You can add this formatting to individual paragraphs. You can add these 72 points via the paragraph formatting dialog box as shown below. And to create the visual effect of this inch, you can simply add 72 points of space before the first element on that page (e.g., paragraph, heading). You already have the other 1 inch down from the top of the page inside what Word calls its “margin” proper. Instead, you’re already familiar with how Word lets you choose your font size in a unit called “points.” And aside from some other complexities that don’t matter for this discussion of margin size, 72 type points are equal to 1 inch.
And it doesn’t actually require you to manipulate what Word calls the top “margin” for the first page. With that in mind, there emerges another much easier way of getting the page layout specified in the Student Supplement.
But what the software calls what it puts there isn’t something SBL style concerns itself with. Word and similar applications put different things at the top of the page (e.g., margin, header, gutter). But you’re really only after the visual representation of a 2-inch top margin at the beginning of a logical section. An Easier Way to Change First Page MarginsĪnd that easier way is simply not to change the top margin at all. There is, though, a much easier way to change the top margin here without creating a new section. Not least among these is potentially having to manipulate the section break or the text around it multiple times in order to get the margins to work like you’re wanting. In this context, using section breaks to manipulate the top margin may have undesirable side effects. That change might need to change where the division falls between that page and the one following. The same isn’t true in the body of the other major logical sections of your document.įor these, you may very well want to make a change on the first page. When (Not) to Use Section Breaks to Change Essay Margins You’re never going to make edits to your title page and want text to flow over from there onto the next page. Your title page is only ever going to be one page. But this usefulness partly depends there being a hard division in content between your title page and what comes next. The first page of a major section (e.g., your essay body, a chapter, an appendix, your bibliography), which should have a 2-inch top margin.įor title pages, using section breaks to achieve the necessary margin sizes is useful.
Your title page, which should have 1-inch side margins but 2-inch top and bottom margins.There are two common kinds of exceptions to this: 2 If you’re writing the degree program you’re in, SBL style normally requires four 1-inch page margins.