Buzz
MS Word is the leading word processing tool chosen and used by many, providing you with a wide range of unique and diverse features such as inserting images, inserting audio, creating and editing text... The tasks you can do within the scope of Word include composing simple documents like letters to creating professional publications such as books, newspapers, magazines,...
Dividing text into multiple columns in Word
However, not everyone is familiar with all of these features. Therefore, in the following article, Mytour will guide you on how to divide text into separate columns for each popular version of MS Word to make it easier to read.
I. Splitting text into multiple columns in Office 2003.
II. Splitting text into multiple columns in Office 2007.
1. Splitting columns first, editing text later.
2. Editing text first, splitting columns later.
III. Splitting text into multiple columns in Word 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2019..
1. Splitting text in Word 2019, 2016.
2. Splitting text in Office 2010.
3. Splitting text in Office 2013.
IV. How to split more than 3 columns in Word.
V. How to evenly split columns in Word.
VI. How to unevenly split columns in Word.
VII. Adding lines between newly created columns.
VII. Adjusting the size and spacing between columns.
IX. How to undo column splitting.
How to split text into multiple columns in MS Word
I. Splitting text into multiple columns in Office 2003
* Get the latest version of Office 2003 here.
To split a document into multiple columns in Word 2003, you'll need to handle it a bit differently than in Word versions 2007 and above, as you have to directly manipulate the text before splitting it into columns in word.
Step 1: Open any document composed in MS Word 2003 > use the shortcut Ctrl +A to select all the text. Click on the Format menu > select Columns.
Step 2: Select the number of columns directly above or type the desired number of columns to split in Word 2003.
Step 3: The result after splitting the document into multiple columns in Word 2003.
II. Splitting Text into Multiple Columns in Office 2007
* Download the latest version of Office 2007
1. Split Columns First, Compose Text Later
- Step 1: Open Word 2007, On the toolbar, select Page Layout > Columns.
- Step 2: Select the number of columns you want to split, you can use predefined column formats or split columns by specifying the desired number by clicking More Columns...
- Step 3: Type the number of columns in the Number of columns section. Here, you can customize the size of each column and preview the columns split in Preview for easier column splitting.
- Step 4: Click OK to save the settings. You have successfully split the text in Word 2007.
2. Compose Text First, Split Columns Later
- Open an existing Word document, select the entire text using the shortcut Ctrl + A. Choose Page Layout on the toolbar > Then, perform similar steps as Method 1 to set the number of columns and split the text into multiple columns.
- This is the text after it has been split into 2 columns, you can freely adjust the font size to fit the columns. So, splitting text into multiple columns in Word 2007 is quite simple, isn't it?
III. Splitting Text into Multiple Columns in Word 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2019.
1. Splitting Text on Word 2019 and 2016
* Download the latest version of Office 2016
* Download the latest version of Office 2019
For Word 2019 version, although it's a new version, the interface remains similar to Word 2016. Therefore, the method of splitting text into columns in both Word 2016 and Word 2019 is quite similar. In this article, Mytour demonstrates on Word 2016, but if you're using Word 2019, you can also follow these steps.
Step 1: To split text into multiple columns in Word 2016, you first need to open the document you want to split into columns. Here, you select Layout > then choose Columns.
Step 2: Here, Columns provides preset options for one column (default), two columns, three columns, or more columns on the left or right side, depending entirely on your preference. Or not, if you want, you can click on More Columns...
Step 3: Here, you just need to pay attention to the Number of Columns line, which allows us to split text into multiple columns in Word. Adjusting how many columns will correspondingly split the text into that number of columns.
Step 4: For instance, in this case, Mytour has split the text into multiple columns in Word into 3 sections, the result will be as shown below with 3 equally sized sections.
2. Splitting Text in Office 2010
* Download the latest version of Office 2010
Step 1: Select the entire text you want to split into multiple columns, then choose Page Layout.
Step 2: Press Columns and choose the number of columns to split.
3. Splitting Text in Office 2013
* Download the latest version of Office 2013
Regarding the interface, the Office 2013 version is similar to Office 2016, so readers can refer to the summary image below or follow the instructions in the section on splitting text into multiple columns in Word 2016 that we provided at the beginning of the article.
- Step 1: To split text into multiple columns in Word 2013, we just need to go to Page Layout > select Columns
- Step 2: Choose the number of columns to split in the Number of Columns section.
IV. How to Split More than 3 Columns in Word
To split text into more than 3 columns in Word, follow these steps:
Step 1: Select Layout => Choose Columns => Select More Columns....
Step 2: In the Number of columns section, simply enter the number of columns you want to split the text into and click Ok.
- Result:
V. How to Evenly Distribute Columns in Word
To evenly distribute text into columns in Word, follow these steps:
Place the cursor at the beginning of the paragraph you want to move => Select Breaks => Choose Columns
- Result:
VI. How to Split Uneven Columns in Word
To split columns unevenly, simply highlight all the text then choose Layout => Select Columns => Choose Left (if you want the left column smaller than the right) or Right (if you want the right column smaller than the left)
- Result:
VII. Adding Lines Between Columns Created in Word
To add lines between columns created in Word, follow these steps:
Step 1: Select Layout => Choose Columns => Select More Columns...
Step 2: Here, select the Line Between option and then click Ok.
- Result:
VIII. Adjusting Size and Spacing Between Columns
To adjust the size and spacing between columns, follow these steps:
Step 1: Select Layout => Choose Columns => Select More Columns...
Step 2: Here, select the Width and spacing option to adjust the size and spacing, then click OK.
- Result:
IX. How to Remove Newly Created Columns
To remove newly created columns, simply highlight all the text then choose Layout => Choose Columns => Choose One
- Result:
In addition to text column splitting feature, MS Word also offers a plethora of corresponding tools for each feature to help you easily compose documents with various content. You can also create borders for your Word documents to make them stand out and look more professional. There are many basic tools in Word that users need to know to produce a standardized document in Word. The method of splitting text into multiple columns in Word 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019 above will be a small basic tip for Word users to achieve the most standardized text, following the current standards. If you want to add columns, add rows in Word, check out Mytour's article on adding rows, columns in Word.
