If you are working on a document like a newsletter that has somewhat complex formatting, you may be wondering how people achieve certain common layout effects in Word. For example, many times in a brochure, you’ll find enlarged text formatted differently within lines or a box that has been used for graphic effect. This feature is called a "pull quote," and speaking from experience, it’s often used when the designer doesn’t have enough text or graphics to fill out the pages, so they’re looking for something to make the document more visually interesting.
The way to create a pull quote is by combining Word’s Paragraph formatting commands with the border commands. Generally, pull quotes are indented on both sides of the paragraph. To indent the paragraph, highlight it and choose Format|Paragraph. In the Indentation section, type in left and right margins. For example, you might put in .5 to indent the text half an inch from each side. To enclose the text in lines or a box, with the paragraph highlighted, choose Format|Borders and Shading. Choose a Line style and then click in the Preview area to add the lines to the sides of the paragraph you want (above, below, or all the way around).
In brochures or newsletters, you often may want a heading to span columns. Many people know how to create columns, but it’s a little trickier to have columns mixed in with text that spans them. However, it’s easy once you know the trick. First, create your columns as you normally would, by choosing Format|Columns. Make sure that the Apply to drop-down says Whole Document. (Don’t worry that the heading will end up in a column.)
Now select just the heading paragraph that you want to span columns, and choose Format|Columns again. Click the columns button, and select 1 column. Note that the Apply to drop-down says "Selected Text." That means your column setting will only apply to the heading.
To change columns in the middle of a document, Word needs to put in Continuous Section Breaks. This process is sort of a pain to do manually using the Insert|Break command, but by highlighting the heading and changing the columns, Word adds the necessary Section Breaks for you. If you decide to delete the breaks later, the easiest way to see them is to switch to Normal view by choosing View|Normal. Section breaks appear as double lines with the words Section Break (Continuous) in the middle. If you delete the Section Breaks, the column formatting stored in them goes away.