Portrait and landscape orientation are handy in different situations. You can always switch between the two in Microsoft Word to get the most out of the application. If you have a large table, switching from portrait to landscape orientation will help display the data more clearly.

The default orientation is portrait, but you might also want to use the two simultaneously. We’ll show you how to mix landscape and portrait orientation in a Word document.

How to Use Landscape and Portrait Pages in the Same Word Document

When you’re working on a lengthy Word document with a mixture of tables, graphs, and text, it can be tough to fit everything in portrait orientation. Especially if the tables or graphs are large, the most suitable page layout is landscape. That way, your table data will appear clearer in your presentation.

But you may not want everything to be landscape—only some select pages, texts, or tables. Fortunately, you don’t have to make the tough call of choosing between nicely readable text and readable tables. You can use both for better results.

Here’s how you can use both landscape and portrait in Word:

  1. Right-click anywhere on your table and select Table Properties.
  2. In the Text Properties dialog box, select None under Text wrapping. In some cases, text wrapping might already be set to none, so you don’t have to do anything.
    Set or change table properties in Microsoft Word
  3. Click OK to save the changes.
  4. Now, select your table and head over to the Layout tab in the upper menu.
  5. Under the Page Setup group, click the dialog box launcher. The dialog box launcher is displayed as a small box with a downward pointing arrow.
    Dialog box Launcher in Microsoft Word
  6. Next, select Landscape under Orientation.
    Page Setup option in Microsoft Word
  7. Click the drop-down list next to Apply To and select Selected Text.
  8. Click OK to save your changes.

Your table will now be on its page in landscape orientation. The rest of the document will maintain the orientation settings. Under the hood, Word inserts section breaks before and after the selected text.

If you have already divided your document into sections, you don't have to go through all the steps. Select the section(s) that should have a different orientation, go to page layout, and select Landscape orientation. You can also leverage these formatting tips for perfect tables in Microsoft Word.

Improve Your Microsoft Word Skills

Microsoft Word is one of the most powerful word processing applications available. But to unleash the full potential of Microsoft Word, you should be acquainted with skills on how to use the app’s rich collection of features.

Using both landscape and portrait orientation in your document is just one of the many Word-related skills you should have. You should also learn how to do a host of different things to create professional Word documents.