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: Viewing Your Entire Document Width.

Viewing Your Entire Document Width

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 20, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021


If you are creating wide documents, such as those you will print in landscape mode, then you may find yourself scrolling left and right within your document window all the time. For some people, this can be disturbing. One of the things you might try to overcome this disturbance is the following:

  1. Display the View tab of the ribbon.
  2. Click the Zoom tool, in the Zoom group. Word displays the Zoom dialog box. (See Figure 1.)
  3. Figure 1. The Zoom dialog box.

  4. Make sure the Page Width radio button is selected.
  5. Click on OK.

These actions cause Word to reduce (or increase) the magnification applied to your document so that the entire width of your document will fit on the screen at once. Depending on your document and the resolution of your monitor, this can be a nice tool to use.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (12945) 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: Viewing Your Entire Document Width.

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. ...

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