pages) — set wider to accommodate binding
   • Outside margin — the margin on the outer edge — typically narrower
3. This ensures every printed page has the wider margin on the correct side regardless of whether it is a left or right page

5.6 Line Numbers & Hyphenation

These two Page Setup options — also found in the Layout tab → Page Setup group — are commonly needed in legal, academic, and technical documents.

Line Numbers

Line numbers display a sequential count in the left margin beside each line of text — essential in legal pleadings, legislation, contracts, and technical specifications where parties need to reference specific lines.

1. Layout → Page Setup group → click Line Numbers
2. Choose from:
   • None — no line numbers (default)
   • Continuous — numbers run from 1 through to the last line of the document
   • Restart Each Page — numbering restarts at 1 on every page (most common for legal documents)
   • Restart Each Section — numbering restarts at 1 at the beginning of each Section Break
   • Suppress for Current Paragraph — removes line numbers from the selected paragraph only (useful for excluding headings or tables from the line count)
3. Click Line Numbering Options… for fine control:
   • Start at — begin numbering from a number other than 1
   • From text — distance between the line number and the left margin of the text (default: Auto)
   • Count by — e.g., set to 5 to show numbers only on lines 5, 10, 15, 20, etc. (common in legal documents)

Hyphenation

Hyphenation automatically breaks long words at the end of a line to reduce ragged right margins and improve the appearance of justified text. It is standard in typeset publications but optional in business documents.

1. Layout → Page Setup group → click Hyphenation
2. Choose:
   • None — no hyphenation (default for most business documents)
   • Automatic — Word inserts hyphens automatically where needed as you type
   • Manual — Word scans the document and asks you to confirm each hyphenation point one by one
   • Hyphenation Options… — set the hyphenation zone (how close to the margin a word must be before hyphenating) and the maximum number of consecutive hyphens (typically 2–3)

5.7 Section Breaks — Mixing Orientations Within One Document

A Section Break divides a document into independent sections, each of which can have its own page setup — including orientation, paper size, margins, headers/footers, columns, and page numbering. This is the key to creating documents that mix portrait and landscape pages, or that have different margin settings on different chapters.

Types of Section Breaks

Step-by-Step: Insert a Landscape Page Inside a Portrait Document

This is one of the most frequently needed page setup tasks — for example, placing a wide table on page 4 while all other pages remain portrait.

1. Position your cursor at the very beginning of the content that needs to be on a landscape page (e.g., click before the table heading on page 4)
2. Insert a Section Break — Next Page:
   • Layout → Page Setup group → Breaks
   • Under Section Breaks, click Next Page
3. Your cursor is now at the top of a new section (page 4 is now a separate section)
4. Apply Landscape orientation to this section only:
   • Layout → Orientation → Landscape
   • If prompted, confirm "This section" — not "Whole document"
5. Place your cursor at the end of the landscape content (after the wide table)
6. Insert another Section Break — Next Page
7. Apply Portrait orientation to the new section (page 5 and beyond):
   • Layout → Orientation → Portrait
   • Confirm "This section"
8. Your document now has: portrait pages → landscape page(s) → portrait pages

Deleting a Section Break

1. Turn on Show/Hide ¶ (Ctrl + *) so section break markers are visible
2. Click directly on the section break line to place your cursor on it
3. Press Delete
4. The section break is removed — the two sections merge and the page setup of the second section is absorbed into the first

The Difference Between Section Breaks and Page Breaks

5.8 The Page Setup Dialog — Full Reference

The Page Setup dialog (Layout → Page Setup → Dialog Launcher ↗) brings all page setup controls together in one place with three tabs.

Tab 1 — Margins

• Margins — Top, Bottom, Left, Right, Gutter, Gutter position
• Orientation — Portrait / Landscape icons
• Pages — Multiple pages dropdown:
  • Normal — standard single layout
  • Mirror margins — inside/outside for bound documents
  • 2 pages per sheet — half-page booklet layout
  • Book fold — prints 4 pages per sheet in correct booklet order for folding
• Apply to — Whole document / This point forward / This section / Selected sections
• Preview — live thumbnail showing your margin layout

Tab 2 — Paper

• Paper size — select from all available sizes or set a custom width and height
• Paper source — choose which printer paper tray to use for the first page vs other pages (useful for letterhead paper in tray 1 and plain paper in tray 2)
• Print options — links to the printer's print properties

Tab 3 — Layout

• Section start — where the current section begins (Continuous, New column, New page, Even page, Odd page)
• Headers and footers:
  • Different odd and even — different header/footer on odd vs even pages (essential for printed books)
  • Different first page — the first page has a separate header/footer from the rest (common for cover pages)
• From edge — precise distance of the header from the top edge and footer from the bottom edge of the paper
• Page vertical alignment — Top (default), Centre, Justified, or Bottom — aligns content vertically within the page margins (useful for title pages centred on the page)
• Line numbers — access line number settings directly from this dialog
• Borders — opens the Borders and Shading dialog for page borders

5.9 Common Page Setup Problems & Solutions

5.10 Quick Self-Check

Q1: What are the dimensions of an A4 page, and why is it the standard in South Africa?

✓ A4 is 210 mm wide × 297 mm tall. It is the ISO 216 international standard used in South Africa, Europe, and most of the world. It is the expected format for all standard business documents, and South African printers and filing systems are designed for A4.

Q2: You have a 12-page report. Page 7 contains a very wide financial table that does not fit in portrait layout. How do you make only page 7 landscape while keeping all other pages portrait?

✓ (1) Click at the very beginning of the content on page 7. (2) Layout → Breaks → Section Breaks → Next Page. (3) Apply Landscape orientation to this section only. (4) Click at the end of the content on page 7. (5) Insert another Section Break → Next Page. (6) Apply Portrait orientation to the new section. Pages 1–6 and 8–12 remain portrait; page 7 is landscape.

Q3: What is the difference between a Page Break and a Section Break — Next Page?

✓ A Page Break (Ctrl + Enter) forces content to the next page but both sides remain in the same section — orientation, margins, and headers/footers are unchanged. A Section Break — Next Page also forces a new page but creates an independent section that can have completely different page setup settings (orientation, margins, paper size, headers).

Q4: You are creating a company training manual that will be comb-bound on the left side. Which margin setting should you use to prevent text from being hidden inside the binding?

✓ Set a Gutter margin (Layout → Custom Margins → Gutter field). Add 0.5–1.5 cm to the gutter with Gutter position set to Left. This adds extra space on the binding side of each page so text remains fully visible after binding.

Q5: You want your document's title page to have the title text perfectly centred in the middle of the page vertically (not at the top). How do you achieve this?

✓ Layout → Page Setup → Dialog Launcher → Layout tab → Vertical alignment → Center → Apply to: This section → OK. This centres the page content vertically between the top and bottom margins without needing manual Enter key presses.

Q6: After editing your document, a blank page has appeared at the end. What is the most common cause and how do you remove it?

✓ A stray paragraph mark (¶) or a page break after the last content is the most common cause. Press Ctrl + * (Show/Hide) to reveal formatting marks, click the stray ¶ on the blank last page, and press Delete. If the paragraph mark cannot be deleted (because it's the last required ¶ in the document), reduce the font size of that paragraph mark to 1pt to prevent it from pushing to a new page.

✓ Module 5 Complete — You Have Learned:

• The anatomy of a page — paper size, orientation, margins, text area, gutter, and header/footer zones explained visually
• Where to find all Page Setup controls — Layout tab, Page Setup group, and the full Page Setup dialog
• All standard paper sizes — A4, A3, A5, Letter, Legal, DL Envelope, and Custom — with South African context
• How to set a custom paper size for non-standard stationery
• Portrait vs Landscape orientation — differences, best uses, and step-by-step changing
• The "Apply to" options — Whole document, This point forward, This section
• All six margin presets — Normal, Narrow, Moderate, Wide, Mirrored, and Office 2003 Default
• Setting precise custom margins via the Page Setup dialog with SA business margin standards
• Adjusting margins visually on the Ruler and when to avoid it
• Gutter margins for bound documents — Left gutter and Mirrored (inside/outside) margins
• Multiple pages options — Mirror margins, 2 pages per sheet, and Book fold
• Line numbers — Continuous, Restart Each Page, Restart Each Section, and Count by settings
• Hyphenation — Automatic vs Manual and when to use it
• The four types of Section Breaks — Next Page, Continuous, Even Page, Odd Page
• Step-by-step: mixing portrait and landscape pages within a single document using Section Breaks
• The difference between Page Breaks and Section Breaks
• Viewing and deleting section breaks with Show/Hide ¶
• The Page Setup dialog — Margins, Paper, and Layout tabs explained in full
• Vertical page alignment for professionally centred title pages
• Seven common page setup problems and their solutions