Creating a bleed

[jo]

I swear I used to be able to create a bleed by oversizing the image
and printing my 8.5 x 11 Word doc to 11 x 17, then trimming. For some
reason, even if I choose a larger paper size, the result is only 8.5 x
11.

I normally produce 8.5 x 11 documents set up beautifully with a cover
with everything in place where I want it. I'd rather not recreate the
wheel or have two separate pieces -- one for cover and one for
content. How is it that I cannot just print 8.5 x 11 to a larger page
size? I'm quite sure that's what I did in the past.

Is there any way to force Word to print on a larger piece of paper (or
PDF for that matter).

Thank you.
Jo

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If you have a printer that will print 11 x 17, then select that paper size
and adjust the margins as needed to create your 8.5 x 11 in the center of
it.

 

[jo]

Suzanne:

I just want to print to 11 x 17 from the 8.5 x 11 I already have
properly set up ... I'd rather not have to mess with adjusting the
doc. I used to be able to.

Jo

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

It's possible that your printer driver provides some way to do this, but in
Word the page size must match the paper size, with the exception that you
can print on larger paper provided Word doesn't know what you're doing. If
you can feed 11 x 17 and Word thinks it's Letter, your document will print,
BUT it will probably print at the top left corner of the paper, which will
not give you the full bleed you need.