Thinkabara

📝 Microsoft Word for Beginners · Lesson 7 of 9

A neat page

Google Classroom

Margins, orientation, page breaks, headers and page numbers.

Margins, size and orientation

On the Layout tab: “Margins” sets the empty space around the text (1 inch on every side is the US standard for papers), “Size” should be Letter (8.5" × 11"), and “Orientation” turns the page to Portrait (normal) or Landscape (good for a wide table or a certificate).

Page break

Want a new section to start on a new page? Don’t press Enter twenty times. Press Ctrl+Enter. Then even if you add text earlier, the new section always starts at the top of a page.

Header and footer

  1. On the Insert tab click “Header” and choose a design
  2. Type once — for example your name and class — and it appears on every page
  3. Double-click the page itself to go back to the normal text

Page numbers

On the Insert tab click “Page Number” and choose “Top of Page” or “Bottom of Page”. The numbers update by themselves when you add or delete pages. To hide the number on a title page, check “Different First Page” in the Header & Footer tab.

Tip

💡 MLA papers put your last name and the page number in the top-right header, like “Garcia 3”. Insert > Page Number > Top of Page > Plain Number 3, then type your name before it.

✏️ Practice: your turn

  1. In the three-section document from lesson 4, put Ctrl+Enter before each section
  2. Add a header with your name
  3. Add page numbers at the bottom
  4. Check “Different First Page” so the first page has no number

✏️ No Word on this computer? Practice in our free online document editor

🧠 Quick quiz

Answer all 4 questions correctly to mark this lesson as done.

1. What is the right way to start a new page?
2. Where do you turn the page to landscape?
3. You type your name in the header. Where will it appear?
4. What are the standard margins for a US school paper?

0 of 4 correct

All lessons in Microsoft Word for Beginners

  1. ✍️ 1. Your first documentOpen a document, type, save and undo a mistake
  2. 🎨 2. Formatting textFont, size, bold, color and the Format Painter
  3. 📐 3. Paragraphs, alignment and listsAlignment, bullets, numbering, indents and line spacing
  4. 🏷️ 4. Headings and stylesHeading 1 and Heading 2, the Navigation Pane and updating a style
  5. ▦ 5. TablesInsert a table, add rows and columns, design and merge cells
  6. 🖼️ 6. Pictures and shapesInsert a picture, resize it, wrap text and add alt text
  7. 📄 7. A neat pageMargins, orientation, page breaks, headers and page numbers
  8. 🎓 8. A paper ready to hand inTitle page, table of contents, footnotes, spell check and PDF
  9. ⚡ 9. Time-saving tricksFind and replace, paste without formatting, templates and sharing