Margins comprise the area at the top, bottom, left and right of the page in which text will not normally appear; they are the blank spaces around the edge of the page. Margins for each of the four sides can be set independently. Margins can also be set independently per section of a document.
In this post:
1. Definition
Navigate to the View menu to activate the Ruler option.
Notice the grey areas denoting the margins on the ends of the horizontal and vertical rulers.
2. Default
I generally customise my margins rather than use the default to ensure that they are not too wide. I find narrower margins look more modern and of course, use less paper — Green Computing!
3. Custom
The simple method is simply to hover over the edge of the grey margin area in the ruler and left-click drag the margins. This is probably one of those occasions where the shortcut is inadequate and should be avoided, especially in an assessment where you will no doubt be given exact measurements which will be impossible to set in this manner.
For accurate settings, left-click the Margins button on the Page Layout menu and select the Custom Margins option at the bottom of the drop-down options. You can enter point values, for example, 50 pt which will then be converted to the default unit, 1.76 cm. [1].
4. Mirrored
You should be able to observe mirrored margins in your textbook (or any bound publication for that matter). The left and right margins are frequently of different widths to accommodate call-out boxes or icons. The author may want the callouts to always be on the opposite edge of the page to the binding, i.e. on the left of the left-hand side page and the right of the right-hand side page. This is where mirrored margins are applied.
- Navigate to Custom Margins as explained in the previous section
- Select Mirror margins from the Multiple pages drop-down
- Set the Inside value
- Set the Outside value
5. Gutter Margins
Gutter Margins allow extra space for the purpose of binding a document and can be added to any side to accommodate any type of binding. The size of the Gutter Margin can be set manually.
The Gutter Position can be set to Left or Top, depending on how you intend to bind your document.
References:
- Microsoft Support. (2022) Change units used for margin measurement. Available at: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/change-units-used-for-margin-measurement-c65a06a7-2555-45d2-8912-f33c7e6fa404 (Accessed: 5 October 2022)