Tag: Office365

How to Use Breaks in Word 365

This blog will explore how to use breaks in Word 365. Users who are not familiar often mistakenly make the mistake of creating new sections or pages by simply hitting their Enter key repeatedly until they have created the appearance of a new page or a new section in their document. It drives me crazy when I receive a document to work on and encounter this. It takes a lot of time and keystrokes. I am all about getting things done efficiently and quickly.

The issue with this technique is that if you or anybody else goes back and modifies a previous paragraph in the document, inserts an image, or resizes anything that occurs before all those carriage returns, all of that space just shifts to an unexpected location in the content.

You need to know that a break is different than just pressing the Enter key on your keyboard. In fact, if you open any Word document and enable the Show/Hide feature, you will see all of the hidden formatting marks (non-printing characters) in that document, including all spaces, pilcrows (paragraph markings), and section breaks.

All spaces will appear as tiny dots between each word if your formatting marks are visible. Section breaks, however, will appear in dotted lines with the words Section Break and then the kind of break following in parentheses.

You can create two basic types in Word: Page breaks and section breaks. Most people are familiar with page breaks and the most popular. However, there are also other types of page breaks: column and text wrapping. A column break stops the text in one column and repeats the text at the beginning of your next column. A text wrapping break will separate text from objects on web pages. Those three breaks are the type of page breaks you will find in Word. This leads us to create a page break and a section break.

Use Breaks in Word 365

Follow the steps below to learn how to use breaks in Microsoft Word 365.
Once your document is completed and you have decided which type of break will work for you, save your document.
Firstly, you must move your insertion point to where you would like your break to begin.
You must go to the layout tab and Breaks, which will open the Breaks menu.

Toward the top, you will see Page. Click on this to insert a page break.
That was easy. Now, we can move to the section breaks. There are different types of section breaks besides the one we discussed earlier, which starts a new section and keeps the text on the same page. These include the next page break, the even page section break, and the odd page section break.

What is the reason why all these breaks are necessary? The answer is that section breaks are useful when you want a portion of your document to look different and stand out more than the rest. Each section can have its own look, with its own page orientation, style, headers, and footers, and other ways of formatting.

Follow the instructions below to learn how to insert a section break.
Move your insertion point to where you would prefer your break to start.
In the Layout tab, click Breaks. It will open the Breaks menu.

In the middle of the menu, you will see Section Breaks.
Select Continuous to insert a continuous section break.

Read more about How To Disable Auto Bullets Numbering in Word 365

14/09/2024
How To Change Page Orientation in Word 365

This article explains how to change page orientation in Microsoft Word 365. We included inserting a section break in a previous post, and I promised to follow up by changing the page orientation. There are different reasons why one might need to change the orientation in your documents, and I believe you will be happy to have learned about this.

Once you have inserted your section breaks into your document, you can now modify the page orientation of any of your sections without affecting the layout of the other sections. You can now move your insertion point to a part and change page orientation for one page in Word.

Change Page Orientation in Microsoft Word

Follow the steps below to learn how to change the page to portrait and landscape:
Select the Layout tab and click on Orientation in the page section, which will open a menu with two options: “Portrait and Landscape”.

Select Landscape
The section you selected earlier should show landscape now, and the rest of your document should remain in portrait format.
That is how you modify the layout of your documents. This is a simple example of how you can accomplish sections.

You will discover that sometimes the Word inserts section breaks automatically, without you even knowing it, which happens when you insert columns in your documents. If you select any text in your document and then go to Layout > Columns > Two, Word will automatically create continuous section breaks before and after the selected area. Occasionally, when adding certain formatting features in Word, you may not always be aware that Word is inserting sections for you.

Is it a big deal? If you use section numbers and start to notice randomly that your numbering appears to be a bit off, this could be why. You may have encountered a feature in Word that has added a section break. I always suggest having your Show/Hide enabled so that you can see all formatting marks.

Click on the File tab and then Options.

Click on display options.

Changing the orientation of pages in Word is very beneficial, especially when you are using charts or tables that do not fit in portrait mode.
However, you will likely not be using this formatting as frequently as you are numbering sections and pages.

14/08/2024
How To Modify Table of Contents in Word 365

In this article, Let’s explore how to modify table of contents in Microsoft Word 365. You can modify how it appears once you have created and saved a Table of Contents in Word. If you have created an automatic or custom TOC using heading styles, you can modify the table of contents layout using table of contents styles. The TOC styles are created automatically based on heading levels. For example, if you have included 3 heading styles when you created your TOC, Word will create 3 TOC styles that you can modify to alter the format of your table quickly.

Customizing your table of contents will apply your preferences to your current table. If you enjoy what you see, select ok. If not, simply choose Cancel, and all your changes will be forgotten. Your table of contents will remain there.

Modify Table of Contents in Word

Modify a table of contents by modifying or removing tab leaders.
Tables of contents are usually displayed with tab leaders (such as dots or periods).
To easily modify or remove tab leaders for the whole table of contents:
Click the automatic or custom table of contents.
Go to the References tab on the Ribbon.

Choose Table of Contents from the Table of Contents group. A drop-down window appears.
Select the Custom Table of Contents. A dialog box is shown.

Select a distinct leader or None from the tab leader drop-down menu and click ok.

Tab leader options are displayed in the Table of Contents dialogue box as follows:

Modify TOC styles to modify the format of table of contents entries.
To modify a table of contents style:
Click on the automatic or custom table of contents.
Select the References tab in the Ribbon.

Choose Table of Contents from the Table of Contents group. A drop-down window appears.
Choose Custom Table of Contents. A dialog box is shown.
Ensure From Template is selected alongside Formats and click Modify.

A window box appears. You can customize the TOC styles in the table of contents. If you have created the table of contents from three heading levels, 3 TOC styles can be modified. These styles are in a hierarchy (TOC is the top level).
Click the TOC style you wish to modify and click Modify.

Modify Styles Dialogue Box

The Modify Styles dialogue box appears. Turn off Automatically Update Styles (so users cannot modify the table of contents in the document and alter the formatting throughout the table of contents). It is also advisable to ensure New Documents Based on This Template is not selected so that you don’t alter TOC formatting in the template (typically the Normal template).

You can modify it, such as changing the font size and color. Click Format at the bottom of the dialog box and select Font or Paragraph from the dropdown menu.
Continue to click ok to close the dialog boxes.
The template is selected in the Table of Contents dialog box below. Formats:

After you click Modify in the Table of Contents dialog box (notice that Format appears on the bottom left and gives Font, Paragraph, and other options), the Style dialog box with TOC styles appears:

After you click Modify in the Style dialog box, the Modify Style dialog box appears:

Change Fonts in a Table of Contents

You can modify the font for each TOC level using the method above. However, if you have used themes in the Word 365 document, the table of content styles should select the font based on the font theme.

The Design tab in the Ribbon is used for Font themes.
Apply a font theme in a Word document:
Click the Design tab on the Ribbon.
Click the Fonts in the Document Formatting group. A drop-down window appears.
Select a Font theme.

When you first create a Word document, it’s advisable to select a font theme or document theme with the font theme you desire. If users manually alter the font, this overturns the theme.

Change Indents and Spacing in Table of Contents

You can modify the indents and spacing in TOC styles. Indents and spacing (above and below) are a paragraph.
To modify the indents and spacing in a table of content style:
Click the automatic or custom table of contents.
Select the References tab in the Ribbon.
Select Table of Contents from the Table of Contents group. A drop-down window appears.

Select a Custom Table of Contents. A dialog box is shown.
Ensure From Template is included in the Formats.
Click Modify. A dialog box is shown.
Click the TOC style you wish to modify.
Click Modify. The Modify Styles dialog box displays. Ensure Automatically Update is not checked.

Click Format at the top of the dialog box. A drop-down window appears.
Select Paragraph. The Paragraph dialogue box appears.

Enter the desired indents (usually inches or centimeters, based on your measurement system). It is shared here to alter the left indent.
Enter values in the Prior and After areas below Spacing (in points).
Continue to click OK to close the dialog boxes.

The Paragraph dialog box opens up when you click Format and choose Paragraph in the Modify Styles dialog box as follows:

Several other options, such as tabs and borders, are worth exploring in the Format menu in the Modify Styles dialog box.

Visit Microsoft to learn more about the table of contents.

10/08/2024