Default left and right margins

D

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

So that the distance between the margins is 6".

Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the
benefit of others who may be interested. Unsolicited questions forwarded
directly to me will only be answered on a paid consulting basis.

Hope this helps
Doug Robbins - Word MVP
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

Which gives a 72-character line in 12-pt (12 cpi) Courier New. Presumably
this was a requirement of the legal profession, whom MS may have been
assumed to be trying to woo away from WordPerfect.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
D

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

It goes back further than that. It was the default in Word Version 1.0 for
DOS which was before WordPerfect. I believe that it has something to do
with a comfortable line width that eliminates the need for eye movement when
speed reading. I tried a quick search on Google to try and find something
to support this theory. That wasn't successful, but did come across the
following:

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in
waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist
and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you
can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey
lteter by it slef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Helium, Oct 15 2003

at http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Speed_20Reading_20between_20the_20Lines
--
Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the
benefit of others who may be interested. Unsolicited questions forwarded
directly to me will only be answered on a paid consulting basis.

Hope this helps
Doug Robbins - Word MVP
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

What I had forgotten was that it was about what would fit comfortably on an
80-character screen. Since all fonts (proportional or monospaced) were
displayed the same in DOS, this meant that the actual line length for
Courier would match the displayed line length. I have a client who still
uses WP 5.1 for DOS with Courier as the default font for that reason.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
Top