This post explains in simple steps on how to show a Ruler in Microsoft Word using simple terms.

The Ruler option in Microsoft Word allows you to controls the margins of the page. Also, help in align and adjust the various elements and Indents of the paragraph.

How to Show Ruler in Microsoft Word?

Let's see how to show Ruler in your Word document with the coming steps:

  • Go to the View tab in the ribbon.
  • Now, Click the Ruler option in the Show group.

How to use rulers in microsoft word

To Activate the Vertical Ruler, do the following steps:

  • Go to File and select the Options.
  • Now, Select the Advanced option from the Word Options dialogue box that appears on your screen.
  • Click the Show vertical ruler in Print Layout view.
  • Click the OK button.

How to use rulers in microsoft word

Now, you can see that the Ruler appears on your Word document as in the below image.

How to use rulers in microsoft word

To remove the Ruler, Go to the View tab and again click the Ruler option.

March 29, 2019 By Matt Jacobs

Sometimes when you're working with a document in Microsoft Word, the physical size of some of the elements on your page can be important. This can be difficult to determine on the screen, as what you see on your computer usually doesn't reflect the actual size when it's printed.

One way to solve this is to display the ruler on the screen. This lets you determine how large an image, table, column, or other document elements will be when it's printed. Our tutorial below will show you how to display the ruler in Microsoft Word if it's not currently visible.

How to Show the Ruler in Word

The steps in this article were performed in Microsoft Word for Office 365, but will work in many earlier versions of Word as well. When you're done with this article, find out how to hide comments when printing in Word if that's an issue you've encountered before.

Step 1: Open your document in Word.

Step 2: Select the View tab at the top of the window.

How to use rulers in microsoft word

Step 3: Check the box to the left of Ruler in the Show section of the ribbon.

How to use rulers in microsoft word

You should now see a ruler at the top and left side of the screen, like in the picture below.

How to use rulers in microsoft word

Are you working on a document with other people, and the comments in the document keep printing with the document text? Find out how to hide comments when printing in Word if you don't need them on your physical copy of the document.

How to use rulers in microsoft word

Matt Jacobs has been working as an IT consultant for small businesses since receiving his Master's degree in 2003. While he still does some consulting work, his primary focus now is on creating technology support content for SupportYourTech.com.

His work can be found on many websites and focuses on topics such as Microsoft Office, Apple devices, Android devices, Photoshop and more.

In this course:

Go to View and select Ruler.

How to use rulers in microsoft word

To show the vertical ruler

Go to File > Options > Advanced.

Select the Show vertical ruler in Print Layout view under Display.

Show the rulers

Go to View > Ruler.

If the vertical ruler doesn't show, make sure you're in Print Layout view. If it still doesn't show, you might need to turn the ruler on.

Go to Word > Preferences > View (under Authoring and Proofing Tools).

Then, in the View dialog box, select the Vertical ruler box.

How to use rulers in microsoft word

Change the unit of measure

You can change the unit of measurement displayed on the rulers, to do this:

Go to Word > Preferences > General (under Authoring and Proofing Tools).

In Show measurement in units of, select the unit of measurement you want to use.

You can't show rulers in Word for the web unfortunately. But if you have the Word desktop application, click Open in Word to open the document and see rulers.

If you want to show or hide rulers in Microsoft Word, then you've come to the right place. Rulers in the document editor application for Microsoft Office's suite of programs allow you to position text, tables, graphics, and other elements properly. They do add more space to the window, so for those who don't want to use them can also hide them when you're not using them.

How to use rulers in microsoft word

Know How to Show or Hide the Rulers in Microsoft Word

Step 1 – Do note that the rulers in Microsoft Word are only visible when you're within the Print Layout view. Therefore, if you don't see these rulers, then you are not in this kind of view. To see them, head on to the "View" tab and then click on the "Print Layout" button which can be found under the Views section.

Step 2 – Even if you're under the Print Layout view in Word, there are times when you don't want these rulers to show. This is especially true if you're working on a rather small monitor. Hence, to show or hide them even when you're viewing your document under Print Layout view, head on back to the "View" tab and click on the tick box right next to the "Ruler" menu item found in the Show section. If you want to show these rulers once more, then all you have to do is to make sure that the aforementioned tick box is checked.

Step 3 – If you only want to show the horizontal ruler that is found on the top of your document but want to hide the vertical ruler found on the left portion of the window, then head on to the "File" tab first. Once clicked, head on to the backstage screen, and then click on "Options" which is found on the list of items on the left.

Step 4 – Once in this portion of Microsoft Word, click on "Advanced" within the list of items found on the left side of the Options screen. Scroll down towards the Display section and then keep the "Show vertical ruler in Print Layout view" unchecked. Make sure that you click on "OK" in order for the application to accept any changes that were done. Now whenever you hide or show the rulers, only the horizontal ruler found at the top will show, and the vertical ruler will no longer make itself visible.

The Ruler ruler in Word makes it easy to align, sometimes you see Ruler disappear and don't know how to display the Ruler bar? This is how to display the Ruler bar in Word 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013 and Word 2016.

  • How to use the Ruler ruler bar in Word
  • How to display the Ruler bar in Word versions

In Microsoft Word, you will see a lot of changes in the external interface, the functions are in Tabs, different toolbars . but sometimes the search is very time-consuming. Typically the rulers – Ruler is located somewhere. If you accidentally click off the bar, you cannot align the standard and have trouble formatting the Word document.

So how to display the Ruler bar in Word? Please refer to our instructions below

Create a quick dot (……………) line in Microsoft Word

How to display the Ruler bar in Microsoft Word 2003, 2007

In Microsoft Word versions from 2010 and earlier (for example, Word 2007, 2003 or XP ) you just need to select the View menu> mark Ruler to finish:

How to use rulers in microsoft word

How to display rulers in Word 2010, 2013, 2016

For those who are new to the new Word 2010 interface, this Ruler part . is still there, but slightly different. Recent versions of Word 2013, 2016 also have a similar look to Word 2010. Therefore, you can display the Ruler ruler bar in Word 2013, 2016 in the same way as below:

How to use rulers in microsoft word

And you'll see the Ruler toolbar – the ruler displayed above the text, which is very important in editing, aligning, formatting and editing. Alternatively, click on the View Ruler icon on the right side as shown below:

How to use rulers in microsoft word

In fact, there are many friends who ask:

  1. I did the same thing but still don't see the Ruler bar? How to solve?

Please answer that:

If you have problems, open the Options section of Word , select Advanced as shown, find the box Show vertical ruler in Print Layout view as below:

How to use rulers in microsoft word

If you want to change the calculation unit of Ruler, select the values ​​in Show measurements in units of : there are units like Inch, Centimeter, Millimeter .

So we showed you how to display the Ruler toolbar in Microsoft Word text editing software in different versions. Good luck!

See also: Microsoft Word: How to create page title (Header) and footer (Footer)

How to use rulers in microsoft word

In Word, you can select one of several units of measurement for the ruler. This is useful when you're working on a document for someone who uses a different measurement system for margins, tabs, and so on. It's an easy setting to change whenever you need to.

Switch over to the "File" tab on Word's Ribbon.

How to use rulers in microsoft word

Click the "Options" command on the sidebar.

How to use rulers in microsoft word

In the Word Options window, select the "Advanced" category on the left.

How to use rulers in microsoft word

On the right, scroll down to the "Display" section and then click the drop-down menu to the right of the "Show measurements in units of" entry.

How to use rulers in microsoft word

On the drop-down menu, click the units you want to use.

How to use rulers in microsoft word

And then click the "OK" button.

How to use rulers in microsoft word

If your ruler is not displaying, switch to the "View" tab.

How to use rulers in microsoft word

And then tick the "Ruler" checkbox there.

How to use rulers in microsoft word

When you want to change back to your regular units of measurement, head back to the same setting in the Word Options window.

Last updated: January 24, 2017

Learning how to show the ruler in Word 2013 can be helpful when you open a document to edit it, but find that no ruler is being displayed. You can have a ruler visible both above and to the left of your document in Word 2013, depending upon which view you are currently using. These rulers are helpful when you are visually formatting your document, so their absence can make that difficult when you are accustomed to using them.

Our guide below will show you how to display the ruler in Word 2013, and also provides a helpful chart that identifies which rulers are visible in each different view.

Showing the Ruler in Word 2013

The steps in this article will teach you how to show the ruler in Word 2013. Note that the ruler that is shown with your document can vary depending upon the view that is currently selected in the program. You can adjust the View by clicking the View tab at the top of the window, then selecting one of the options in the Views section at the left side of the ribbon.

How to use rulers in microsoft word

When you have completed the steps in this guide, then the visibility of the rulers will be:

View Is the Horizontal Ruler Visible? Is the Vertical Ruler Visible?
Read Mode No No
Print Layout Yes Yes
Web Layout Yes No
Outline No No
Draft Yes No

Here is how to show the ruler in Word 2013 –

  1. Open Word 2013.
  2. Click the View tab at the top of the window.
  3. Check the box to the left of Ruler in Show section of the ribbon.

These same steps are shown below with pictures –

Step 1: Open your document in Word 2013.

Step 2: Click the View tab at the top of the window.

How to use rulers in microsoft word

Step 3: Check the box to the left of Ruler in the Show section of the ribbon.

How to use rulers in microsoft word

If the vertical ruler is not visible in Print Layout view after following the steps above, then you can enable it by going to File > Options > Advanced then checking the box to the left of Show vertical ruler in Print Layout view.

How to use rulers in microsoft word

The ruler has a number of uses in conjunction with a document, so being able to understand how to show the horizontal or vertical ruler in Word 2013 can give you a better understanding as to the different views that are available, while also familiarizing yourself with some of the menus and settings found within the program. For example, you can delete a header in Word 2013 by manually adjusting the size of the header on the vertical ruler in the Print Layout.

You can also configure other display options for your document as well. For example, you can show a text boundary in Word 2013 that lets you see what part of the document can contain content.

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How to use rulers in microsoft word

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In Microsoft Word, Ruler is a useful tool for typesetting. But it's not always shown by default. It's better to toggle it on if you want to adjust the layout more intuitively. So, how to enable the horizontal ruler and vertical ruler in Word?

How to Enable the Horizontal Ruler

It's very easy to add horizontal ruler to your document.

1. First, Switch to View tab

2. Select Ruler in Show section .

How to Enable the Vertical Ruler

with only horizontal ruler, it may also cause inconvenience to users in typesetting. To enable vertical ruler in Word, just follow these steps:

1. First, open the document, click FileOptions .

How to use rulers in microsoft word

2. Choose Advanced . Stroll down the page to find Display section, then check the option of Show vertical ruler in Print Layout view .

How to use rulers in microsoft word

3. Check your document, the vertical ruler should have been added on the edge of the page now.

How to use rulers in microsoft word

How to Hide the Ruler in Word

If you've done editing the layout and want a pure page without any added ruler, just go to View tab again and uncheck Ruler option in Show section.

The ruler tool in Word is sometimes overlooked by many when trying to align and position text and other objects. It is used to control the left and right indentation of your Word document. It also controls first-line indentation and tabs. The advantage of using the ruler is that you can use the mouse to manipulate the controls and get instant visual results.

In this guide today, you'll learn how to show the ruler in MS Word when hidden. And how to use the ruler to indent your content in your Word document.

How to show ruler on Word

The ruler may not appear in your document window. Therefore, you'll need to take some steps to display it.

Obey the instructions below to get the ruler on your Word document:

  • Click on the View tab.
  • In the Show group, click to check the Ruler item.
  • As soon as you place the checkmark by the Rulercheckbox, the ruler will appear in your document's window.
  • To hide the ruler, uncheck the Ruler item.

How to use rulers in microsoft word

This is how you may show and hide the ruler in Microsoft Word.

Using the ruler for indentation

Using the mouse, you can create indents with the horizontal ruler. It makes it easy for creating the first line and hanging indents. A hanging indent indents all lines in a paragraph except the first line. A first-line indent, on the other hand, indents only the first line of a paragraph.

To make indents with the ruler:

  • Display the ruler. Go to the View tab and click Ruler in the Show group to get the ruler control.
  • Select the paragraph you wish to indent.
  • Using the mouse, drag the indent symbols on the ruler to create the indentation.
  • Drag the hanging indent symbol to the right to create a hanging indent so that indentation will apply to all but the first line of the paragraph. Drug to the left to reduce or remove indentation.
  • For a first-line indentation, drag the first line indent symbol to the right to create the indentation. Drag to the left to reduce or remove the indentation.
  • Repeat the above steps to apply a different indentation setting to other paragraphs you wish to indent.