How to Reorder Pages on Word 2007

By Anni Martin

Updated February 10, 2017

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Microsoft Word 2007 is a word processing program, not a publishing or presentation program. In a software programs like Microsoft Publisher or PowerPoint, you can get thumbnails of your document pages so you can reorder them on screen. In Word, you can use several tricks to help you reorder your pages, but there is not a function that allows you to drag pages around a screen so you can reorder them.

Reordering Pages using Cut and Paste

Go to the page you would like to move. Be sure your cursor is at the beginning of the text you would like to move. Press “Shift” plus the “Page Down” button on your keyboard. This should select the text on the page. If part of your paragraph did not get selected, continue to hold down the Shift key and press the down arrow until you select what you want to move. Your text should be highlighted. Release the Shift and Page Down keys. You can also highlight your text to cut and paste by using the mouse and your left mouse button to select the area of text you want to move.

Press the “Control” key and “X” or click on “Cut" (located in the Home tab in the Clipboard section). This moves your text to a holding place in your software. Move your cursor to the page where you want your text to move.

Press “Control” and “V” to paste your text into its new place in your document. You also can click on "Paste" (located in the Home tab in the Clipboard section). If you text is longer than a page, the rest of the document will move to accommodate the text.

Reordering Pages Using Outline

Click on “View” in the toolbar and click on “Outline” in the Document Views options. This brings up an outline of your document. It will have your paragraphs with small dots to the left side. You can drag your paragraphs from one section to another by using your mouse to click, hold and drag.

Click on the bullet(s) to the left of the section you wish to move. Your cursor should change into a four-pointed arrow. Continue to hold your left mouse button while you move your section to where you want it to go. While you are moving, your cursor will change into a double-headed arrow. As you move, you will be able to see a line with an arrow that shows you where the text will move when you release the mouse key.

Release the mouse key where you want the text to move and your text appears. You can also use the copy and paste method mentioned in the previous section to move your text in the Outline view.

Click on the Close Outline View button in the toolbar when you are done to return to your document.

Tips

Another trick to reorganizing Word pages is to click on the “Insert” tab and then “Blank Page” in the Pages section. You can add pages to your document, although you will still have to use one of the above methods to move the text around.

You can also click on “View” and edit your document with cut-and-paste by looking at your document in the Two Pages feature. This allows you to see two pages at once. You can cut and paste from one page to another to reorder your pages.

Word 2007 does have thumbnails like you find in presentation and publishing software. You cannot move these pages, but you can move quickly from page to page in this view. To see a thumbnail of your document, you click on “View” and click on “Thumbnails” in the Show/Hide section. This brings up a thumbnail view of your document to the left of the document.

As always, if you make a mistake, click on the “Undo” button at the very top of the menu bar or press “Control” plus “Z”.

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