3. Page layout

There are many page layout options which can be used to reformat documents, publications and presentations to ensure that they meet the needs of your audience

Page size

If your work is to be printed out, you need to consider the most appropriate paper size. The size of the document depends on whether your audience are going to view it close up as in a book or from afar such as a poster or billboard.

If you are creating a poster then A0 or A1 might be the best option. If you are creating a business report then A4 is the standard size. Leaflets or brochures might be better suited to A5.

Page margins

Again, this depends on your audience and the publication. A large poster won't have any noticeable margins. The background colour will go right to the edge of the poster. On the other hand, a book will have fixed sized margins throughout. If you are creating handouts for an audience, you might want to leave enough room in the margins for them to make their own notes. You might want to leave larger margins at the top of a page than at the bottom. You might want all of the margins around the page to be the same size.

Page margins can be used to hold the information in the header or footer areas.

Word processing, DTP and presentation applications allow you to customise the size of the margins.

Line spacing

Text within paragraphs can have different line spacing applied. The text in the paragraphs on this page are set to single line spacing. However, if you want people to be able to make notes above the text then double line spacing might be appropriate.

Text Alignment

Text can be left, right, centre aligned or fully justified.

A business document will usually be either left aligned or fully justified whereas a poem or menu might be centre aligned.

Different alignments can be used for headings and the main body text. Headings are often centre aligned whilst the body text is left justified.

Whatever alignment style is chosen, it should be adhered to throughout the whole document.

Page orientation

Pages can be orientated as either portrait or landscape.

The decision as to which is the most appropriate depends on the purpose of the document and the needs of the user.

Billboard posters are often landscape because that is the standard orientation of most billboards on buildings or roadsides.

Presentations for large TV monitors or touch screens again are often landscape because that is the standard shape of the monitor.

Whereas most business reports will be produced in a portrait orientation because this is what is generally expected by the readers.