Formatting your text into columns helps structure your content visually, similar to a newspaper or magazine layout. While the initial setup involves applying column formatting to a section of text, a crucial technique for controlling text flow within those columns is inserting a column break.
Using Column Breaks to Control Column Layout
As described in the provided reference, inserting a column break allows you to dictate exactly where text should end in one column and begin in the next. This method is particularly useful when you need to balance column lengths or force a specific heading or paragraph to start at the top of a new column.
Here's how to insert a column break, based on the reference's demonstration using a method like that found in Microsoft Word 2010:
- Position your cursor: Place your cursor (referred to as "your marker" in the reference) immediately before the text you want to appear at the beginning of the next column. For example, if you want the last paragraph of a section to start a new column, place the cursor "in front of the last paragraph."
- Navigate to the Layout options: Go to the Page Layout or Layout tab in your ribbon.
- Access Breaks: Click on the Breaks option.
- Insert a Column Break: Select Column from the list of break types.
By inserting a "column break now," as shown in the reference, you ensure that "the last paragraph will start in the second column," regardless of how much space was left in the preceding column.
Why Use Column Breaks?
Column breaks offer precise control over your layout:
- Force Content Placement: Ensure specific paragraphs, headings, or images always start at the top of a column.
- Balance Columns: Manually adjust where content breaks to make the columns on a page end at roughly the same vertical position.
- Improve Readability: Prevent awkward wrapping of text or headings at the bottom of a column.
Understanding and utilizing column breaks, like accessing the "Page Layout breaks and then insert a column break," is key to finessing the appearance and flow of text formatted into multiple columns.
