Headings Span Columns

I want the headings in my multi-column document to span the columns. How can I achieve this?

Okay, so you have divided your document into two or more newspaper-style (“snaking”) columns. But now you want a heading that will take up the full width of the page or some part of it. How you will proceed will depend on whether it’s the whole margin width or just some part of it that you want.

Full margin width

If you want a heading to span all of your columns, you need only leave it in the single-column section before your multicolumn section. If there isn't a single-column section there already, you'll need to create one. Here is the easy way to do this:

Word 2003 and earlier: Select the heading paragraph, click on the Columns button on the Standard toolbar, and select 1 column. Word will then create the necessary section break(s) for you.
Word 2007 and above: Select the heading paragraph. On the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup group, click the Columns button and select One. Word will then create the necessary section break(s) for you.

Only some of the columns

But what if you want a heading to span just some of the columns? This is not an unusual requirement in a newspaper-style document, where articles may spread across several columns (but not the full page width) with a headline above. Or, in a four-panel brochure or four-column newsletter, suppose you want text to span two of the four panels, as in the example below:

Four-column newsletter with two-column nameplate

Once you have four columns, you can’t redivide just part of the page into two or three columns. The solution is to put the heading text in a text box or frame. In this example, a frame was used:

Two-column nameplate in a frame

Insert a frame

Word 2003 and earlier: Select the text and choose Frame from the Insert menu.
Word 2007 and above: These versions make the Frame feature more difficult to find and use. Find instructions for inserting frames in the “Insert and format a frame” section of this article.

Insert a text box

Word 2003 and earlier: Select the text and choose Text Box from the Insert menu.
Word 2007 and above: Select the text. On the Insert tab, in the Text group, click Text Box and choose Draw Text Box.

Whether you use a frame or a text box, if you create the text first and then select it before inserting the frame or text box, the frame/text box will be created around the selected text. If you insert the frame or text box without text selected, you will have to draw it on the screen with the mouse and then add the text. In either case, you can move and resize it after you have created it.

Remove the border

Whether you use a frame or a text box, it will have a border or outline by default. Remove this as follows:

Remove the border from a frame

Word 2003 and earlier: Select the frame. On the Formatting toolbar, click the arrow beside the Borders button. In the Borders flyout, choose No Border. Alternatively, you can open the Borders and Shading dialog from the Format menu and choose None.
Word 2007 and above: Select the frame. On the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, click the arrow beside the Borders button to open the menu. Select No Border.

Helpful Tip: In the example shown in the figure, one of the paragraphs in the frame has top and bottom borders. It would also be possible to have a border on the top and bottom of the frame (by removing just the side borders). This is possible only with a frame; a text box outline is all or nothing.

Remove the outline from a text box:

Word 2007 and earlier: Right-click the edge of the text box and choose Format Text Box... from the context menu. In the Format Text Box dialog, on the Colors and Lines tab, under Line, select No Line.
Word 2007: Select the text box. On the contextual Text Box Tools | Format tab, in the Text Box Styles group, for Shape Outline, choose No Outline.
Word 2010 and above: Select the text box. On the contextual Drawing Tools | Format tab (Shape Format in recent versions), in the Shape Styles group, for Shape Outline, choose No Outline. You can also right-click the edge of the box and choose Format Shape, which will open either a dialog or a task pane in which you can choose No Line.

Position the frame or text box

Frames have only two wrapping styles: None and Around. In this situation, it doesn't seem to matter which you use. In either case, the frame will be anchored to a text paragraph. In the example above, it is anchored to the first heading, “Today’s Program.”

Text boxes have all the same wrapping styles as any other drawing object. In Line with Text is the equivalent of None, and Square is the equivalent of Around. In many versions of Word, the default wrapping style is None or In Front of Text, which will not work (nor will Through). Any other wrapping style seems to be satisfactory. You will need to experiment with the other layout options to find which ones work best for your situation.

If you are using Word 2010 or earlier and rely on text boundaries, you may want to wait till you’re fairly far along in entering text before you insert a text box or frame because the effect of doing this is to reduce the text boundaries to the amount of text you have entered (instead of showing the multiple rectangles you saw when you first created the columns). This can be rather disconcerting.