View your document across separate pages in Word for the web

(Originally published on August 1, 2023 by Juliet Daniel)

Hi, Microsoft 365 Insiders! I’m Juliet Daniel, a Product Manager on the Word team, working on new layout features for Word for the web. I'm happy to announce that you can now view your document across separate pages, just as you can in Word across platforms (Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android).

And this is just the beginning! Along with the new Separate Pages view, we are also working on adding new formatting capabilities to Word for the web such as paragraph options, columns, and improved headers and footers.

Stay tuned for more feature announcements soon!

View your documents across separate pages

By making the Separate Pages view available, we are also unlocking a range of new layout features. Full functionalities for columns, headers and footers, and text wrapping all rely on the ability to show pages and require you to view your document in the Separate Pages view. That’s why it is now the default view in Word for the web.

However, you can easily switch back and forth between Separate Pages view and the original continuous page view. Use the one that best matches your preference or that is best suited to the content you’re working on. For example, turning off Separate Pages view can be handy when viewing documents with long tables.

How it works 

1. In the ribbon at the top of the page, navigate to the View tab, and notice that the Separate Pages button is selected.

    

   View tab with Single Line ribbon layout

    

   View tab with Classic ribbon layout

2. To switch to continuous page view, simply click the Separate Pages button.

    

   Toggling Separate Pages off and on

Tips and tricks  

• Whether you choose to keep Separate Pages view as your default or select a different one, your preference will be saved for subsequent sessions.
• Separate pages does not always represent the exact print layout of your document. Use Reading View or Print Preview to preview how your document layout will look for printing and PDF export.

Availability 

Separate Pages view is currently available to users in Word for the web on Edge & Chrome browsers. Support for Firefox and Safari is coming soon.

Feedback  

We’re excited to hear from you and are looking forward to finding out what you think! Please share your feedback with us directly from Word by selecting Help > Feedback and including #separatepages in your comment. 

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