How to Create Columns In Microsoft Word

By Habiba RehmanUpdated on December 8, 2023

When working on MS Word, you can create columns of your text like how it is in brochures. There are two ways to make columns in MS Word. You can either choose a format which already has columns created format. Or, you can make the columns yourself.

The feature of selecting the format type is not available in all MS Word, but you don’t worry about that because even if you can’t select that format, there is something which will help you make columns within your text.

Making Columns By Selecting a Format That Has Columns

Open a New File, and select a format which has columns.

When you select a format that shows columns, you can start writing in columns in that document. Like how I selected the brochure format, I was asked to download it. You can download it and start writing your text.

Choose the format that suits you the best. I wanted columns so I will go for something like a brochure

This is how the columns for your Word page now will appear. You can delete the already existing text and replace it with whatever you have to write.

I deleted the text from the format, and wrote something of my own just to show how the columns will now appear. You can keep the background from the format if you like or create something of your own. It is totally up to you.

Here are your columns. SInce the format you selected had three columns, so your work will show in three columns as well.

Columns are used usually when you have to make a brochure, or have to make a magazine oriented project or assignment for college. You can use this way of making columns. The format divides the page into three columns. If you don’t want three columns and want two instead, here is what you can do. This is the second method of creating columns for a Word document.

Making Columns by Using ‘Columns’ in ‘Page Layout’

If you want to reduce the number of columns in the previous example, or want to create columns in a normal page format, here is what you need to do.

Select the whole text.

Select the text that you want to be in columns. If it is the whole document, simply press ‘CTRL + C’

Locate Page Layout on the tool bar right above. It is next to the Insert option. Click on that And you will be directed to more options for your document.

Click on ‘Columns’ and choose the number of columns you want in your document. You can have up to three columns in your Word file which is the suggested number by professionals. According to the options presented, you can also format your columns positioning. Whether you want one column to be bigger than the other one, or you want both of them to be of equal size.

Whether you want to reduce the number of columns or add columns to your work,you can follow the same steps.

The option for ‘More Columns’ allows you to make more than 3 columns. This means you can make as many columns as you like.

Clicking on ‘more columns’ gives you these options. I chose 5 columns for my word document.

Adding more columns to your work through the ‘More Columns’ option. You can add as many columns as you like by writing the number in the space for ‘Number of Columns’.

And this is how my work appeared once the 5 columns were created.

Looks a bit too clustered doesn’t it? Well that also depends on the size of your paper. If you are working on an A4 size sheet, 5 columns might make your work look super clustered. But, if you are working on a larger scale, your work might look different.

I changed my page size from A4 to A3, and this is how my columns changed in appearance.

Selecting A3 page size. The text that you entered on an A4 was less, thus the fewer number of columns visible.

If you add more text to this, your page will look something like this.

5 Columns on an A3 size look much more organized than an A4 sized sheet.

You can add lines between your columns, you can create columns at a specific point on your page if you don’t want the whole page to be in columns, and you can also change the width and length of each column according to your requirements. All these options are present when you click ‘More Columns’ under ‘Columns’.