For instance, you may have half-inch margins set, and that defines the whitespace on all sides of the document. Margins can be changed on a section-by-section basis within a document. Indents are applied to paragraphs and are cumulative with margins.
#CHANGING MARGINS IN WORD FULL#įor instance, if you have a half-inch margin and you indent a paragraph by a half-inch, there will be a full inch of whitespace to the left of the paragraph. If all the paragraphs on a page have the same half-inch indent, it is easy to think that the margin for the page has changed, but it has not-the margin is still set to a half-inch.īecause it is easy to confuse margins and indents, it is important to figure out what is happening with your own document.
The easiest way to check your margin is using the Page Setup dialog box. To display the dialog box, display the Page Layout or Layout tab of the ribbon (depending on your version of Word) and click the small icon in the lower-right corner of the Page Setup group. The Margins tab of the Page Setup dialog box. Note the Margins area, near the top of the page. The settings here indicate the page margins for the current section of the document. In Wayne's case, where he is concerned about the left margin, he should make note of the Left setting in the dialog box.
(Simply jot it down on a piece of paper.) When completed, you can click OK (if you made changes in the margins) or Cancel (if you made no changes).