The ruler in Microsoft Word is an often overlooked tool, but it’s very useful to help you organize and edit documents more efficiently.
Microsoft Word has a variety of features and functions that can help you create, edit, and format documents easily and quickly. One feature that is often overlooked by many users is the ruler.
A ruler is a tool that functions like a regular ruler, which is to measure and adjust the distance, width, height, and position of text, images, tables, and other objects in a document. By using a ruler, you can make your documents more neat, organized, and professional.
However, not everyone knows how to use the ruler in Microsoft Word correctly and effectively. Therefore, in this article, we will explain in full detail how to enable, customize, and utilize rulers in Microsoft Word for various purposes. Check out the following review to the end.
How to Enable Ruler in Microsoft Word
Before you can use the ruler in Microsoft Word, you must first enable it. By default, the ruler may not be visible on your screen. To display the ruler, there are several ways you can do this, depending on the version of Microsoft Word that you are using.
If you are using Microsoft Word 2010 or later versions, you can enable the ruler in the following ways:
- Open the document that you want to work on in Microsoft Word.
- Select the “View” tab located at the top of the screen.
- Under the “Show” group, check the “Ruler” box. You can also use the shortcut “Alt + Shift + F9” to turn the ruler on or off.
After that, you’ll see a horizontal ruler at the top of the document and a vertical ruler at the left of the document.
How to Adjust the Ruler in Microsoft Word
Once you enable the ruler in Microsoft Word, you can customize it according to your needs and preferences. There are several things you can do to adjust the ruler, namely:
- Change the ruler’s unit of measure
- Set document margins using the ruler
- Set the stop tab using the ruler
- Set paragraph indentation using the ruler
- Change the ruler’s orientation
Here is a more explanation of how to adjust the ruler in Microsoft Word for each of the above.
1] How to Change the Ruler’s Unit of Measure
By default, rulers in Microsoft Word use inches. However, you can change the ruler’s unit of measure to another unit, such as centimeters, points, or pixels. To change the ruler unit of measure, you can do the following steps:
- Open the document that you want to work on in Microsoft Word.
- Right-click on the horizontal or vertical ruler.
- Select the unit of measure you want from the menu that appears. You can choose between Inches, Centimeters, Millimeters, Points, or Picas.
After that, the ruler will display the unit of measure you selected.
2] How to Set Document Margins Using the Ruler
Margins are the distance between the edges of a document and text, images, tables, or other objects in the document. Margins can affect the look and readability of your document. You can set the margins of a document using the ruler in the following ways:
- Open the document that you want to work on in Microsoft Word.
- Make sure you are in the “Print Layout view”. You can select it from the “View” tab under the “Views” group.
- Hover over the top or left end of the ruler until you see a white rectangle symbol with a black line inside.
- Click and drag the symbol inward or outward to adjust the top or left margin of the document. You can see the margin value in the pop-up box that appears when you drag the symbol.
- Repeat steps 3 and 4 to adjust the bottom or right margin of the document.
After that, the margins of your document will change according to the settings you made.