How to Change Margins in Microsoft Word

Margins are the blank spaces that border the top, bottom, and sides of a document. By default, Microsoft Word surrounds your text with a uniform 1-inch margin on all four sides. This standard is required by almost all academic institutions and professional businesses.

However, if you are designing a creative flyer, printing a custom greeting card, or trying to desperately squeeze one last paragraph onto a single page to save printer paper, the default 1-inch margins will waste far too much space. You must learn how to manually adjust them to fit your specific needs.

Method 1: Use Word’s Margin Presets (The Fast Way)

If you don’t have exact, hyper-specific measurements in mind and just want to quickly shrink the blank space around your text, Microsoft Word includes a gallery of pre-configured margin settings.

1. Open your document in Microsoft Word.
2. Look at the Ribbon at the top of the screen and click on the Layout tab.
3. On the far left side of the ribbon, click the Margins button.
4. A drop-down menu will appear showing several options:

• Normal: The standard 1-inch border on all sides.
• Narrow: Shrinks the border to 0.5 inches on all sides, allowing you to fit significantly more text onto a single page. This is the best option for saving paper.
• Moderate: Shrinks the left and right sides to 0.75 inches, but keeps the top and bottom at 1 inch.
• Wide: Increases the left and right borders to a massive 2 inches, squeezing your text into a narrow column down the middle of the page (often used for poetry or stylized quotes).

5. Simply click on the preset you want, and your entire document will instantly adjust to fit the new boundaries.

Method 2: Set Custom Margins

If you are submitting a document to a publisher or a strict legal court that demands very specific, non-standard margins (for example, a 1.25-inch left margin but a 0.75-inch right margin), the presets will not work. You must type the measurements in manually.

1. Go to the Layout tab.
2. Click the Margins button.
3. Look at the very bottom of the drop-down menu and click on Custom Margins…
4. The Page Setup dialogue box will open.
5. At the top of this box, you will see four distinct text fields for Top, Bottom, Left, and Right.
6. Use the small up and down arrows next to each box to adjust the measurements, or simply click inside the box and type the exact decimal number you need.
7. Click OK at the bottom of the window to apply the changes.

How to Change Margins for Only Part of a Document

Occasionally, you may want the first page of your document (like a Title Page or a Cover Letter) to have massive margins, but you want the rest of the essay to use standard 1-inch margins. You can tell Word to only apply your new custom margins to a specific section.

1. Highlight the specific text you want to format (e.g., drag your mouse over your entire Title Page).
2. Go to Layout > Margins > Custom Margins…
3. Set your specific measurements in the Top, Bottom, Left, and Right boxes.
4. Look at the very bottom of the window for the drop-down menu labelled Apply to:.
5. Click the menu and change it from “Whole document” to Selected text.
6. Click OK.

Word will automatically insert invisible section breaks into your document, ensuring that your custom margins only affect the text you highlighted, leaving the rest of your document completely untouched.