Text in 2-column word document automatically shifts to left of page. Columns are gone.

Question

Hello,

I was typing a story on a word document using a combination of one column (mostly headings) and two column for story.

As I type the entire document suddenly shifts to the left.

First it looks like this, with a one-column image at top of page:

Then suddenly it switches to this:

I searched the internet and found a suggestion to change "Final Showing Markup" to "Final." This didn't help. I also read to click "Selection Break" and hit delete button. This did not help.

I tried using the Center button. I knew this would not help and it did not.  I hope you can help. In the meantime, I will do a disk cleanup. 

Thank you,

Cynthia Fletcher

Answer 1

Without seeing your screen shots (to insert a screen shot, you must use the Insert image button on the editor toolbar to insert an image file stored on your hard drive), I would suggest that you may be opening in Web Layout (or Draft) view instead of Print Layout. Many users lately have reported that some versions of Word (though not, I think, Word 2007) have been spontaneously opening in Web Layout view.

Answer 2

At a guess (since your screen shots didn't show up), this could be connected to temporary files and Word losing track of the printer (for which it is partially dependent when laying out the pages). Deleting temporary files is one fix (perhaps accomplished by Disk Cleanup, but see also http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm). A long term fix may be to update the printer driver.

Answer 3

I figured out the problem. I just needed to do disk cleanup. It's working great now, so please disregard my issue.

Thank you,

Cynthia Fletcher