Squeeze text to fit one page less Try the following options starting at the top until you achieve one less page * In the How column, the menu options can be achieved efficiently with keyboard shortcuts by holding down the Alt key and pressing the underlined characters. The exact shortcut keys may vary depending on the version you are using – look for the underlined characters.

Action	How *	Watch out for
Reduce the amount of text	Edit the text to make it more precise without loosing any meaning	Not so easy if you are not the author and/or responsible for the text
Reduce the size of Inserted Pictures	Click on picture Menu   Format Picture Size – you can use Ctrl+Tab until the Size tab is displayed Height	Take care not to make any picture so small that the intended detail cannot be seen when it is printed
Reduce the Font Size of Tables	Place cursor within the table Menu   Table Select Table Format Font… Font Size	Reducing the font size by 2 points will probably be satisfactory.    Do this for all tables in the document by the same amount.
Reduce the Font Size of parts of the document that the reader will refer to in detail	Highlight area Menu   Format Font… Font Size	Don’t over do this as it may interrupt the assimilation of the information.    Do this for all such areas of the document by the same amount.
Modify the Width of Table Columns	Place cursor within the table Place the cursor in the ruler until the cursor looks like this Drag the cursor to change column widths	This may be a trial-and-error situation: as one column is widened, so you will need to make another narrower.    There may be optimum column widths where the total depth of the table is reduced.
Reduce Top and possibly Bottom Margins (try top margin on its own first)	Menu   File Page Setup… Margin; Top or Bottom	You risk loosing parts of the document particularly when the document is intended for photocopying.
Modify the format of paragraph breaks	Instead of having a blank line between paragraphs use an indent: Click in the top of the document, then   Ctrl+H ^p^p Tab ^p^t Replace All To modify the indent Ctrl+A (or highlight only part of the document, as necessary) Format Tabs... Enter a value of about 120% of the Normal point size (eg 14pt)	Choose the size of the indent carefully. It is customary to use an indent that would roughly contain a lowercase ‘m’ (or about 3 inter-word spaces).    Note also, that it is best practice not to have an indent as the first paragraph of the document nor after any heading.
Reduce the inter-paragraph spacing	If you don’t know about Styles: Highlight a blank line between paragraphs: Click at beginning of blank line. Then, whilst pressing shift, click on beginning of next line Menu   Format Font… Font Size – reduce to half size Copy (Ctrl+C) the still-highlighted thin blank line and then paste (Ctrl+V) it between all paragraphs instead of the existing, normal blank line If you are conversant with styles: Menu Format Style Styles – select Normal Modify Format Paragraph – you may need to release the Alt key if you are using keyboard shortcuts Indents and spacing… After – try a value that is half the size If you have been using blank lines (ie, you have pressed Enter twice between paragraphs) you will need to remove the second Enter as well as changing the normal style to include an After value – you could: Click in the top of the document, then   Ctrl+H ^p^p Tab Leave the 'Replace with' blank Replace All	There should be little or no adverse side effects.
Reduce the space before/after heading styles	Menu Format Style Styles – select each Heading style you have used in turn Modify Format Paragraph – you may need to release the Alt key if you are using keyboard shortcuts Indents and spacing… Before – try a value that is half the size already being used After – try a value that is half the size already being used Normally, the space above a heading should be about the same as the font size. Less is acceptable so long the heading looks like a heading.	Check that the headings still look like headings and adjust, if necessary.
Reduce Left and/or Right Margin	Menu   File Page Setup… Margin; Left or Right	There is a big danger that the line will become ‘too long’ – explanation.
Reduce Font Size for the whole document	Menu   Format Font… Font Size – reduce by 2 points	There is a big danger that the line will become ‘too long’ – explanation.    This operation may be complicated by headings which are of a different size from the main text.
Reduce Font Size for the whole document and put into more than one column	Menu   Format Font… Font Size – reduce by 2 points Highlight all or some of the document Menu   Format Columns…	You may also need to modify the size of headings.    You can get yourself tied up in knots very easily if you don’t apply multiple columns to the whole document.
Reduce the Font Scale	Menu   Format Font… Character spacing Scale Try only as small a reduction as necessary	There is a big danger that the line will become ‘too long’ – explanation.    A reduction in scale of more that a few % will distort the font and make it ugly and difficult to read.

Avoid lines becoming too long A line becomes ‘too long’ when it tiring to drag the eye back to the beginning of the next line. It is tiring when lines appear so close together that the eye looses its way before it reaches the beginning of the next line.    Therefore, the longer the line the more help that is required to guide the eye to the beginning of the next line. One way to achieve this is to increase the inter-line spacing; but this goes counter to what is being discussed here, namely, to reduce the extent of the document.    Of course, it is of not much consequence with very short documents as to how tiring it is to read because short documents don’t take long enough to read to make the reader tired.

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