See what you need to see in Print Layout view
When you’re editing, you might find it handy to get the headers and footers out of the way. Once you’ve checked that the header and footer have all the relevant information needed for the document, and the page numbering is correct, you don’t need to see those elements on-screen. When you’re focusing on the body of the text, all that extra space can be distracting. Modifying your Print Layout view has a few advantages.
How to make Print Layout View work for you
An ideal way to focus only on the main document text is to get rid of headers and footers while you work. You can just minimise all the white space at the top and bottom of the screen when you don’t need it. Simply double-click in the space between pages to hide the header and footer area from view.
I’ve made a quick video to show you how to do it.
Working in this modified view:
- makes it easier to focus on the text
- allows you to see more of the text on the screen, so don’t have to do so much scrolling
- means that if a table or a set of bullet points is split over two pages, you can more easily see it as a whole.
Playing peek-a-boo with page numbers?
Not everyone knows how to show and hide the white space. To help your clients, make sure you bring the header and footer back before saving your document.
A client once asked me to add page numbers to a document, when the page numbers were already there. My client had been sent a document that was saved in the modified page layout view, with headers and footers hidden. I simply saved the document with the page numbers showing, and sent it back with a note about why the problem had occurred.
Remember to double-click and expand that white space again before saving and sending your document elsewhere.
Know someone who works in MS Word and might find this information helpful? Feel free to share these tips and make someone’s day!