Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 5, 2020)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016
You have been working on your document for hours. It is 35 pages long, and designed to be printed on legal-size paper. You decide to print the document, and discover you are out of legal paper. What do you do if you can't get any legal paper right away? You could reformat the document for letter-size paper, but that may not be the best solution.
Fortunately, Word includes a feature that allows you to independently specify a target paper size and an output paper size. This means you can format something for legal size, but instruct Word to scale the output so it will fit on letter size. This is very similar to a reduction setting on a copier. To take advantage of this feature, follow these steps if you are using Word 2007:
Figure 1. The Print dialog box.
If you are using Word 2010, Word 2013, or Word 2016, then the printing process is different:
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (10936) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Scaling Your Output.
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2020-12-05 14:40:42
Sarah slyman
Help. I keep getting my document to print one or two lines of an entire 1-2 pages. I erased some spacing to one page fit and also there is bullets and regular style typing also. When I first did the document I know I had used a format with graph boxes? Like a layout with boxes side by side with typing in each. This was a format for a resume sent through email and I erased the lines (boxes) and added my own text. I have microsoft 07
2018-11-10 10:23:58
Steve
Thanks for this, Allen.
I'm translating a book with a cover larger than A4 and smaller than A3, and this tip enabled me to scale the cover to A4 for printing while leaving the actual formatting of the doc untouched.
2018-06-14 10:41:51
Moshe
Thank you for the tip. It is helpful.
Is there any way to change the DEFAULT setting of the field "Scale to Paper Size"? (In the old Word 2003)
2017-03-07 10:46:53
Allen
Barry: You won't see the dialog box shown above; as I note, that dialog box is only for Word 2007. You'll need to pay attention to the portion of the tip beginning with "If you are using Word 2010, Word 2013, or Word 2016, then the printing process is different."
-Allen
2017-03-07 10:37:13
Barry Jefferson
I have tried this extensively for Word 2016 but been unable to find any scaling option in the print or any other dialog. My Word 2016 has different dialogs from the ones you show here. Under advanced options I even unchecked the "scale content for A4 or 8.5 x 11" box.Can you offer any further help on this?
2016-12-17 11:46:42
Larry
Doesn't work. Aren't these options in the print dialog box specific to a particular printer?
I wish I did have this option
Larry
Word for Mac 2011
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