A wide comparison table may need a landscape page inside an otherwise portrait report. Changing the printer’s orientation alone is not a dependable way to design that document: first set the page layout in Word, then inspect the output.

Use desktop Word for Microsoft 365, Word 2024 or Word 2021. Save a copy and identify the exact content that should rotate. Include the table title and explanatory note if they belong on the same wide page; leaving them outside the selection can produce an awkward result.

Apply orientation to the selected content

In Word for Windows, select the content, open the Page Setup dialog from the Layout tab, choose Landscape and set Apply to to Selected text before confirming.

In Word for Mac, select the content, open Format, Document, then Page Setup. Choose the orientation, return to the Document dialog and apply it to Selected text. Microsoft documents section-based layout for these partial-document changes.

Check the pages immediately before and after the table. If the whole report rotated, undo the change and inspect the Apply to choice rather than manually rotating every remaining page back.

Test the page as readers will use it

Confirm that all columns fit and that the table remains legible. A landscape page does not automatically make a dense table easy to read. Consider shortening headings or splitting a genuinely overcomplicated table by meaning before shrinking the text further.

Review the header, footer and page number on the landscape section. Then add a temporary sentence above the table in the working copy to see whether the layout still behaves sensibly when content moves; undo that test afterwards.

Finally, inspect print preview or the exported PDF, including the neighbouring portrait pages. The acceptance result is the intended content on wide pages with the rest of the report unchanged in orientation.

References: Microsoft: mixed page orientation.