Columns are pretty easy to create in Word. You just select Format | Columns, right? And you end up with a newspaper-style page where your writing wraps to the next column as you fill the previous with words. So there you go...like magic, with the click of a button, you get columns like a newspaper.

But what if you want columns that don't wrap like that, and instead just present your lists or other test in parallel format down the page? Using the Columns feature won't help out much in that case and will frustrate with you trying to space the text out properly to things line up the way you like. You could try tabbing to make a new column manually, but depending on the font you are using it might be anywhere from difficult to a nightmare to get columns to line up properly.

The best way to do columns like this is to use a TABLE. Create a table and choose the number of columns that you want, and then remove the table borders and you have columns! Here's how you do it:

1) Create a table any way you like. You position the curser where you want it, and then click the Table Menu and choose Create Table. Enter the columns you want and probably just 1 row.

NOTE: Entering an extra column to fit between the other columns will give you a margin between colums. You will need to adjust the width of these margins yourself, but they can often make your parallel text look really snappy!

2) Select the whole table by clicking in the table and from the Table Menu choose Select | Table.

3) Then with the table selected, choose Borders And Shading from the Format menu and click the Borders tab. (In Word 2007, choose Borders And Shading from the Borders And Shading drop-down list in the Paragraph group on the Home tab. This list is also available in the Table Styles group on the Design tab.)

4) Click the None option under Setting.

Word will gray out the borders on screen. However, Word won’t print the borders, which you can easily confirm by viewing the do***ent in Print Preview.

Using the table structure allows you to easily move or even delete parallel columns.

Have fun with it!

Jim