Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 9, 2025)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365
Sideheads are document headings that are placed in the margins of your document. This can be done as part of an overall layout design to create a certain image for your information. You can create sideheads in Word using a text box. Follow these general steps to create your sidehead:
Your sidehead has been placed, and you can type text in the newly placed text box. (Make sure you format the text box itself to reflect your design preferences.)
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (11395) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Creating Sideheads.
Learning Made Easy! Quickly teach yourself how to format, publish, and share your content using Word 2021 or Microsoft 365. With Step by Step, you set the pace, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Check out Microsoft Word Step by Step today!
Enter a page break in Word, and that page break may not appear on the screen as you expect it to appear. This has to do ...
Discover MoreWant to print your document only on odd-numbered pages in a printout? There are a couple of things you can try, as ...
Discover MorePage numbers in printed pages are often a necessary part of formatting a document. What do you do if your printed output ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2025-08-09 05:48:52
Robert Love
A disadvantage of this textbox-based approach is that it's fiddly work to get all the sideheads uniformly aligned. As an alternative I have sometimes formatted the entire document as a two-column table with the first column devoted to the sideheads. This approach comes with some disadvantages of its own, however. Such as that keep-lines-together and other paragraphing options don't work properly within table cells.
Has anyone else tried the two-column approach and beem satisfied with it?
Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.
Visit the WordTips channel on YouTube
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2025 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Comments