Columns and Breaks

Word 2000 has the ability to split your document into separate columns if you so desire. The Columns button under the Standard toolbar allows you to make columns. When you click on it, you can drag out to as many as six columns. It should be noted that you can do more columns than 6, but you'd have to use the Format|Columns button to do it. Here is our document in two columns.

The Format|Columns menu will also allow you to set the width of the columns.

You may have noticed, however, that the title of the document was shifted over into the first column. If you wish that title to be in the middle, you must create a break in the document. By creating a break, you can change the page formatting in two different spots on the same page. To do this, use the Insert|Break menu.

You use this dialog box to insert page and column breaks, along with section breaks. The only section break that will not force a new page is the Continuous section break, which places the break right at the insertion point. This is the one we will use.

This is what our document looks like after we insert the break, then change the top section back to one column. (We also center-aligned the title and made it larger for emphasis.) <Click here if you wish to see a video demo of the break being inserted and the title centered.> (378K)