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: Selecting a Paper Size.

Selecting a Paper Size

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 17, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


5

Word supports any printer supported by Windows. This is because Word uses the features offered by Windows to print documents. Many of the features associated with formatting your document and printing are related to the type of printer you have installed and selected. For instance, many printers will support different sizes of paper. If your printer does this, and you want to change the paper size used for your document, you should follow these steps:

  1. Choose the Page Setup option from the File menu. You will see the Page Setup dialog box.
  2. Select the Paper Size (Word 97 or Word 2000) or Paper (Word 2002 or Word 2003) tab. (See Figure 1.)
  3. Figure 1. The Paper tab of the Page Setup dialog box.

  4. Select the appropriate paper size for your document.
  5. Click on OK.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1159) 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: Selecting a Paper Size.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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What is two minus 0?

2020-11-27 10:01:13

Mak

Note on VBA - I have not tested this thoroughly - but:
VBA seems to return incorrect results if used with "ThisDocument" (ThisDocument.PageSetup.PaperSize; & Height & Width).
It returns the correct values when used with "ActiveDocument" (ActiveDocument.PageSetup.PaperSize; & Height & Width).

Hoping this is of use.


2016-06-11 10:28:40

GeordieLad

I had hoped that Case’s comment, 06 Aug 2015, would solve my problem of 31 May 2014. Because my OS is WinXP, after Start > Settings, I substituted Windows & Faxes for Devices and Printers in the Case procedure. Unfortunately I was unable to achieve the desired result with the subsequent steps because, in my opinion, the procedure is dependant on the capabilities of the printer rather than the OS or Word version.

For example: I have three different types of HP laser printer (LJ4 Plus, LJ6L and LJ 1100) plus a Star LC-10 dot matrix, none of which has a User Defined option in the pull-down list of Paper Sizes. The only means of achieving a user defined page size appears to be the Custom Size option in my Word 2000 Page Setup list. But the settings achieved there under Page Setup may not be achievable with the selected printer; at print time, an error pointing to Incorrect Margin settings or similar will arise.

Thus, other than from within Word, I’m still unable to select a non-standard paper size for any of my printers. If anyone can offer a printer based solution I’d be most interested in it.


2016-06-11 04:41:42

Pradip Chatterjee

In my desktop there is no A3 & A5 paper size in Microsoft Office, How I will get it?


2015-08-06 12:43:56

Case

well, i'll just leave this here :) .
just some little info.
how to add custom paper size IN the drop-down list:
Click Windows Start - Devices and Printer - right click on any printer icon - Printing Preferences - choose sub menu Advanced - click down arrow of paper size's drop-down list - choose User Defined at the very bottom of it - name your paper size - set the Paper Width and Height - Save, OK.
i'm not sure if this work for all windows or not, but in my case i use Windows 7 and i tested it in Ms. Word 2007

hope this help


2014-05-31 04:38:16

GeordieLad

A useful tip although unnecessary in my case; I'm already familiar with the Page Setup procedure. However, is there any means of adding paper sizes to those in the drop-down list? I realise that Custom Size is available but it would be more convenient if I could add (and save to that list) other sizes such as A6 or envelopes C5 and C6.


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