MS Word numbered list

How to Add a Stylish Text Sidebar Box to a Word Document

Introduction

Did you know how easy it is to add a very stylish text sidebar box to your MS Word business or technical document?

MS Word comes with a number of impressive page layout features that perhaps you generally don’t expect from Word since it’s not known as a “page layout application” (like InDesign, QuarkXpress, or PageMaker).

Simple Steps to Create a Word Text Box

Here are the simple steps:
(Click to enlarge all images)

(1) Create or launch a MS Word document.

OPTIONAL STEP: Turn on your gridlines by selecting the GRIDLINES check-box in the VIEW tab. This will help you align the SIDEBAR more easily.

(2) Go to the INSERT tab and select TEXT BOX to display the pre-set text box designs:

MS Word 2007 SIDEBAR Text Box

(3) Click and select ALPHABET SIDEBAR text box (my personal preference) or any other sidebar text box you like.

(4) Pull the top and bottom of the text bar to make sure it fits the top and bottom of the grid:

MS Word 2007 SIDEBAR Text Box 2

(5) Change the background color, perspective, and other graphic features of your SIDEBAR text box by trying out many alternatives offered by MS Word’s formatting buttons and drop0-down menus:

MS Word 2007 SIDEBAR Text Box 3 PERSPECTIVE
MS Word 2007 Word 2010 SIDEBAR Text Box 4 COLOR

(6) Enter your text both into the SIDEBAR and also the regular body text area on the right.

(7) Turn off your gridlines and here is your new and improved document:

MS Word 2007 Word 2010 SIDEBAR Text Box 5
Conclusion

The sky is the limit to give the SIDEBAR exactly the look you like. Play with it until you feel like you’ve got the right look. Good luck!

NOTE: Once you save the Word document you cannot delete the built-in sidebar since it is not really a part of the Word document but it is a “standalone supplement” to it.

MORE INFO

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How to Create PowerPoint Presentation Automatically from a MS Word Outline
How to Create and Insert Boilerplate Autotext to MS Word Documents
How to Export Paragraph Styles from one MS Word Document to Another Using the Organizer Tool
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What is “Compatibility Mode” in MS Word?
How to Insert a Proper Page Break for Changing Page Orientation in MS Word
Create a Heading Browser and Navigate Your MS Word Document Easily by Using Styles
How to Create a List of Tables in MS Word
How to use the Odd-Page and Even-Page Breaks in MS Word
How to Create Dynamically Updated Running Headers and Footers in MS Word
How and Why to Convert a MS Word Document from Compatibility Mode to Normal Mode
How to Print Pages of a MS Word Document in Reverse Order
How to Create and Use Autotext Building Blocks in a MS Word 2010 Document

12 Comments

  1. Charlaine Martin on August 19, 2011 at 10:02 am

    This is great. But how do you DELETE the sidebar?



    • admin on August 21, 2011 at 8:42 pm

      Charlaine, once you save the Word document you cannot delete the built-in sidebar since it is not really a part of the Word document but it is a “standalone supplement” to it.



  2. sunny @ web business ideas on August 30, 2011 at 11:50 am

    Awesome, concise info. This really helped me with my sidebar battle – thanks.



    • admin on August 30, 2011 at 4:19 pm

      Glad I could help. Best regards! Ugur



  3. Microsoft Excel Fan on September 5, 2011 at 5:34 pm

    I love this idea of a sidebar inside of Microsoft Office document. It looks realy cool. Nice tip.



    • admin on September 6, 2011 at 1:45 am

      Glad you liked it. Thanks for reading TCC. Regards, Ugur



  4. Bedford Writer on February 21, 2012 at 12:14 pm

    Very pretty, but what if you want something more dynamic? Let’s say that I want every page to have a sidebar. And, that sidebar should be mirrored for odd and even pages (appearance plus side of page). And, I’d like my sidebar notes to be linked to paragraphs in the main text, so that if I add three new paragraphs on page 11, I don’t have to shuffle the contents of the sidebars all the way through to page 42.
    I see this sort of thing in books all the time – there must be a way to do it. (?)



  5. Rani on August 17, 2012 at 1:12 am

    simlpe and decent style i love it can i use this one please?



  6. Brit on September 7, 2012 at 7:54 am

    The sidebar is great. But I’d like to be able to define that mine should appear on each page of the document ie. from page 2 and throughout the document. Would you know how to do this?
    Also, the sidebar moves when I use the predefined “Heading1” (not the other headers). I’d really like to avoid that 🙂



  7. admin on September 11, 2012 at 9:36 am

    Brit, MS Word unfortunately does not have any master pages like InDesign or FrameMaker does. However, when your text overflows to the next page, the sidebar is replicated automatically. So in essence it does feel like Word is inserting an “invisible master page” with the sidebar on it. As to the troublesome Heading1, right click in the Home tab > Styles pod, select Modify (then select Format > Paragraph) , and edit its paragraph indentation properties.



  8. Audrey on February 25, 2013 at 10:40 am

    Can you create a sidebar so if you add a page to the document the sidebar is automatically added? I’m trying to create a template where the sidebar will appear on every page of the document. I usually copy and paste a multipage document to the template with the sidebar.



    • admin on February 25, 2013 at 3:25 pm

      Audrey, excellent question! A sidebar created by this method is actually a separate standalone supplement to the main document. Therefore you cannot insert it as a part of a page template. You have to create it from fresh for every page where you want the sidebar to appear. This is actually one of the main weaknesses of MS Word — it’s not designed to use any Master Pages. In contrast, some applications like InDesign or FrameMaker use master pages where it is so easy to create these types of sidebars that would be displayed automatically on every new page that uses that specific master page.