Understanding Mirror Margins

Mirror margins are selected using the Page Setup option from the File menu. In some versions of Word you specify mirror margins through a check box; in others you use the Multiple Pages drop-down list on the Margins tab. (Click here to see a related figure.)

Mirror margins are typically used to designate a page layout that will eventually be two-sided. You can set top, bottom, inside (towards the binding) and outside (left and right) margins when you have mirror margins selected. You can also specify a gutter margin, which is the amount of space added to the inside margins to allow for binding of the final book.

If your document won't be printed on both sides of a piece of paper and you are not worried about any particular binding of the final output (including punching holes for use in a binder), then mirror margins won't be of any real value for you; you can safely ignore it. If, however, you will be duplexing your output and you do need to worry about binding, then choose mirror margins and play with your margin settings to get just the output that you need.