Add Line Numbers

Summary: Add line numbers to your Word 2007 document to make sections easy to reference.
Especially in document editing and peer-review stages, line numbers may be a useful feature to add to your Microsoft Word 2007 documents. Line numbers are easier to reference than "the third full paragraph on page 20 above the horizontal line", and even may be useful in final copies of certain legal and professional documents.


Example of a Word 2007 document with line numbers

Word 2007 can add line numbers to the left of your document without requiring you to create numbered lists:

1. Select the "Page Layout" tab in the ribbon.

2. In the "Page Setup" section, click the "Line Numbers" button.

3. In the pull-down that appears, select "Continuous" line numbers to keep the line numbers increasing throughout your document. "Restart every page" restarts the line numbers from 1 on each page, and "Restart each Section" restarts the line numbers from 1 on each document section.


Adding continuous line numbers to a Word 2007 document

To turn off line numbering, repeat the above steps but select "None" from the pull-down.