Creating Marginal Blocks of Text: MS Word

You have just finished a huge massive document when you're told that a block of text, such as the word "Confidential," needs to appear in the right margin for each page of your Word document.

Learn how Word's Header and Text Box features make it easy to add this text to your documents.

When you need to display the same block of text (i.e. DRAFT, CONFIDENTIAL, COPY) on every page, you can place it in a header or footer. However, it becomes more complicated if you want to display the text in a specific section of the pages, such as the right margin or the middle of every page.

Microsoft Word's Header and Text Box features make this task quite simple. Follow these steps:

1. Go to View | Header And Footer.
    
2. Click within the Header window, then go to Insert | Text Box.
    
3. Click and drag the mouse pointer in the Header window to create the text box.
    
4. Click within the text box and enter the text.
    
5. Point to the text box border and right-click.
    
6. Select Format Text Box.
    
7. Click on the Layout tab and select In Front of text button and click OK.
    
8. Click and drag the text box border to the right margin where you want to display the text.
    
9. Click the Close button in the Header and Footer toolbar.

Now the word "Confidential" will appear in the right margin of every page in your document. If you need to make formatting changes to the text, you will need to first go to View | Header And Footer. Then right-click the text box and select Format text box to make the necessary changes before closing the Header window. You must also open the Header window before you can delete the text box from the document.

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