Change Measurement Units in Microsoft Word

Aseem Kishore
·
4 min read

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Person typing on a laptop with a floating 'Ruler units' dialog showing cm selected.

Microsoft Word defaults to inches for rulers, margins, indents, and dialog boxes, but if you need centimeters, millimeters, points, or picas, one setting changes everything. This applies to Word for Microsoft 365, Word 2021, 2019, and 2016 on both Windows and Mac.

Word supports five units of measurement:

  • Inches
  • Centimeters
  • Millimeters
  • Points
  • Picas

Whichever you choose applies to the ruler, page margins, paragraph indents, tab stops, and shape/image size dialogs across all documents for your user profile, not just the current one.

Change Measurement Units in Word for Windows (Microsoft 365 / 2021 / 2019 / 2016)

  1. Open Word and click File in the top-left corner.
  2. Click Options at the bottom of the left sidebar.
Word with File menu open, Options highlighted at the bottom of the left sidebar
  1. In the Word Options dialog, click Advanced in the left pane.
Word Options dialog box with Advanced selected in the left pane
  1. Scroll down to the Display section.
  2. Open the Show measurements in units of drop-down list and select your preferred unit.
Word Options Advanced tab, Display section, with Show measurements in units of dropdown open showing Inches, Centimeters, Millimeters, Points, Picas
  1. Click OK.
Paragraph dialog box showing updated measurement units in the Indentation section after the change

The ruler and all measurement fields update immediately. Open Layout > Margins or any paragraph dialog to confirm the new units are showing.

Change Measurement Units in Word for Mac (Microsoft 365 / 2021 / 2019 / 2016)

  1. Open Word.
  2. In the menu bar, click Word > Preferences…
Word for Mac menu bar with Word menu open and Preferences highlighted
  1. Under Authoring and Proofing Tools, click General.
  2. Find Show measurements in units of and choose your preferred unit from the drop-down.
Word for Mac General Preferences dialog with Show measurements in units of dropdown open
  1. Close the Preferences window. Changes save automatically.

The same five units are available as on Windows, and the setting applies to all documents for your Mac user profile.

Word for the Web (Word Online)

Word for the web currently has no option to change measurement units manually. There is no equivalent of the Show measurements in units of setting in the browser version. Measurements in Word for the web follow the document and your region/locale settings (such as your Microsoft account or browser locale), and you can’t override them from within the app.

If you need to set precise margins or indents in a specific unit (for example, centimeters instead of inches), open the document in the desktop Word app on Windows or Mac, make the change there, then return to Word Online for editing.

Legacy Versions: Word 2010 and Word 2007

If you’re still on an older version, the path is slightly different.

Word 2010

The steps are identical to the modern Windows instructions above: File > Options > Advanced > Display > Show measurements in units of.

Word 2007

  1. Click the Office button (the round button in the top-left corner).
  2. Click Word Options at the bottom of the menu.
Word 2007 Office button menu open with Word Options button visible at the bottom
  1. Click Advanced in the left pane.
  2. Scroll to the Display section and change Show measurements in units of.
  3. Click OK.

Troubleshooting

The ruler isn’t showing my new units

If the ruler isn’t visible at all, go to the View tab and check the Ruler box. Once it’s on, it will reflect whichever unit you selected in Options.

I changed the units but another document still shows inches

The setting is application-wide for your user profile, so it affects all documents, not just the current one. If you’re seeing different units on another machine or in Word Online, you’ll need to set your preference separately on each device.

Why didn’t changing Windows regional settings change Word’s units?

Word manages its own measurement setting independently of Windows’ regional format. Changing your Windows region to metric won’t automatically update Word, so you still need to change it in File > Options > Advanced. (Some other Office apps, such as PowerPoint, may pick up the system regional setting more directly, meaning a switch to a metric region could change PowerPoint’s units automatically, while Word always keeps using its own Show measurements in units of setting until you change it there. This is a common source of confusion when working across Office apps.)

Can I use pixels in Word?

No. Word supports only inches, centimeters, millimeters, points, and picas. For pixel-precise layouts, design the element in a graphics tool and import it as an image.

Inches on Indentation in Paragraph dialog box in Word 2003

Conclusion

For most people, the Windows fix, File > Options > Advanced > Show measurements in units of, solves it in under a minute. If you’re bouncing between multiple PCs or between Windows and Mac, remember the setting doesn’t sync automatically across devices, so you’ll need to set it on each one. If you run into other Word issues, see our guide on Microsoft Word not responding for additional troubleshooting steps.