How do I set my page before printing?

Printers can print in portrait or landscape mode. In portrait mode, which is the default, the printer prints pages that are 8.5″ wide and 11″ tall. In landscape mode, the page is turned on its side. This mode may be useful if you are trying to print a spreadsheet or sign that is wider than it is long.

To switch to landscape mode before printing a document, open the Page Setup dialog box (File, Page Setup), then select the option you want (Portrait or Landscape) by clicking on one of the icons in the Orientation Section.

Usually, when you're printing a document, it's the "white space" at the margins of your page that make it look good. The margins create a sort of frame for your words, increasing the document's visual appeal. For some specific purposes, though, like a photo or a full-page graphic that will become a brochure, you'll need to print a full page from edge to edge. Each program has its own settings to do this, but they're pretty similar.

Setting Margins in Photoshop

Photoshop is typically used by graphics professionals, so it has more – and more complicated! – print settings than most programs. Most of them are related to image quality and resolution, so you don't need to deal with them in this instance. Start by choosing "File" and then "Print," and clicking the "Position and Size" settings. Usually, the default option is "Scale to Fit Media," which prints to the page margins. Deselect it, then manually enter scale, height and width values that equal the full size of your paper. Click "Print" to print your image. This should work for any low-volume printing you do in-house, but if you're preparing an image as "camera-ready" art for an outside printer, it's generally best to print on paper that's larger than your final image, so your printer can work with crop lines for alignment purposes.

Changing Margins in Acrobat

Adobe's Acrobat software is another widely used graphics program because the PDF files it creates should look and print the same across multiple devices and printers. The simplest way to print full-page images in Acrobat is to choose a paper size that's identical to your image, or just slightly larger. Click "File" and then "Print" to open the printing dialog box, and then choose the "Size" button. Under Size, click the "Actual Size" option, and then "Print."

Changing Margins in Word

You're less likely to print a borderless page from a word processing program, but if it should ever be necessary, the settings are straightforward. Microsoft Word ordinarily sets a default margin of one inch all the way around your document. You can change the settings to increase or decrease the amount of white space on your page or even offset the whole page to allow for a binding of some sort along one edge. In this case, your goal is to remove the margins entirely, so click "Layout," then "Margins" and finally "Custom Margins." Change the margins for the top, bottom and sides to zero. The other Office apps, and word processing programs from other vendors, should work similarly though the exact names of the menu options may vary.

Changing Margins in Google Docs

If you use Google Docs as your cross-platform word processing program, you can also set it for borderless printing. From the File menu, choose "Page Setup" and then set all of your margins to zero. Your document will print across the full width of the paper, as long as your printer's settings are set similarly.

Setting Your Printer

Even when your settings are all correct in the document itself, you may still find that your document won't print border-free. That's usually because the printer driver itself has default borders set for each document, and until they're changed your document will print with a border or your program will tell you that you're trying to print a document that's too large for the page. To fix that, open "Devices and Printers" from your startup menu, then right-click on the icon for your printer. Choose "Printing Preferences" from the pop-up menu, then look at the setup options your print driver provides. Usually, there will be one called "Layout" or "Page Layout." Once you've clicked "Layout," you should have the option to manually set your margins to zero. For some printers, you may need to dig down another level and find an "Advanced Setup" screen to get to those settings. Newer printers, especially if they're photo-oriented, should have an explicit setting for borderless printing. Click it, and then click "Print" to finish printing your document.

Lesson 20: 5 Tips for Printing Word Documents

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5 tips for printing Word documents

If you've ever used Microsoft Word, there's a good chance you've needed to print a document. While Word's printing options are more advanced than some of the other programs in the Office suite, it can still be difficult to get printed documents to look exactly the way you want.

That's why we've put together this list of tips. Keep these in mind the next time you need to print a document, and you're sure to have better results. These tips should work the same way for Word for Office 365, Word 2016, Word 2013, and Word 2010. If you're using Word 2007 or earlier, you can make many of these changes in the Print dialog box.

1. Use Print Preview

Before you print anything, you'll want to preview it. Just go to File > Print to see a preview of your document. From here, you'll also be able to adjust different page layout and printing settings, such as the page orientation, paper size, and margin width. Any changes you make will be updated in the preview pane as well.

2. Use smaller page margins

There may be times when you need a way to make your document take up fewer printed pages. One of the easiest ways to do this is by using smaller margins. Just go to the Page Layout tab, click Margins, then select Narrow (you can also select Custom Margins for even smaller margins). Keep in mind that using very small margins may cause some text to be cut off by your printer.

We've found this especially helpful if you have a multi-page document with just a few sentences on the last page. Making the margins smaller will bring the text up, which will usually remove the extra page.

3. Print double-sided

Double-sided printing is another great way to save paper. Double-siding printing options can vary, depending on your printer.

Go to File > Print and select the menu just below the Pages: field (if you've never changed this option before, it will say Print One Sided). Select Manually Print on Both Sides, then print your document. One side of the page will be printed, and you'll then need to reload the page into the printer to print the other side.

With some printers, you'll also have the option to Print on Both Sides. If you use this option, your printer will reload and print on the second side automatically.

If you're using Word 2007, check the option for Manual Duplex in the Print dialog box to print double-sided.

4. Show or hide markup

If you've used any of Word's reviewing features with your document, such as Track Changes or Comments, you'll need to decide whether to include this markup in the printed version. For example, if you're still in the review process it may be helpful to include comments. If you're printing a final version, you'll probably want to turn these off. To do this, go to File > Print, click the very first menu below Settings (it will usually say Print All Pages), and select Print Markup to uncheck this option.

5. Print a test copy

If you're printing multiple copies of the same document, it's a good idea to print a test copy first. This is especially true if the document has a unique design, like a holiday card or poster. A test copy will let you see whether the document looks the way you want, and you can then make adjustments before printing the final version.

We hope these tips will come in handy the next time you need to print a Word document.

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