Taming the beast: columns

[mrmagoo]

I'm back wrestling with this monster again. Went to SoftMaker for awhile and it had some nice features, but I just couldn't get a handle on it either and since I've spent so much time trying to tame Word (and gotten some things done), I figured it was time to go back.



So, I have a doc and the Word 2010 In Depth paperweight and I've been trying to get columns in a doc I'm working on. I tried manual insertion, section breaks, the whole thing and couldn't get it to come out right (incidentally, I wrote this thing in TextMaker and saved it in Word, then copied the text portions into another doc.). Then I found the part on selecting the text and letting Word do the work. Glorious!

However, when I do that, the first letters of the list items in columns 2 thru 6 are chopped off! I live such a pointless life. It's really depressing.

[Charles Kenyon]

Select your text that you want in columns.
Under the Page Layout tab click on columns and choose the layout you want. If this selection is in the middle of text two continuous section breaks will be inserted automatically.

Sections / Headers and Footers in Microsoft Word 2007-2010

[mrmagoo]

That's what I did and the first letters are chopped off.

[Charles Kenyon]

First letters, as in the letter "F" in this sentence?

Letters? Multiple? Can you give an example?

[mrmagoo]

In the same column, BODY has no B, MIND has a quarter of the M, AGILITY has no A and SPIRIT is missing the S and part of the P. I did a work-around using tables and hiding the borders.

Now, another issue. I have some text fields on a certain page with a header; the page is two columns. There is a column break in the middle of a field and I don't know how to get rid of it. If I try to select it, it highlights the whole field.

And I don't think I'll be able to tame Word in my lifetime, but I keep trying.

[Charles Kenyon]

A manual column break?

Alt-F9 shows field codes. You can edit them. Alt-F9 to go back to showing results.

[mrmagoo]

Thank you, sir