Question: margins & gutters

[Guest]

Hello,

I'm not very savy on desk top publishing; I'm just an engineer writing a technical manual. I have a question on the margins tab of the Page Setup dialog box:

My manual will be printed double sided, and will be bound. I have selected "Mirror margins" to account for the double sided printing. With this setting, I can select both an "Inside" margin measurement and a "Gutter" margin measurement. As far as I can tell, these two numbers seem to be just added together to give me a total margin for the inside (bound) edge of my manual. But, there must be more to it than that; otherwise it would seem that the dialog box would have me specify a single value rather than two separate values. So, what is the distinction. For example, if I have an inside margin of 1.25" and a gutter margin of zero, how is this different than an inside margin of 1.0" and a gutter margin of 0.25". Thanks to all replies.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I have never been able to figure out what the gutter measurement is supposed
to do except function as a crutch for the arithmetically impaired. As you
say, it is just added to the Inside margin. Where it does come in handy is
in such cases as that described in
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Formatting/BookletPrinting.htm, where you can
set the gutter measurement to half the page width, allowing the Inside
margin to be an easily determined amount. The gutter does function a little
differently in landscape documents.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
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all may benefit.

Hello,

I'm not very savy on desk top publishing; I'm just an engineer writing a

technical manual. I have a question on the margins tab of the Page Setup
dialog box:

My manual will be printed double sided, and will be bound. I have selected

"Mirror margins" to account for the double sided printing. With this
setting, I can select both an "Inside" margin measurement and a "Gutter"
margin measurement. As far as I can tell, these two numbers seem to be just
added together to give me a total margin for the inside (bound) edge of my
manual. But, there must be more to it than that; otherwise it would seem
that the dialog box would have me specify a single value rather than two
separate values. So, what is the distinction. For example, if I have an
inside margin of 1.25" and a gutter margin of zero, how is this different
than an inside margin of 1.0" and a gutter margin of 0.25". Thanks to all
replies.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Suzanne.