Center horizontally

J

Jim Orson

Hello,

Is there a way to center an entire document horizontally between the margins
for printing?

Thanks for any help!

Jim...
 
C

Charles Kenyon

Ctrl-A to select the document. Click on the Center button on your formatting
toolbar.

But I suspect that is not what you want. If I am right that it is not, could
you write back with a bit more about what you are trying to do and which
version of Word you are using?
 
J

Jim Orson

Charles,

Thanks for your response, and you are correct, that is not what I what to
do.

I am using Word 2003. Maybe the best way to explain is to say that in Excel
there are options on the Page Setup/Margins dialog box that allow you to
'Center on Page" either horizontally or vertically or both. Rather than
having to futz with the individual margins, these settings center the entire
document between the margins on the printed page of paper. These settings
move the entire document left or right or up or down as needed to center the
printed page on the paper. These settings keep the original alignment
between lines/rows and simply center the whole document on the paper.

Imagine making a Xerox of copy of a picture and having the picture too far
over to one side of the copy. One way to correct this would be to move the
entire picture over on the copy glass to force the printed copy to be
centered on the resulting piece of paper.

I am looking for a similar capability in Word to what I use all the time in
Excel. I have googled news groups and not found any discussion of this
"feature". Perhaps it is simply not available. Is this clearer what I am
trying to do?

Jim...
 
C

Charles Kenyon

Much clearer. There is no such feature in Word.

Generally, there is not a need for such a feature; it is handled nicely by
the margins. This assumes that you do not have lines with arbitrary end
points but rather let Word wrap your lines. With tables it sometimes causes
problems because, by their nature, tables have arbitrary end points.

I suspect that if we are talking ordinary text, your solution is to use
styles for your formatting and adjust the margins to suit your use.
Especially with the options for mirror margins with a gutter, Word is fairly
flexible. I routinely shrink and expand margins to better fit a document on
a page. You may want to look at
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/formatting/FitCopy.htm.

No, it is not Excel; Word is designed to handle different kinds of files.

For more on styles see http://addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htm.
 
J

Jim Orson

Charles,

Thanks for your comprehensive discussion. Now and then I design a single
page word document to use as a reference card and will continue to work with
the margins to make the printed page look good. It is not that difficult to
work with margins, but the "Center on Page" feature would be sort of handy,
for me at least. Links are another example of fixed end points that cannot
be wrapped.

I certainly agree that Word and Excel are designed to handle different kinds
of files. Throw Access in the mix, and it multiples the fun!

Jim...
 
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