[subhash]

I am using MS Word 2003 and I have set top margin for a document at 5". I was hoping that when printing, it will skip 5 inches from top and print the document below that. In the actual printout, the top edge of the line as at 4-3/4" from top of the paper and bottom of the line is at a little over 4-7/8". So, to get it to give me exactly 5" from the top, I had to increase the top margin to 5.2".

Can someone please help me understand how these top margins work. I mean, 5" should mean 5", not 4.8". I have got what I wanted but I am just puzzled over this.

Thanks in advance for the help....

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[md2lgyk]

I've never heard of this one. Maybe it has something to do with the printer you're using. Most have print boundaries outside of which they won't print no matter what you set your margins to. Have you tried a different printer?

[subhash]

Yes. I have tried two different printers. One a brand new Canon Inkjet and a 15 year old Okidata Laser. Both give same results.

Any other thoughts. Have you tried printing a page with 5" top margin yourself ?

[md2lgyk]

No, I have not. But when I'm at work tomorrow I'll try it and see what happens.

[md2lgyk]

OK, I just tried it (Word 2007). Several times, with different font sizes. With the top margin set at 5 inches, in every case the top of the capital letters is exactly 5 inches from the top of the paper.

Unfortunately, I don't have access to Word 2003 to try it with the same version you have. I suppose it's possible there's some bug in 2003. Maybe somebody with that version will chime in.

[Keebellah]

I just tried with Word 2003 on a OCé Laser printer, I set the top margin to 10cm and the top of the capital letters is exactly 10 cm.
If this repeats itself you could cosider deleteing the normal.dot file (save it elsewhere in case you have extra functions on startup) and try again.
Normal.dot is recreated if not available, maybe it's corrupt.

[subhash]

Thanks md2lgyk and Keebellah for trying this for me. It made me think harder why it is not working for me. I then realized that the document I was trying on had its paper size set to A4. In fact I set it myself and forgot to mention that in my first post, as I wanted to print an A4 size document. So, I created a new document in Letter size and it worked just fine. I also tried on paper size 8"X10" and it worked ok.

Now, the problem is why it wouldn't work on A4 while other paper sizes work fine.

Can you please try on A4 and see if you get the results I get. If you do, then any thoughts why it does that.

Thanks again.
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[md2lgyk]

Isn't A4 paper a metric size? Maybe specifying margins in inches for metric paper is the problem.

[subhash]

A4 size is 8.27"X11.69". Plus, I don't think specifying margins in inches or cms should matter.

[md2lgyk]

Well, I can duplicate your problem but still have no idea what's causing it. I created a test document specifying A4 paper size and a 5-inch top margin. When I print it on 8.5 x 11 paper, the top edge of the first line is 4-3/4 inches from the top. As I said earlier, I don't have any A4 paper so I can't say if the margin would be correct when printed on that size.

[Keebellah]

I did my tests on A4 (standard in NL) and no problem here.

I'll test it on my Deskjet later and let you know

[Keebellah]

Just did a test.
SZet top margin to 10cm.
printed an uppercase A
The top of the letter is exactly 10cm from the top of the page (A4 size)

[subhash]

Well, really strange. md2lgyk can duplicate the problem running Office 2007 while keebellah has no problem running Office 2003, same as me. I could understand if it was the other way round, that may MS fixed in Office 2007.

md2lgyk, should feeding the actual A4 paper matter ? I really don't think so because the if I am feeding from my printer's rear tray, the printer has really no way of knowing what size paper is loaded. I could cut a legal size paper to A4 size and try it but I really think that would make any difference.

Now that you have been able to duplicate the problem, may some one can jump in try explaining this.

Thanks.
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[slurpee55]

Word sets up pages in points (1/72 of an inch) for compatibility with Word's PageSetup object, even though the printer driver itself returns the height and width in units of a tenth of a millimeter via the Windows API. The real wonder is that there are not more errors!
However, US Letter is shorter and wider than A4 (see post #9), so if you set the page up for A4 but have US Letter paper in the printer (or vice-versa) your document will not print as you expect.

[subhash]

I loaded the A4 size, still does the same. So, what you load in the printer does not make a difference.