Troubleshoot newsletter-style columns

Try one of the following solutions:

• Switch to print layout view.
• Try typing more text. You might not have enough text to wrap to the next column.

You can't use newsletter-style columns in headers, footers, comments, or text boxes. To arrange text in these areas, use a table.

This occurs when the width of the table is wider than the width of the newsletter-style column.

Try one of the following solutions:

• If you inserted the table before formatting the document with columns, you can adjust the width of the table. To do this, click in the table, point to Select on the Table menu, and then click Table. On the Table menu, point to AutoFit, and then click AutoFit to Window.
• Insert the table after you format the document with newsletter-style columns.

• If you are working on a document that was converted from another program, you might need to adjust a compatibility option. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Compatibility tab. Clear the Don't balance columns for Continuous section starts check box.
• You might have paragraph formatting that is interfering with the balancing of newsletter-style columns. On the Format menu, click Paragraph, and then click the Line and Page Breaks tab. Clear the Widow/Orphan control, Keep lines together, Keep with next, and Page break before check boxes.

The text may have an indent or hanging indent applied to it. Click in the text, and then look at the ruler. If an indent marker is to the right or left of the column marker, drag the indent marker to align it with the column marker. You can also modify indents by using the Paragraph command on the Format menu.

• The document may be divided into sections.

• The section that is formatted with multiple columns and vertical lines is followed by a section with a landscape orientation.

To display and print the vertical lines in the section that contains newsletter-style columns, do one of the following:

• Insert another section break. To do this, click at the end of the section that contains multiple columns, but before the section break that starts the landscape orientation. On the Insert menu, click Break, and then click Continuous.

• You can also click Line on the Drawing toolbar to draw a vertical black line between each newsletter-style column. To change the appearance of the line— for instance, to change the line weight or color— right-click the line and click Format AutoShape on the shortcut menu. Click the Colors and Lines tab, and select the options you want.

To remove a newspaper-style column, you must place the cursor in the portion of the document that contains multiple columns, making sure that the cursor is not in a heading that spans multiple columns.