For many years, there is something that has been annoying me about Word: the default display of documents with multiple pages on the screen when Word allows it. But I have always found this display counter-intuitive and disturbing. It took a few years before I looked into it and now I have!
So, I'm going to explain to you how to make sure that in Word the pages are displayed one after the other and not side by side. We'll see how to modify the display and then we'll see how to do it by default so that you no longer have to do anything each time you open a document.
Show a single page on screen in Word
Among the options in Microsoft Word, it is fortunately possible to modify the display of pages and ensure that you only see one page at a time!
The manipulation is relatively simple and may possibly differ depending on your version of Word. In this article, I used Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2021. So here are the steps to follow:
- In the top menu of Word, go to the tab Displays and Signage.
- In the Page Movement category, make sure this is the option Vertical which is selected (otherwise select it).
- In the Zoom category, now click on One Page which will display your document on a single page with a zoom optimized to display the entire page.
- Adjust the zoom to your liking for a display that suits your needs
There you have it, a Word document that only displays one page at a time and does not offer a side-by-side view.
Show only one page on Word by default
Now that you know how to change the page view of your documents in Word, let's see how to change this default setting. So, when you open any document, Word will only display one page in width.
To do this, you will need to modify the Normal.dotm file which is the file that includes the default styles and customizations that determine the basic appearance of a Word document.
The manipulation that we are going to do together works with most versions of Word (Word for Microsoft 365, Word 2021, Word 2019, Word 2016, Word 2013, and Word 2010).
Let's start by opening the Normal.dotm file:
- Launch Word on your computer
- In the tab File, click on Open
- Navigate to C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates (where “ username " is your username on the computer). If you don't see the AppData folder you need to make sure thatshow hidden folders…or you can paste the address of the template folder into the navigation bar.
- Select and open the Normal file (Normal.dotm)
The file is now open and we will be able to edit it. Any changes you make to this file will be active by default when you open Word documents.
So to make sure that only one page is displayed across the width of Word we will perform the same operations as seen above:
- In the top menu of Word, go to the tab Displays and Signage.
- In the category relating to Page movement, make sure this is the right option Vertical which is selected (otherwise select it).
- In the Zoom category, now click on One Page which will display your document on a single page with a zoom optimized to display the entire page.
- Adjust the zoom to your liking for a display that suits your needs
Once these manipulations are done, go to the tab File And click Save.
If you ever messed up your Normal.dotm file or want to go back, don't panic, just delete the file. The next time you launch Word, a new file will be created with the original default settings.
Article updated on September 15, 2025 by Byothe
