Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Changing Page Margins.

Changing Page Margins

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 13, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021

When you first start Word, certain assumptions are made about your page layout. One of these assumptions has to do with your page margins. You can change your page margins at any time by following these steps:

Make sure the Layout tab of the ribbon (or Page Layout tab in older versions of Word) is displayed.
Click the Margins tool in the Page Setup group. Word displays a number of common margin settings from which you can choose. (If you see the margins you want, click the setting and you are done.)
Click Custom Margins. Word displays the Margins tab of the Page Setup dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Margins tab of the Page Setup dialog box.

Adjust the top, bottom, left, and right margins as desired.
Make sure the Apply To drop-down list is set to Whole Document.
Click on OK.

Page margins can be different for each section in your document. This means that if you need to switch margins in the middle of a document, you can do so by inserting a section break and then modifying the margins for each of the resulting document sections. When doing this, the only difference in the above steps is that you would make sure the Apply To drop-down list (step 5) is set to This Section.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (9501) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Changing Page Margins.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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