Wrapping Text Differently in Draft and Outline Views

Depending on the view you are using for your Word document, you can control whether text wraps at the right margin (as indicated on the Ruler) or wraps beyond the right margin, at the end of the document window. This setting affects how you view text in both Draft and Outline views.

You control this feature by clicking the Office button and then clicking Word Options. Word displays the Word Options dialog box, and you should click Advanced at the left side of the dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.)

Look for the check box labeled Show Text Wrapped Within the Document Window. This check box, when selected, makes the text in Draft and Outline views extend the full width of the document window, without regard to where the margin is set. This only affects what you see on the screen; it does not affect any printouts. If the check box is cleared, then the margins are minded and the text wraps where you expect it to wrap.

The need for this feature is rooted in history. The original intent of Normal view (now called Draft view in Word 2007) was to speed up work by foregoing an exact WYSIWYG format. In this view, Word does not worry about line breaks, margins and page breaks in the same manner as in the Print Layout view. Likewise, graphics objects are not displayed. The point is to release computer resources to facilitate doing the work of entering and editing content. The purpose of the Wrap to Window setting (as it was called in previous versions of Word) was to allow even more information to appear on-screen, since WYSIWYG wasn't being paid attention to in Normal view anyway.

It is not unusual for people, these days, to bypass Draft view and instead use Print Layout view. The Show Text Wrapped Within the Document Window setting has no bearing on this view, since the essence of Print Layout view is to show a very close representation of what your final printout will look like. If you want to use Draft view, there is nothing wrong with that (I do it all the time), but you'll need to pay attention to settings such as the Wrap to Window check box so that your display looks like you want it to.