Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365. 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: Positioning Line Numbers.

Positioning Line Numbers

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 12, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365

In other issues of WordTips you learn how to add line numbers to your document. Word also allows you to modify how far line numbers are from the text in your document. To do this, follow these steps:

Display the Layout tab of the ribbon.
Click the Line Numbers tool (in the Page Setup group) and then choose Line Numbering Options. Word displays the Layout tab of the Page Setup dialog box.
Click on the Line Numbers button. Word displays the Line Numbers dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Line Numbers dialog box.

Adjust the measurement in the From Text box to indicate how far the line numbers appear from your text.
Click on OK to close the Line Numbers dialog box.
Click on OK to close the Page Setup dialog box.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (10194) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Positioning Line Numbers.

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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What is nine minus 1?

2022-02-15 01:47:47

Arya

Thanks for the tip!

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