How to Add Line Numbers in Word? A Step-by-Step Guide
Note: (This guide on how to add line numbers in Word is suitable for all Microsoft Word versions, including Office 365)
Microsoft Word is used for various purposes, from typing in and storing scripts to curating documents for legal procedures. Microsoft Word reigns above all the other documentation software because of the features and options it provides. One such feature enables you to keep track of the number of lines in your document.
Microsoft Word keeps track of the number of characters and words automatically and shows them to the user, but it does not show the line numbers. If you are curating a document in Word and want to keep track of the number of lines you’ve written, you can easily toggle and add line numbers to each line and see your progress.
In this article, I will tell you how to add line numbers in Word in an easy way.
You’ll Learn:
- Why Add Line Numbers in Word?
- How to Add Line Numbers in Word?
- Other Options While Adding Line Numbers
- Add Line Numbers to Particular Sections of the Document
- How to Remove Line Numbers in Word?
Related Reads:
How to Insert Watermark in Word? 3 Easy Ways
How to Find and Replace in Word? 7 Simple Methods
How to Curve Text in Word? 2 Easy Ways
Why Add Line Numbers in Word?
Before we see how to add line numbers in Word, let us see what line numbers are and why they are important in certain cases.
Line numbers in Word are just like page numbers that refer to the lines on a page, excluding tables, headers, footers, charts, footnotes, and text boxes. They appear beside each line of the page and do not just appear for lines with text.
When you are curating legal or high-priority documents that contain a large amount of information, line numbers are used to point to the specific line of the document for any referral purposes. It also helps the writer to stay conscious of their content and not to tramp over the set number of lines.
How to Add Line Numbers in Word?
In Word, you can:
- Choose to either display the line numbers from the start of the content,
- Start from in between the text, or
- Even choose to display them at certain intervals.
Add Line Numbers to the Whole Document
To add line numbers to the whole document, first, make sure the layout is in the Print Layout. You can either change the layout from the View main menu ribbon or the Status bar at the bottom of the page.
- To add the line numbers, navigate to the Layout main menu ribbon. Under the Page Setup section, click on the dropdown from Line Numbers. Since we want to number each line for the whole document, click on Continuous.
- Once you click on it, all the lines on that page up to the last cursor mark will be numbered.
Other Options While Adding Line Numbers
If you want to add line numbers to the whole document continuously, you can click on the Continuous option from the Line Number dropdown. However, there are different ways you can choose to add line numbers in Word.
- To start numbering the lines on every page, click on the Restart Each Page option. That is, each page starts with line number 1.
- If your document is split into sections and you want the lines in each section to be numbered separately, click on the Restart Each Section option. That is, each section starts with line number 1.
- If you select Suppress for Current Paragraph, Word numbers each line of the document leaving the current paragraph you’re working on.
Line Numbering Options
If you want additional customization to line numbers, you can access them from the Page Setup dialog box. Under the Layout section, click on the Line Numbers button. This opens the Line Numbers dialog box where you can make personalized customizations to line numbers.
Suggested Reads:
How to Wrap Text in Word? 6 Wrap Text Options Explained
How to Track Changes in Word? A Step-by-Step Guide
How to Double Space in Word? 4 Easy Ways
Add Line Numbers to Particular Sections of the Document
Sometimes, you might not need to add line numbers to the whole document. In such a case, you can add line numbers to particular sections of the document either continuously or separately.
- To add line numbers to sections of the document, first, select the separate sections by holding the Ctrl key, left-clicking, and dragging the mouse pointer.
- Navigate to the Layout main menu ribbon. Under the Page Setup section, click on the dropdown from Line Numbers and click on the Line Numbering Options.
- In the Page Setup dialog box, click on the Layout tab.
- In the Apply to section, click on Selected Text and then click on the Line Numbers button.
- This in turn opens the Line Numbers dialog box.
- Check the Add line numbering checkbox and add the line numbering preferences of your own.
- Click OK.
- This adds the line numbers to the selected section depending on your preference.
How to Remove Line Numbers in Word?
Line numbers sure are useful. But, in some cases, after adding the line numbers, you might want to remove them. You can remove the line numbers the same way you added them.
- To remove the line numbers, go to the Layout main menu and under the dropdown from Line Numbers, click on None.
- This immediately removes the line numbers from the document.
In case you want to remove the line numbers for a particular paragraph or a section of the document, you can select that particular section and click on Suppress for Current Paragraph to remove the line number.
Note: If you have just added the line numbers, you can press Ctrl + Z to immediately undo the added line numbers.
Points to Remember
- If there is a table, a figure, an image, or a chart on the page, then Word counts them as a single line.
- The text inside the text box is counted as one line. However, if the text wraps around the text box, then the number of lines of the text is counted.
- The text inside the textbox is counted as one line.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why can’t I add line numbers in Word?
You can only add the line numbers in Word when the document is in the print layout. To change or check the layout, you can navigate to the View main menu or check them from the status bar.
How to add line numbers to the whole Word document?
To add line numbers, click on the Line Numbers drop-down from the Layout tab and click on the desired option.
How to add line numbers for particular sections of the Word document?
First, select the document and navigate to the Layout main menu. Click on Line Numbers and Line numbering options. Under the Layout tab, click on Selected Text. Finally, click on the line numbers button, check the checkbox, and click OK to add the line numbers.
Also Read:
How to Save a Word Document? 3 Useful Ways
How to Merge Word Documents? – 3 Easy Methods
How to Change Orientation of One Page in Word? 3 Easy Ways
Closing Thoughts
Line numbers are a great addition to legal documents or scripts. Adding line numbers to your document helps the reader refer to and identify specific text in complex documents.
In this article, we saw how to add line numbers in a Word document. Depending on your choice, you can choose to number the lines either continuously or restart them at each page or section. Additionally, we also saw how to remove them when not necessary.
For more high-quality guides on MS Word or Excel, please visit our free resources section.
Ready to dive deep into Excel? Click here for advanced Excel courses with in-depth training modules.
Simon Sez IT has been teaching Excel and other business software for over ten years. For a low monthly fee, you can get access to 150+ IT training courses.
Simon Calder
Chris “Simon” Calder was working as a Project Manager in IT for one of Los Angeles’ most prestigious cultural institutions, LACMA.He taught himself to use Microsoft Project from a giant textbook and hated every moment of it. Online learning was in its infancy then, but he spotted an opportunity and made an online MS Project course - the rest, as they say, is history!
