How do I keep custom page size from changing automatically?

[Mattajang]

I'm trying to set my paper size to custom 7 x 10. I then go to the layout tab
and select my settings there. When I go back to the other tabs to recheck
everything, the paper size has automatically changed from the custom 7 x 10
setting I chose to B5 7.17 x 10.12. Why is it doing this? Someone please
help! I specifically need 7 x 10 for my publisher's book specifications. I've
never had this problem before; it just started doing this. Thanks for any
help you can give!

 

[Mattajang]

Forgot to mention this is for Microsoft Word 2003

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Stop spinning your wheels. Whenever you try to set a custom size that is
very close to one of the built-in sizes (and these are provided by your
printer driver, BTW, not Word), Word will keep defaulting back to the
built-in size. Your only recourse is to adjust margins accordingly.

But--and this is a very big but--it is very unlikely that your publisher
really wants you to set the book up for 7" x 10" paper. He wants you to set
up for this page size, which is quite a different thing. Envision your 7" x
10" page, including the desired margins, and then set margins on Letter
paper that will give you the required size text block (including header and
footer, if any). You can, if you want, print an outline (like a page border)
or crop marks to indicate the page placement (see
http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/CropMarks.htm).

Your publisher should be able to work with this. At least, that's the way I
do it when I typeset a 6x9 book. I send the book to the commercial printer
as a press-quality PDF, and he handles the imposition from there.

 

[Graham Mayor]

You can only setup page sizes that the current printer driver will allow.
Most will default to the nearest standard size, which is what you are
experiencing. Accept the next larger standard size than your intended page
size and make up the difference with the margins, or use the printer driver
you had setup before that allowed the custom size.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Mattajang]

Do you know what size margins I need to use to set up for 7 x 10 rather than
6 x 9? I'm not too good at this. Thanks.

 

[Mattajang]

How do I change back to the former printer driver? I deleted the printer I
added and set my former printer as the default printer, but the problem is
still occurring; it automatically switches to B5 7.17 x 10.12.

 

[Graham Mayor]

Take a piece of paper 7" x 10" and pin it to the top left of a piece of
paper size A4 or US Letter.. Measure the distances between the edges of the
two pieces of paper and add the amounts to the bottom and right margins that
you intended for the 7 x 10 paper.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Graham Mayor]

The problem remains the same. You can only setup page sizes that the current
printer driver will allow. Some printer drivers allow you to set up custom
sizes, others don't. Work with B5 and add the extra .17 to the left and .12
to the bottom margin.

If you have a PDF or a postscript printer driver as your active printer, you
should be able to setup accurate custom page sizes.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Mattajang]

I made the 6 x 9 crop marks as well as the rectangle to visualize the page
size. When typing in the header is it supposed to appear above the horizontal
crop marks? It seems to me that it would be chopped off from the body of the
main text and there would be no header. When I change the size of the
header/footer then the crop marks change too. Thanks for helping; I'm not
too good with using Word yet.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You need to set the page margins such that they will constrain the text area
to the size you want for the 7" x 10" page. You then need to set the header
and footer margins such that they will be at the desired position within the
7" x 10" space, that is, within the rectangle you have created.

For example, suppose you want 0.75" margins on all sides of the 7" x 10"
page. You must add this amount to the amount of margin required to make up
the difference between 7" x 10" and 8.5" x 11":

8.5" - 7" = 1.5"
1.5"/2 = 0.75"
0.75" + 0.75" = 1.5"
So your side margins would be 1.5" (you may not want them to be uniform--you
may want a gutter on the inside--in which case you adjust accordingly,
keeping the total equal to 3".

11" - 10" = 1"
1"/2 = 0.5"
0.5" + 0.75" = 1.25"
So your top and bottom margins would be 1.25" (again, you can make them
uneven provided the total is 2.5").

You then set the header margin to, say, 1", which will put it 0.25" from the
top of your text area. If there is no footer, then you may want to increase
the top margin to allow more space between the header and the text body and
leave a smaller bottom margin.

You then need to create the crop marks so that they will be *outside* the 7"
x 10" space. Keep in mind that the directions in the cited article were for
a 6" x 9" page, so you can't follow them exactly.

 

[Mattajang]

Thanks, so much!! I finally got it right! I don't know what computer dummies
would do without wonderful, helpful people like all of you! Thanks again!!!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Once you can visualize what you need to do, the arithmetic is pretty simple.
Glad you finally got it.