How to Show Margins in Word

To show margins in Word, switch to View > Print Layout and check View > Ruler: the grey bands at each end of the ruler are your margins. For lines drawn on the page itself, go to File > Options > Advanced and check Show text boundaries under Show document content.

Your Word document looks like text floating on a blank page, and you want to see exactly where the margins are. Steps cover Word for Microsoft 365 and Word 2016 through 2024 on Windows, with Mac notes.

Pick the Right Margin Display Aid

“Showing” margins is different from changing them. A margin is the empty space between the edge of the paper and the area where your text goes. Word doesn’t draw it by default, but it gives you several display aids that only change what you see on screen, not the layout of the document:

Display aid	Where to turn it on	What you see
Ruler	View > Ruler	Grey bands at the ends of the horizontal and vertical rulers mark the margins; the white part is the text area
Text boundaries	File > Options > Advanced > Show document content	Dotted lines around the margins, columns and objects on the page
Crop marks	File > Options > Advanced > Show document content	Small corner marks showing where the margins meet
White space between pages	Double-click the gap between two pages	The top and bottom margins come back if they were hidden

If you only need a quick look, the ruler is enough. If you want to see the boundary while you type, text boundaries or crop marks are better. If you need the exact measurement, skip to the section on reading the margin sizes.

Start in Print Layout View

Print Layout is the view that shows each page as a sheet of paper, so it’s the one where margins make sense. Text boundaries are drawn in Print Layout, and Microsoft says the vertical ruler only appears there. Other views, such as Web Layout, Draft and Read Mode, show your text without the page edges, so the margins can seem to vanish.

1. Open the document and click the View tab. If you can’t see the ribbon tabs, press Ctrl+F1 to expand a collapsed ribbon.
2. In the Views group, click Print Layout.
3. Check that you now see a grey background around white pages. That grey area is outside the paper; the margins are inside the white page.

If the document keeps opening in a different view or the whole ribbon is gone, these fixes for getting a Word document back to Print Layout and for restoring a missing ribbon in Word cover the usual causes.

Show Margins on the Ruler

The ruler is the fastest way to see margins, and it works the same on Windows and Mac.

1. Stay in Print Layout and click the View tab.
2. Check the Ruler box in the Show group. A horizontal ruler appears above the page and a vertical ruler along the left side.
3. Click anywhere in your text, then look at the ends of each ruler. The shaded grey section at the left and right of the top ruler shows the left and right margins. The grey sections at the top and bottom of the vertical ruler show the top and bottom margins.

The grey bands show the margins of the section your cursor is in, not a fixed default. A new blank document in Word starts with 1-inch margins on every side, but a template, a school or company file, or an earlier edit can change that. If you click into a different part of a long document and the bands move, that part probably has its own section settings (more on that below).

If the ruler shows centimeters and you need inches (or the reverse), change Show measurements in units of in the Display section of File > Options > Advanced. On a Mac, go to Word > Preferences > General and pick a unit under Show measurement in units of.

Don’t confuse the margin bands with the small markers that sit on the top ruler. The two triangles and the small rectangle beneath them are indent markers. They move the edges of the selected paragraph only, and dragging them doesn’t change the page margins. If one paragraph starts left of the grey band, a negative indent is the usual reason.

If the Vertical Ruler Is Missing

Sometimes only the top ruler shows. Microsoft’s ruler instructions for Word give this fix:

1. Make sure you’re in Print Layout.
2. On Windows, go to File > Options > Advanced.
3. Scroll to the Display section and check Show vertical ruler in Print Layout view, then click OK.

On a Mac, go to Word > Preferences (called Settings in newer macOS versions), click View under Authoring and Proofing Tools, and check Vertical ruler.

Show Text Boundaries on the Page

Text boundaries are dotted guide lines Word draws on the page in Print Layout. Microsoft’s developer reference for the ShowTextBoundaries setting describes them as dotted lines around page margins, text columns, objects and frames. This is the closest Word gets to drawing the margin as a visible line.

1. Click File, then Options at the bottom of the left pane.
2. Click Advanced.
3. Scroll down to the Show document content section.
4. Check Show text boundaries and click OK.
5. Return to the document in Print Layout and look for faint dotted lines.

What you see can vary with your version and the document. Older versions of Word drew one rectangle around the text area of each page. In current Microsoft 365 versions, you will often see a dotted box around each paragraph, header, footer and object instead, which can look busy on a long page. The outer edges of those boxes still line up with the margins, because text can’t sit outside them unless it has a negative indent or is in a floating object.

To turn the lines off, go back to the same place and uncheck Show text boundaries. The setting belongs to Word rather than to one file, so it usually stays on for other documents until you turn it off.

On a Mac, Microsoft’s pages don’t spell out the path, but the text boundaries option is generally found in Word > Preferences > View, in the Show in Document area. If the label doesn’t match your version, use the ruler or crop marks instead.

Use Crop Marks for a Cleaner Look

If the per-paragraph boxes are too much, crop marks give you a quieter guide. They are small right-angle marks at the four corners of the text area, so you can see where the margins meet without lines across the page.

1. Go to File > Options > Advanced.
2. In Show document content, check Show crop marks.
3. Click OK.

Those steps match Microsoft’s article on using crop marks to show or hide margins. Microsoft’s developer documentation adds two useful details: crop marks only indicate where the margins are, so you can’t drag them to change anything, and they are off by default except in East Asian language versions of Word. You can turn on crop marks and text boundaries together, though most people pick one.

Bring Back Hidden Top and Bottom Margins

Sometimes the left and right margins look fine but the pages run together with no gap, and the header, footer, top margin and bottom margin seem to be gone. Word is hiding the white space between pages. Nothing has been deleted.

1. Stay in Print Layout.
2. Point at the top or bottom edge of a page until the pointer turns into a double-pointed arrow.
3. Double-click. The space above and below each page comes back.

Double-clicking the same edge again hides the space again, which is how most people turn it off by accident. Microsoft describes this in its help page for when the top margin is missing in Word. If you’d rather use a checkbox, go to File > Options > Display and, under Page display options, check Show white space between pages in Print Layout view, as described on Microsoft’s Word Options (Display) page.

Read the Exact Margin Sizes Without Changing Them

The ruler gives you a rough picture. When a teacher, publisher or form asks for exact margins, check the numbers:

1. Click inside the part of the document you want to check.
2. Click the Layout tab, then Margins.
3. Choose Custom Margins at the bottom of the list.
4. Read the Top, Bottom, Left and Right boxes on the Margins tab of the Page Setup dialog.

5. Click Cancel so nothing changes.

For example, say Rosalind is reviewing a fictional 12-page grant report. Her cursor on page 2 shows 1-inch margins all around, but on page 9 the Left box reads 1.5 inches. That tells her the later pages sit in their own section, probably added when someone pasted in an appendix.

If the numbers aren’t what you need, the steps for setting 1-inch margins in Word walk through changing them, applying the change to the whole document and making it the default.

Do the Margin Lines Print?

Microsoft presents text boundaries and crop marks as on-screen guides (its crop marks reference says they indicate where the margins are located), and neither is listed among the printing options in Word Options. Microsoft doesn’t state outright that they never print, so open File > Print and check the preview before you print: the dotted lines and corner marks shouldn’t appear there.

If you actually want a visible line around the page on paper, use a page border instead. Instructions for adding a page border in Word include how to measure it from the text rather than the page edge. Many printers can’t print right to the edge of the paper, so a border placed very close to the edge may be cut off.

When the Margins Still Look Wrong

• No ruler appears after checking the box: you’re probably in Read Mode or Web Layout. Switch to Print Layout and look again.
• Only the top ruler shows: turn on Show vertical ruler in Print Layout view, as described above.
• Text runs past the margin line: check for a negative paragraph indent on the ruler, a table wider than the text area, or a picture set to a floating text wrapping option. These can sit outside the margin while the margin itself is unchanged.
• Some pages have different margins: the document has more than one section. Click Home > Show/Hide (or press Ctrl+Shift+8) to see the section break marks, then check each section with Custom Margins. A document with only one landscape page is a common example, because the landscape page needs its own section.
• Headers and footers look like they sit in the margin: they do. Headers and footers live in the top and bottom margin areas, so text boundaries draw separate boxes for them.

Margin Display Questions

What’s the Difference Between Text Boundaries and Crop Marks?

Text boundaries draw dotted lines along the margins and around objects, which in current versions often means a box around each paragraph. Crop marks only mark the four corners of the text area. Pick crop marks if you want a cleaner page and text boundaries if you want to see exactly where each block of content sits.

Can I Drag the Margin Lines to Change the Margins?

Not the text boundaries or crop marks. They are display only. You can drag the edge between the grey and white parts of the ruler to change a margin, but typing values in Custom Margins is more precise, especially when an assignment calls for an exact size.

Will Turning These On Change My Document for Other People?

No. Text boundaries, crop marks and the ruler are Word display settings on your computer. Someone else who opens the file sees whatever their own Word is set to show.

Can I Show Margins in Word for the Web?

Look on the View tab for the Ruler option. The File > Options > Advanced steps above are for the desktop versions of Word, so if you need text boundaries, open the file in the desktop app.

Next Step

Turn on the ruler, add text boundaries or crop marks if you want a guide on the page, and confirm the numbers in Custom Margins. If they don’t match what you need, change them with the margin steps linked above.