Is it possible to rotate an entire page by 90 degrees?

[Robert S]

I am trying to print a document on A5 sheets. Unfortunately the paper jams
in my printer because it is half the "standard" page width for my printer.
I would like to fix this by putting the page into the printer sideways, so
the bottom edge is the full width of the printer. In order to do this, I
would need to rotate the entire page by 90 degrees. Is this possible in
Word 2003? It doesn't look as if my printer has this capability.

 

[Jay Freedman]

I am trying to print a document on A5 sheets. Unfortunately the
paper jams in my printer because it is half the "standard" page width
for my printer. I would like to fix this by putting the page into the
printer sideways, so the bottom edge is the full width of the
printer. In order to do this, I would need to rotate the entire page
by 90 degrees. Is this possible in Word 2003? It doesn't look as if
my printer has this capability.

In the dialog at File > Page Setup > Layout, select Landscape orientation.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I'm not sure changing to Landscape orientation would help much since most
printers feed landscape documents in portrait orientation and just rotate
the print. You may, however, be able to fool Word into accepting a
"landscape" orientation with greater height than width (or a "portrait"
orientation with greater width than height, which is easier to think about).

 

[Jay Freedman]

Thinking about this some more, I think both things are required. The
Landscape orientation rotates the page image 90 degrees, so the lines of
type will continue to be parallel to the short side of the paper when the
paper is physically turned. But you also need to swap the height and width
measurements of the paper in the Page Setup dialog (and possibly also in the
printer driver's paper size definition) so the print area will have the
proper size.

 

[grammatim]

Thinking about this some more, I think both things are required. The
Landscape orientation rotates the page image 90 degrees, so the lines of
type will continue to be parallel to the short side of the paper when the
paper is physically turned.

No it doesn't!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Doesn't what?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Thinking about this some more, I think both things are required. The
Landscape orientation rotates the page image 90 degrees, so the lines of
type will continue to be parallel to the short side of the paper when the
paper is physically turned.

No it doesn't!

 

[Jay Freedman]

Beats me.

I've now done the real experiment instead of the gedankenexperiment, and it
works. I set the page orientation to Landscape. Since I'm working with US Letter
paper instead of A4, I chose a width of 5.5" and a height of 8.5" for a half
sheet. The printer feeds the 8.5" side first. When I take the paper out of the
printer and turn it 90 degrees so the 5.5" side is the top, the text appears in
the correct orientation.

I didn't have to play any games with custom page definitions in my printer
driver's dialog, but some printers may require that.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all
may benefit.

 

[grammatim]

If you simply insert a Landscape section into a Portrait document, the
text box doesn't rotate. (That would defeat the purpose of a Landscape
section.)

If you insert a Landscape section and give it two text boxes of the
desired size side by side (either by 2 columns with a pretty big space
between, or by reducing the text box and adding another), then the
desired result is achieved.

 

[Jay Freedman]

Please reread the original post. There was no mention of text boxes, or of two
pages per sheet. The OP wants to print single pages on A5 sheets (half the size
of the more common A4 sheet).

 

[grammatim]

That was fine. I was objecting to your assertion in your follow-up
posting that "> >> >> Landscape orientation rotates the page image 90
degrees, so the lines of > >> >> type will continue to be parallel to
the short side of the paper when the > >> >> paper is physically
turned."

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Shall we all agree that thinking about this in the abstract is likely to
cause headaches?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

That was fine. I was objecting to your assertion in your follow-up
posting that "> >> >> Landscape orientation rotates the page image 90
degrees, so the lines of > >> >> type will continue to be parallel to
the short side of the paper when the > >> >> paper is physically
turned."