Did you know that odd-numbered pages should always be on the right in a printed book?

Unfortunately, when Word shows two pages in Print Layout view, the odd-numbered pages are on the left and the even-numbered page is on the right, ie Word does not show the correct layout of facing (even and odd) pages in two-page view — so you cannot check the pages as they would be printed. To do so, you need to view export the document to PDF and open it in a program or a browser that allows you to set the pages to display properly.

✅Adobe Acrobat Reader

Go to View > Page Display > Two Page View, as shown below. The first page is shown singly because it is an odd page.

Roll your mouse down one click to see the next two pages. They probably fill the width of the screen and don’t show the bottom of the pages – so go to View > Zoom > Fit Height to the whole pages, as shown below.

❌ Google Chrome

Google Chrome has a two-page view but it’s the same as Word: pages 1 and 2 are facing pages, with no other options.

✅ Firefox

Firefox has this option:

✅ Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Edge has the option:

Thanks to Kevin Walker for the above information.

Published 24 February 2025

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