We will adjust the page display from the View tab. We would like to pick the Print Layout, show the ruler, and adjust the document to show the page width. All of this is done from the view tab.
Once you are on the View tab, look to the far left. There are several views that you can choose.
Views
The read mode removes most of the distractions from the page, leaving only the text. This might be helpful after you create a document, but not while you are creating.
The Print Layout is the one one we want. Once you click on this, you should see an individual page on the screen. If you see two, don’t worry, we will adjust that soon.
The Web Layout is useful only if you are building web pages. That being said, there are much better tools than Microsoft Word for building web pages. In fact, the formatting codes that Microsoft Word uses to build the HTML (HyperText Markup Language) pages are often way more complicated than they should be.
If you are building a large document, you might want to click on the Outline option. This breaks the document into sections based on your headings. Unfortunately, this view is very difficult to read.
Similarly, the draft view removes columns and other formatting, making the page hard to read.
Page Layout View
The view that I find most useful is the Print Layout View. This is the closest to WYSIWYG version. When you are laying out a page, this view will be what you get when you print out the document.
Show Tool Group
A few tool groups over, you will find a group called “Show”. I like to click on the Ruler Option. This is helpful when I am setting up indents and tabs later.
The grid line option is helpful for placing images and/or tables. I tend to leave that option unchecked.
The Navigation Pane option will produce a list of heading to the left side of your window. This can be helpful while you are organizing a document, but takes up room on your screen. Unless you have a large widescreen monitor, I recommend that you leave it unchecked.
Zoom
The last setting for now is found just to the right of the Show tool group. It is a tool group labeled ast Zoom. As you might guess, this set of tools adjusts how much you can see on your monitor. You can adjust to any zoom size you want here. This makes the whole page bigger or smaller on your screen, but doesn’t affect the printed size of the page. If you have a widescreen monitor, you can show multiple pages.
I typically choose the “Page Width” option. This usually makes the text big enough for me to read easily. I might not be able to see the whole page at once. If I want this option, I can click on the “One Page” option, that fits a single page onto the screen. At this level of zoom, though, it can be hard to read the text. I often use this option only just before I print my document. It makes it easier to see how the whole page fits together.