Adding Line Numbers to a Document

Summary: For legal contracts, computer code, or documents that need to be edited, number the lines in your Word 97 documents.

For computer programs or just for editing purposes, it may be useful to number the lines on a page. That way, instead of referring someone to paragraph two, line fifteen, you could just point that person to line thirty on the document. Luckily, you do not have to manually add the line numbers yourself.

Click the “File” menu, selecting “Page Setup”. On the “Page Setup” multi-tabbed dialog box that appears select the “Layout” tab. Now, click on the “Line numbers€” button. Choose the options that you want (restart numbering after each page, start at a particular number, etc.) and press “OK” to close the dialog boxes.

Note that while you are editing, you will normally not see the numbers – but they are there! Do a page preview to see the numbers. If you want to see the numbers while editing, click the “View” menu and select “Page Layout”. Now you can edit your document and see the numbers simultaneously.