Workiva Support Center

You can set the number of columns in your document at the paragraph, section, or document level.

Document-level columns

By default, documents have a single-column layout. To adjust the number of columns on every page of your document, adjust your columns at the document level.

To create document-level columns:

1. From the File toolbar, select Properties .
2. Select Document Properties from the menu.
3. Under the Page Formats tab, adjust the number in the Columns box.

Section-level columns

To adjust columns at the section level:

1. Open Section Properties from the Properties menu or by clicking the in the right panel.
2. Adjust the number in the Columns box.

Note: Section-level column properties override document-level settings. 

Paragraph-level columns

To adjust columns at the paragraph level:

1. Highlight the paragraph you want to adjust and open the Properties  panel.
2. Click the Paragraph  tab at the top of the panel.
3. Adjust the number in the Columns box.

Note: Paragraph-level column properties override both section-level and document-level properties. 

Column breaks

Content in your document automatically adjusts to create even columns. Use column breaks to manually move content to another column.

To insert a column break:

1. Click in the document where you want to add a column break.
2. From the Edit toolbar, click Insert .
3. Select Column Break from the menu. This automatically inserts a break below the selected content.

To remove a column break, hover over the break in the text and click the .

Customize column widths

You can customize each column’s width through Document, Section, or Paragraph properties by turning on Manual column width.

We recommend setting the number of columns and any specific widths for the whole document in Document Properties first.

If you decide that you want a section to have different number of columns or width, you can set this
at the section level which will override what's in the Document Properties. If you want to have a particular paragraph(s) to have its own number of columns and or width you can set this at the paragraph
level.

Note: You can’t change column widths with the ruler bar when Manual column width is on.

To customize column width:

1. Open either Document, Section, or Paragraph properties.
2. Go to the Layout section. For Document Properties, this will be located in the Page Formats tab.
3. Type in the number of columns you want in Columns. You must have at least two columns to customize widths.
4. Turn on Manual column width.
   
5. In Width, you can adjust the width of each column and its gutter. Your width must be at least 0.5 inches.
   

   Note: When adjusting a column’s width, Workiva will automatically adjust the widths of other columns to compensate.

6. Click Save changes to finish.

If any changes are made to the measurements or number of columns, a reset icon will appear. Clicking on it will revert back to what's in the previous level setting. For example, if you make changes in Paragraph Properties, clicking reset icon will revert back to what's in the Section Properties. Also, any changes made in Section Properties will have a reset icon that'll revert to what's in Document Properties.