Question

Print Setup: "One of the margins are set outside of the printable area of the page." error message

Asked by: jimhorn

In my document, the following scenario happens when I've created a section, moved from landscape to portrait and back, and try to print:

When I enter Print Setup and set margins to 1" all around, I get the following error message:

One of the margins are set outside of the printable area of the page.  Choose the Fix
button to increase the appropriate margins.

If I hit Fix, it sets the Bottom margin to 2.67"

Anyone know how to troubleshoot/fix this?

TIA
-Jim

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2005-01-05 at 13:34:11ID21263190
Tags

outside

,

margins

,

set

,

printable

,

area

Topic

Microsoft Word

Participating Experts
9
Points
500
Comments
17

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. Non-printable printer margins
    In using VB 4.0 I am working on an app that does a lot of printing to the printer. Since it will be used by different people (and different printers), I need to know how to programmatically find out what the four non-printable margins are. Does this come from the "devi...
  2. Printable Area
    I’m developing an application with Delphi 4 Client/Server Suite and Windows NT 4.0. I’m making printable reports with QuickReport and I want to be able to know the greatest printable area the selected printer can print. The problem is that I found some printers (or printer ...
  3. margins set outside printable area
    When I set Word 2002 (XP operating system) margins at top and bottom (.75") and right and left (1"), in portrait orientation and click OK, I get the message "One or more margins are set outside the printable area of the page. Choose the Fix button to increase t...

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: SheharyaarSaahilPosted on 2005-01-05 at 13:36:08ID: 12966684

Hello jimhorn =)
 Why dont you just hit IGNORE button..... it will not reset the margins :)

 

by: jimhornPosted on 2005-01-05 at 13:39:21ID: 12966715

(sorry, my question is incomplete)

If I hit Ignore, and print, the bottom 2.667" of all printouts are blank, hiding the text that appears in there during Print Preview.

 

by: SheharyaarSaahilPosted on 2005-01-05 at 13:43:20ID: 12966763

what version of Word are you using..... refer to the following documents according to your version!

You receive a "The margins of section <n> are set outside the printable area of the page" error message when you print a document in Word 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/224061

You receive a margin placement error message when you print a document in Word 2003 or Word 2002
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314568

 

by: WileECoyote45305Posted on 2005-01-05 at 13:45:42ID: 12966789

I have seen this before when the document exceeds the minimum margins allowed by the printer, but over 2 inches for a bottom margin seems excessive for any printer. Still, worth looking into. Your printer documentation should say how small each side's margin can be.

 

by: jimhornPosted on 2005-01-05 at 13:49:41ID: 12966834

Word 2003.  

The first msdn link didn't solve the problem of lowering the lower margin from 2.67 inches to 1, just restated my problem.  (Gotta love msdn)

The second link didn't work as it said I didn't have priviledges to set printer settings.

 

by: SheharyaarSaahilPosted on 2005-01-05 at 14:10:59ID: 12967065

goto File>Page Setup>Paper Size>and try to change(play around to check) the Height and Width of the papar.... sometimes it can also effect the margins... have seen it many times!

 

by: jimhornPosted on 2005-01-05 at 14:18:21ID: 12967135

I just noticed that this behavior begins when I create a new document, insert a section break, and make one section letter/portrait and the other legal/landscape.   This also occurs when printing to more than one printer.  Hmmm.....

 

by: byundtPosted on 2005-01-05 at 15:21:00ID: 12967662

Hi jimhorn,
Perhaps your printer driver is corrupted. Try uninstalling the printer and then reinstalling it using the Printers and Faxes control panel (that's the name in Windows XP; it might be named differently in other OS). Make sure that you use the latest driver (rather than accepting whichever driver is stored for your printer).

Cheers!
Brad

 

by: jimhornPosted on 2005-01-05 at 15:29:16ID: 12967719

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;291335, Method 3:

Method 3: Position the Border Relative to the Page Margin and Change the Margin Setting for the Page
(1-3)
4. On the Format menu, click Borders and Shading.
5. Click the Page Border tab, and then click Options.
6. In the Measure from list, click Text, and then click OK twice.

I have no (expletive deleted) idea how this became involved in my document, but performing this action on every section solved the problem.

Thanks (and points) for pointing me in the right direction.
-Jim

 

by: SheharyaarSaahilPosted on 2005-01-05 at 15:30:59ID: 12967729

Whew! ;-)

 

by: jadgpanzer_exchangePosted on 2005-01-21 at 12:52:31ID: 13106745

None of these solutions really worked for me.  

I am printing to an HP LaserJet 5000 from Windows 2000 SP-4 and Word 2002 (10.4219.4219) SP-2.  
I am trying to print a document with text and a table in the landscape orientation.

The problem starts when I change the document to portrait and then back to landscape.  
Word brings up the "One of the margins are set outside”. etc.

I did find something interesting though.
I do not believe that the problem lies with the word document.  My experimentation leads me to believe that the problem lies with Word 2002 itself.
Apparently changing the document to portrait and then landscape disturbs some setting internal to Word.

Here is what I found:
I have an earlier version of the file that exhibits none of the problems described previously.
I made a copy of the file and then changed it to portrait and then landscape.
The previously discussed problem happened.  
Without closing word I opened up a "clean" copy of the document and had the same problem.  I saved the "damaged" copy as a new file.
I closed out of word completely.

I re-opened word with the "clean" copy  - no problems.  I then opened the "damaged" copy - no problems.

To make a long story short, if you change orientations, you are going to have to close out of Word and then go back into it or face the aforementioned problems.

Hope that helps.

 

by: kcsmithPosted on 2005-01-21 at 13:30:36ID: 13107123

After 2hours of trying what was listed here and other things I came up with the following:
 - In MS Word select File - Print
 - In the Zoom area set scale paper size from "no scaling" to "letter" or "legal" or whatever your paper size is

arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!

 

by: jadgpanzer_exchangePosted on 2005-01-27 at 05:49:03ID: 13152141

I can confirm kcsmith's comment as well.  the first time i set my scaling to "letter".  This enabled me to print my letter size documents.  

 

by: parent55Posted on 2005-02-19 at 09:31:47ID: 13354190

Many blessings to kcsmith's  !!!

I've had this problem on and off for years with multiple versions of word.  It just happened to me.  I saw kcsmith's solution just now and tried it.  IT WORKED !!!   There was no change to the size of printing of my document, it just moved the printing back onto the page where it belongs.  For some reason (only the wizards of MS will know) when this happens, during printing the left margin seems to jump from where it is set to about 2.5 inches and pushes the printing off of the right side of the page.  You can't fix it with the margin ruler because it looks correct all along.  Another MS bug for the pile :-(

 

by: George_T_SLCPosted on 2007-12-04 at 13:11:31ID: 20406536

What ALMOST always works when the 2.67" problem comes up is 1) choose Ignore when the message is received while setting margins, then 2) if you get the message while trying to print, switch the Paper setting (in File, Page Setup) from Letter to Legal and back again. If that doesn't work for the whole document, do it one section at a time.
Yes, it's stupid, about the level of throwing salt over your left shoulder, but it works.
This has failed for me only once, in a very large document with multiple sections.

The problem is reportedly due to a basic incompatibility between HP drivers and MS-Word, which each of them apparently it's the other's responsibility to fix.

I am astonished at 2 things:
1. That the above solution, which is in multiple places on the 'Net, doesn't seem to be anywhere here on the Exchange. (At least, my search hasn't found it yet.)
2. That I've never before run into the probably better solution with the Zoom setting.

 

by: jasonwcPosted on 2008-01-16 at 16:29:56ID: 20677710

I spent the last 2 hours trying the following solutions.  KCSMITH's solution came closest and solved the problem for the first couple of sections.  However, I couldn't get it to work on the final sections.  Seeing GeorgeT's comment about drivers vs. word incompatability, I tried something completely out the box:  I SWITCHED TO A NEW NETWORK PRINTER.  This solved all my problems!  I think this shows that the problem is not with the Word File, but with the Printer Drivers.  

I know people are probably saying 'duh', but I couldn't find this option discussed anywhere?  Not on this site, not on Microsoft's site, not on Google.  This won't work for people with only one printer, but if you have access to another printer, especially a differnent model, try printing from it.

 

by: cmdownPosted on 2008-05-12 at 04:01:48ID: 21545824

kcsmith's 'fix' also works with Word 2007

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...