A professional report has to be organized, visually appealing, and easy to read. Multi-column layouts can help with all three, which is part of the reason why newspapers, magazines, and scientific publications use them. The good news is that multi-column layouts are not exclusive to big publishers—you can easily use them in Word too.
What Is a Multi-Column Layout?
A multi-column layout, as the name implies, separates your document’s text into multiple columns. It is quite popular in magazines, brochures, newspapers, and scientific articles.
A multi-column layout isn’t for aesthetics alone; it helps to save space, makes the document easier to scan, and can be used to organize separate sections in the text.
Microsoft Word offers flexible page layout settings that allow you to customize the number of columns in your document, whether the multi-column layout applies to the entire document or a section of it, as well as the column width and spacing.
Adding Columns to the Entire Document
To add columns to a document, go to the Layout tab, select Columns, and choose Two or Three to separate your text into either two or three 3-inch columns with 0.15-inch space between them. For more than three columns, select More Columns and enter your desired number in the Number of Columns box. You can create up to thirteen text columns in Microsoft Word.
If you’d rather have more text on the left than the right or vice versa, select either Right or Left from the Columns menu. This layout is a bit more free-form, allowing you to emphasize one side of the page for more prominent content while keeping the other column for supporting information, like side notes or summaries. This approach can be particularly useful in reports or newsletters where you want to draw attention to key points or visuals.
To restore the default number of columns, simply select
One
column from the drop-down list in
Columns
.
Adding Columns to a Single Paragraph
To add columns to a paragraph and keep the rest of the document in the default, one-column layout, select the paragraph, go to Layout > Columns, and choose your preferred option from the drop-down list. The paragraph will be split into columns while the rest of the text remains the same.
Adding Columns to a Section
Section breaks allow you to use a multi-column layout in a single section of the document. You can add a section break by navigating to Layout > Breaks > Section Breaks. Then, choose where you want the next section to start: the next page, the same page, the next even-numbered page, or the next odd-numbered page. Once section breaks are in place before and after a particular point, you can apply a multi-column format to only that section.
Next, place your cursor within the section, select Layout > Columns, and choose the number of columns you want to add.
To make section breaks visible, navigate to the
Home
tab, and select the Show/Hide button (Pilcrow symbol) from the
Paragraph
group.
Tips for Making a Professional Report
After adding columns to your document, you can make your report look more professional with the following:
1. Use Text Wrapping for Images
Word’s text wrapping allows the images in your document to blend seamlessly with the text. To apply text wrapping, select the picture, click the Layout Options icon next to it, and pick a text wrap layout from the With Text Wrapping options. You can now resize your image outside the column’s boundaries and have the text flow naturally around the image.
2. Customize Beyond Presets
You can customize your multi-column layout further by selecting More Columns from the Columns menu. In the next window, you can add up to 13 columns, customize their width and spacing individually (uncheck the Equal column width box), and add lines between the columns.
3. Use Column Breaks
Column breaks can be used to control the flow of text within columns. You can use it to force a line in one column to start in the next column. To insert a column break, use the shortcut Ctrl + Shift + Enter or select Column from Layout > Breaks.
Multi-column layouts can elevate your report’s visual appeal and readability. They are quite easy to set up and customize. You can experiment with different column layouts—like two or three columns or uneven column widths—to see which one fits your document best. Tables are another great way to organize information in Microsoft Word.
