increasing right margin causes last column to become too narrow

[jim]

I have read various responses to this error in this group and none of
the solutions posted seem to have solved my problem.

I have an administrative user with a 200+ page document that has
multiple section breaks with different page layouts throughout. She is
using MS Office Profession 2003 on XP platform. We are trying to paste
text from a page into a new section of the document and keep getting
the following Microsoft Office Word error when we try to adjust the
margins:

Increasing right margin causes last column to become too narrow in some
sections having unevenly spaced columns.

This only happens in this document. Newly created documents do not
return this error, so it is not related to the Normal.dot template.
Also, I have tried to reset the default column spacing to one with
Equal column width checked (enabled), but when doing so receive the
following error:

Settings you chose for the left and right margins, column spacing, or
paragraph indents are too large for the page width in some sections.

Unfortunately, the length of the document makes it difficult to
pinpoint which section might be causing this error so I'm at a loss as
to the next step.

Please advise if you might be able to shed some light on this.

Thanks.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

This can usually be remedied by clicking on the One preset picture in Format
| Columns (and apply to "Whole document").

 

[jim]

Thank you. Your response solved my problem. As you can see in the
linked screen shot, I did not see the "Whole Document" option in the
drop-down menu. An interface usability issue for sure!

http://edtech.guhsd.net/Images/column_format.gif

-Jim Epler

 

[dennisraymeier]

Wonderful! Thanks!

I was having the same problem, and although I could not see the "Whole
document" option, selecting all sections after the current section
resolved the issue for me.

I would, however, like to know how the problem manifested itself in the
first place.

Dennis Meier
Associate Engineer and Editor
Idaho Department of Environmental Quality

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You're not the only one who would like to know how this happens. It
shouldn't happen in Word 2003 or in fully patched Word 2002, I think, but in
earlier versions it was caused by use of the Columns button (rather than the
Columns dialog) to format a section into multiple columns. Using the button
did not cause the "Equal column width" box to be checked; changing the
margins somehow ends up with one column being margin width and the other
zero width or something equally bizarre.