Document Layouts, Navigation and Arrangements - Microsoft Word 2007

Abstract: Working with Word becomes more convenient if you can customize the view of your document. This article will give you information about the various layouts, navigation within the document, zoom options and window arrangements.

Document Views or Page LayoutsTo be able to select different views, select the View tab from the ribbon and find the Document Views section. This section displays the following Page Layout options:

Print Layout View

Helps to view the document as it will appear on the printed page.


Full Screen Reading
View the document in Full Screen Reading view in order to maximize the space available for reading or commenting on the document. This is an ideal layout for reading long documents and need not be used to work on them. In this layout you would be able to read two pages of your document at the same time. The pages are docked side-by-side. At the top you have the navigation buttons to traverse between the pages of the document.

But the ribbon and the title bar are missing in this view since it is a separate view.

At the top in the leftmost corner there are some tools and commands which could be useful while reading a document. Similarly at the top the rightmost corner gives you two options; the View Options and Close.

View Options give you some view options like Don't open attachments in Full Screen, Show One Page, Show Printed Pages and so on. You can choose to select any of these options according to your requirements.

Close would close only the view and return to your default layout.

Web Layout
View the document as it would look like a web page. This layout can be used for designing documents for the web. So the view enables you to get an idea of how your document would look as a webpage.

Outline
View the document as an outline and with the outlining tools. This view would be ideal if you are working in an outline. This view enables you to have multiple levels in the outline and easily edit those different levels.

Draft
View the document as a draft to quickly edit the text. Certain element of the document such as the headers and footers will not be visible in this view. Draft layout helps you to concentrate only on the text of the document.

You can choose a page layout alternatively from the status bar. The Status bar displays five buttons previewing each view along with a screen tip displaying the name of the view.

2. Show/Hide

Rulers
Rulers show you the vertical and horizontal measurements for margins, table rows, indents, etc. The horizontal and vertical rulers are often used to align text, images, tables and such other elements in a Word document. By default the rulers are not visible when you create a new document or open an existing document. To view the rulers select the View tab in the ribbon. In the Show/Hide options check the box next to Ruler. You can use the shortcut to show or hide the rulers. In the top of the scroll bar you have a small button with image on it. This button would show or hide the rulers. This would display the horizontal ruler across the top of the page and the vertical ruler along the left edge of your document. For both the rulers to be displayed on your document you must be in the Print Layout view.

Gridlines:
Gridlines would display gridline in the whole document in the Print Layout view. These gridlines are no t printed when you print the document. You can change the spacing between these gridlines.

Message Bar

A message bar shows security alerts when there is an active content in the document that is potentially unsafe. For example; an unsigned macro. You can enable or disable Message bar alerts in Word Options. Click the Microsoft Office button and select Word Options. In the left pane of Word options choose Trust Center and then click on Trust Center Settings, further click on Message bar in the left pane. You can choose either of the following two options:

Show the Message Bar in all applications when document content has been blocked is selected by default which means that you will receive alerts whenever any potentially unsafe content has been disabled.

NOTE: This option will be deselected if ‘Disable all macros without notification’ option in Macros section of Trust Center is enabled.

Never show information about blocked content disables the Message bar.

Document Map

This is a way to around a longer document quickly. When you select the checkbox next to the Document Map, on the left hand margin of the page you can see an additional section displaying the headings of the document. And you can simply click on these to move from section to section in your Document Map.

Thumbnails

Another way to move around in your document is by using Thumbnails. When you select Thumbnails from the Show/Hide group, it automatically deselects the Document Map option. Thumbnails option displays the representations of each of the pages in your document. The current page is selected. So as you scroll up and down this section you can see the thumbnails of all the pages along with their page numbers and to go to that page a click on the thumbnail is sufficient.

3. Zoom

The zoom tool can be used for zoom in to a document to get a close up view of your document or zoom out to see more of the page at a reduced size. You can access the zoom tool from the View tab on the ribbon.