Recently when I have opened a WORD document the page has appeared with a margin down the left hand side. I eventually discovered that the Document map icon was on. I think the setup has now returned to the default. Please could you explain why this is happening - do you think it had just been knocked on accidentally?
Please could you also explain when this Document map would be used?
Many thanks

Hi Jo,

Thank you for your post, welcome to the forum, hopefully we will see more of you here:

In answer to your question:

How to invoke Document Map:
View > Document Map. You'll see the Document Map on the left of your Word screen.
How to get Document Map to display something useful:
To get Document Map to display useful headings, apply the built-in heading styles to the headings in your document.
To do that, use the drop-down Styles menu on the toolbar. Choose Heading 1 for your main headings, Heading 2 for sub-headings and Heading 3 for minor headings.
How to use the Document Map to move around your document quickly:
If you click on a heading in the Document Map, the cursor will jump to that heading. That gives you a fast way to navigate around your document.
How to use the Document Map to see where you are in a document
If you have a really big document, it's sometimes easy to get "lost". You can see a page of text, but it's hard to know where you are in the document.
In outline view you could expand or collapse individual headings by clicking on the Plus and Minus signs next to the headings.
Or using Document Map is another good way to solve this problem. As you move around your document, the Document Map will highlight the current heading.
How to control the number of levels that Document Map displays:
There are two controls available:
You can determine how many levels of headings the Document Map displays. Right-click in a blank area of the Document Map, and choose how many levels you want to display. You can expand or collapse individual headings by clicking on the plus and minus signs next to the headings.
Hover over the vertical bar to the right of the Document Map and drag to change the width of the Document Map.
How to change the format of the text in the Document Map:
Text in the Document Map is shown in style Document Map. Modify the Document Map style to suit your needs. I find that 10pt Tahoma works well.
Bugs - Challenges - Annoyances:
There are several problems with Document Map:
Document Map doesn't show headings that are in tables. I find this really annoying but it doesn't look like it will get fixed any time soon.
Document Map won't show numbering on a heading that immediately follows a hard page break. There is a solution to this: don’t use Insert > Break > Page Break. Instead, use Format > Paragraph. On the Line and Page Breaks tab, tick "Page Break Before". Or, better still use the "Keep with Next" setting to keep the paragraph on the same page as the next paragraph. Or, even better still, format your document using styles that have been modified with an appropriate "Keep with next" setting.
Sometimes the Document Map decides to display tiny, unreadable type. It's a known bug. The solution is to switch to Outline View and then back again (that is: View > Outline View, View > Print Layout).
For the curious or the frustrated: How does Word decide what to display in Document Map?
Word displays paragraphs in Document Map according to the Outline Level of the paragraph. You can change the outline level of an individual paragraph by doing Format > Paragraph and changing the Outline Level. Or, you can use Outline View to change the outline level of a paragraph.
More usefully, the Outline Level can be derived from the style you apply to your text. The built-in heading styles have their Outline Level fixed (Heading 1 has Outline Level 1, Heading 2 has Outline Level 2 and so on). If you create a custom style, you can modify it to have the Outline level you choose.
If your document has text with appropriate Outline Levels, Document Map will use those outline levels. If Word can't find any text with appropriate Outline Levels, it will guess.
Since no-one ever wants Word to guess, make sure you apply appropriate styles (which have appropriate Outline Levels) to your text.

Then you will be controlling what displays in Document Map.

I hope that has helped, if so please click the resolved link, regards Pete