A rchive Date
[ 11-06-2000 ]
Category
[ Information Technologies ]
sub-Categoy
[ Microsoft ]
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[WORD
Change page orientation in the middle of a document
September 1999
Suppose you're working on a report and you need to include information that's best displayed in landscape orientation; however, you've used portrait orientation in the rest of your document. Changing page orientation in the middle of a document might seem like a difficult task, but it isn't. Let's take a look at how to do this. We'll begin by discussing the technique in general, and then we'll demonstrate with examples.
Technique overview
Inserting a section break for the part of the page you wish to alter is the key to changing page orientation in the middle of a document. If a document is broken into sections, you can easily change the formatting for specific parts of your document. For example, you can use section breaks to make the margins in one part of your document different from those in the rest of the document, or you can create a multicolumn layout in part of your document. It's important to insert Next Page section breaks rather than Continuous section breaks when you want to change the orientation for part of your document. As you might imagine, a Next Page break begins a new page; a Continuous break simply starts a new section without starting a new page. Word won't allow you to mix portrait and landscape orientation on a single page. To insert a Next Page section break, begin by placing the insertion point where you want the break. In this case, it would be at the end of the page that precedes the page you want to make landscape.
Then, choose Insert/Break from the main menu to open the Break dialog box. Select the Next Page option in the Section Break Types panel and then click OK to close the dialog box and insert the break. You must then insert another Next Page section break if you want the page following the landscape page to be portrait. This creates a section that contains the page with the Landscape orientation. To change a section's orientation, first make sure the insertion point is in the section. Then, choose File/Page Setup from the menu bar and click on the Paper Size tab. This property sheet lets you specify page orientation. To change the section's orientation from portrait to landscape, select the Landscape option. When you do, Word displays an image of the page with landscape orientation in the tab's Preview area. Word also switches the measurements in both the Width and Height text boxes in the Paper Size area. To close the Page Setup dialog box and apply the Landscape setting, click OK. Although these steps are straightforward and necessary in most instances, there is a time when you don't need to insert a section break to change the orientation for part of a document. For example, when you format part of a document with multiple columns, Word places the text in its own section, using Continuous section breaks. If you then change the orientation for a multicolumn section, Word converts the Continuous section breaks to Next Page section breaks.
An example
To demonstrate how you change page orientation in the middle of a document, let's work through an example. We'll use a sample three-page document. Figure C shows this document in Print Preview. As you can see, we're created a document that contains a large table on the second page, which is currently running off the right side of the page. We want to change the orientation of the second page from portrait to landscape to better accommodate the table. To begin, open or create a three-page document (let's keep things simple). Next, choose View/Normal from the menu bar and place the insertion point at the bottom of page 1. Assuming page 2's page orientation is the one you're going to modify, you need to begin creating the new section at the end of page 1. Now, choose Insert/Break from the menu bar, select the Next Page option from the Section Break Types panel, and click OK. Word inserts a break on page 1 and places the insertion point on page 2. Now, you need to repeat the previous steps and insert another Next Page section break at the bottom of page 2. When you've finished, you'll have a Next Page section break at the end of page 1 and page 2, as shown in Figure D. At this point, it's time to change page 2's orientation from portrait to landscape. With the insertion point on page 2, choose File/Page Setup from the menu bar and click on the Paper Size tab. In the Orientation panel, select the Landscape option. Finally, click OK, and Word applies the setting to the section, changing its orientation without affecting the other pages. To see the result, switch to Print Preview, click the Multiple Pages button on the Print Preview toolbar, and select the 1 x 3 Pages option.
A final note
Although we worked in Normal view, you can also insert Section breaks and change page orientation in Page Layout view and Print Preview. In fact, you may prefer working in one of these views, since it will enable you to see formatting and other effects that you can't see in Normal view.
Make the orientation change
As you can see, it isn't difficult to change page orientation in the middle of a document. By creating a section that contains the page or pages you need to change, you can quickly transform a portrait page to landscape orientation or vice versa. This ability comes in handy when you need to accommodate pages in a document that may not lend themselves to the orientation of the rest of the document. ]
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