This common need is easy to fill but takes a little creative thinking about using tables to arrange text on the page (as shown in FIGURE 2). Although it's almost impossible to align text reliably in columns, tables are great at creating these kinds of parallel text arrangements. Here are the basic steps required.

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Word 95 through 2000: Position the cursor where you'd like the parallel lists to begin. Select Table*Insert Table, and in the Insert Table dialogue box, set the Number of columns to 2 and the Number of rows to 1. Click OK.

Next, click inside the left column, and click the Bulleted List icon in the main toolbar. Type the left list, or cut and paste an existing list into the cell. Repeat this process to create the right column.

To make the table gridlines invisible when printing, right-click in the table, then select Borders and Shading from the context menu. Select None in the Borders and Shading dialogue box, then click OK. Although the borders and gridlines will appear light grey on your screen, the lines will not show up on your printout.

Note that Word allows you to adjust the width and position of the table's columns simply by clicking and dragging them from within the document.

WordPerfect 8 and 9: Start by positioning the cursor where you want the parallel lists to appear, then select Insert*Table. Next, in the Create Table dialogue box, set the Columns to 2 and the Rows to 1, and click Create. Click inside the left column, and then click the Bulleted List icon on the main toolbar. Type the left list, or paste in an existing list. Then repeat this process to create the right-hand column.

If you want to make the table borders and gridlines disappear in the printout of your document, right-click in the table, then select SpeedFormat from the context menu. In the Table SpeedFormat dialogue box, select No Lines No Border from the Available Styles list, then click Apply and Close.

Note that you can adjust the width and position of the table's columns by clicking and dragging them inside the document.

FIGURE 1: Attention please! Add your voice to a document by inserting a .wav sound object.

FIGURE 2: Create side-by-side bulleted lists using a simple table. Format it to look like normal text in your printed document.