Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Printing Very Large Paper Sizes.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 2, 2025)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
Word allows you to print on a wide variety of paper sizes. You cannot use an unlimited paper size, however. For instance, it does very little good to try printing a poster-size document on a plotter, simply because Word won't support documents that large.
Word is hard-coded to permit document widths and heights as small as .1 inches and as large as 22 inches. Thus, the largest page area you can define in Word is 22 inches by 22 inches. This is an absolute limit. If you need to print to larger paper, then you will need to use a different program, such as a desktop publishing program.
There is one other caveat to keep in mind, however. The paper size to which you can print may also be limited in some way by your printer driver. For instance, if your printer driver will only handle paper up to 18 inches in width, then it won't matter that Word can handle up to 22-inch wide paper. If you find that your printer driver is limiting what you can print, you should check with the manufacturer to see if a newer printer driver is available.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1026) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Printing Very Large Paper Sizes.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here:
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