Column width of follow-up pages

[Markk]

Hi all,

I'm creating a .dotx template in Word 2007. The first page and the follow-up
pages will have a two-column lay-out. The columns at the follow-up pages are
narrower than those on the first page. To make thinngs clear, I've
illustrated my idea: http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/9307/columns.jpg

I can manage to make the columns on the follow-up page narrower. But when I
delete my dummy content from the template and start typing until I reach the
follow-up page, the columns on the follow-up page has the same with as those
on the first page.

I've tried to work with section-endings, but their position looks like
relative to the text, so they move along with the text when I type.

How can I manage that the columns on the follow-up pages stays narrower,
even when I deleted the dummy content?

Thanks in advance,

- Mark
The Netherlans

 

[DeanH]

My first thoughts are that you have Different First Page attributed to the
section, this could allow for different Margin settings. Go to Page Setup and
see if this attribute has been checked, if you dont need a different first
page, then uncheck it. If you do, change the margin settings on page 2, etc
to match those of the first page.

Hope this helps
DeanH

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Word is not really a page layout program, and I don't think there's going to
be any practical way for you to do this. In a page layout program such as
Publisher, you'd use text boxes instead of columns for your text, and you
could do this in Word as well, but the limit on the number of *linked* text
boxes is 32, which might not be enough for your purposes, and it adds
incalculable complexity to the document. Dean's suggestion of using
"Different first page," with a text box or AutoShape anchored to the Header
to create an artificially larger right margin on pages 2ff, would work for a
single column, but I'm not convinced it would for two columns (haven't tried
it), and of course it wouldn't allow you to put different content in that
other space, if that was your plan.

That said, the only way to change the column width is with a Continuous
section break, and you cannot have text flowing across a section break, so
you cannot just keep typing and expect it to stay in place at the bottom of
the first page. So, as I say, no really practical way to accomplish this in
Word.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org