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Eva Manicom 0

I'd noticed that when I am on the Print Preview Page, there are excess "white paper" around the margins or border of my page. May I ask how I overcome this? I have attached pictures to show the "excess" white area beyond my margins.

I've already tried fixing the margins, and I've even uninstalled and reinstalled word. So far nothing I've tried has worked I even contacted support they were unable to help me fix the issue. When I print it prints two pages very funny. It almost looks like it turned my text into an image and the image doesn't take up the whole page. I've been in page settings both on my word and in my computer. I've updated my drivers on my printer. Does anyone have additional information that would help or figure it out how to fix this issue that only started yesterday?

Suzanne S Barnhill 277.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-29T13:05:41.3233333+00:00

Your screen shots are not displayed. You can copy/paste them into a message.

3 answers

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Suzanne S Barnhill 277.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-29T13:05:41.3233333+00:00

Your screen shots are not displayed. You can copy/paste them into a message.

Answer 1

Stefan Blom 341.3K MVP Volunteer Moderator

At File > Print, make sure that "1 Page Per Sheet" is selected at the bottom.

In the Page Setup dialog box, make sure that "Normal" is selected in the Multiple pages drop down. To display the dialog box, you can click the dialog launcher icon User's image in the Page Setup group on the Layout tab (or you can double-click the vertical ruler).

See the screen shot below.

If none of this fixes the issue, it might help if you uploaded some screen shots to illustrate what you see in your document.

User's image

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Answer 2

Stefan Blom 341.3K MVP Volunteer Moderator

Stefan, no matter what printer I use this happens. At this point of uninstalled office it still happening I've uninstalled my printer it still happening I've reset everything I could find back to default and it still happening. I've only been able to find one reference online where someone else had this issue but it doesn't explain how they fixed it. Thank you for the help

Regarding settings in the Word document itself, did you also verify the paper size, as Suzanne suggested?

If you convert the document to PDF, can you then print the PDF successfully?

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Answer 3

Kai-H 18,195 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi, Eva Manicom

This sounds less like a true margin problem and more like Word’s preview/print settings getting stuck. When Word starts treating the page like a scaled object, the preview can show a big white border and the printout can come out shrunken or split oddly.

Here are some suggestions you can try:

If the extra white area is only in preview, turn Show White Space between Pages in Print Layout View back on, or double-click the gray gap between pages. That often fixes a suddenly “wrong-looking” page without changing the document itself.

In File > Options > Advanced > Print, clear Scale content for A4 or 8.5" x 11" paper sizes. Also check the Print screen and make sure it is not set to a scaled or multi-page print mode.

It is suggested that you disable any third-party Word add-ins and test again, since add-ins can interfere with print layout.

If this only happens in one document, create a new blank file and copy the content into it. If it happens in all documents, resetting Normal.dotm is worth trying because a damaged template can break print preview across Word.

Thank you for your patience in reading, I hope this information has been helpful to you.

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Kai-H 18,195 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-04-02T06:42:47.92+00:00

Hi, Eva Manicom

It has been a while and I am writing to see how things are going with this issue.

Have you had a chance to check the replies provided?

Any update would be appreciated.
Eva Manicom 0 Reputation points

2026-04-02T13:20:57.84+00:00

I tried both and this is still the problem.
Charles Kenyon 167.4K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-04-02T15:46:52.2033333+00:00

@Eva Manicom I'm afraid I do not see a problem. If you want, you can zoom in. Then the white space on the sides will disappear, but you will not see the entire page.
Stefan Blom 341.3K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-04-02T18:13:43.6933333+00:00

Like Charles, I can't identify the problem based on your screen shot. You may need to include more of the page or document window for us to get a clearer view.
Eva Manicom 0 Reputation points

2026-04-02T21:17:21.67+00:00

The white space all the way around it causes my document to print in the middle of the page like it's an image. The only way I've been able to fix it is to open up the print settings and close them it automatically fixes the problem. It also ends up cutting the document in half half on one page have on another page with that white space all the way around it
Stefan Blom 341.3K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-04-03T00:07:50.32+00:00

The white space all the way around it causes my document to print in the middle of the page like it's an image. The only way I've been able to fix it is to open up the print settings and close them it automatically fixes the problem. It also ends up cutting the document in half half on one page have on another page with that white space all the way around it

Thanks for the clarification. If the scaling options in Word are set as expected (see the screen shot in a previous reply of mine), maybe your printer has some scaling or zoom preferences that need to be changed.
Suzanne S Barnhill 277.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-04-03T01:20:29.8266667+00:00

Make sure the paper size set for the document agrees with the paper size set for the printer.
Eva Manicom 0 Reputation points

2026-04-03T09:44:01.5333333+00:00

Stefan, no matter what printer I use this happens. At this point of uninstalled office it still happening I've uninstalled my printer it still happening I've reset everything I could find back to default and it still happening. I've only been able to find one reference online where someone else had this issue but it doesn't explain how they fixed it. Thank you for the help
Kai-H 18,195 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-04-05T06:16:25.74+00:00

Hi, Eva Manicom

Since this is happening with every printer, and opening the full print settings briefly fixes it, this points more to Word’s own print/layout engine than to the printer itself. That kind of mismatch is often tied to a bad add-in, a display/rendering glitch, or an older compatibility layout setting in the document.

You can try these options:

Start Word in Safe Mode first. Press Win + R, type winword /safe, then open the document and check Print Preview. If it looks normal there, go to File > Options > Add-ins > Manage: COM Add-ins > Go and turn add-ins off, then re-enable them one by one.

Try disabling hardware graphics acceleration in Word, since rendering problems can make the page look shrunken or boxed in.

In File > Options > Advanced > Compatibility options, try changing Lay out this document as if created in to Word 2010 or Word 2007, and clear the layout option boxes if they are checked. That can fix documents that suddenly start printing with the wrong layout engine.

If you need a quick workaround for now, save the document as a PDF and print the PDF instead. That bypasses Word’s print engine and can confirm whether Word is the actual source of the problem.
Kai-H 18,195 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-04-06T13:23:55.57+00:00

Hi, Eva Manicom

Is there any update from you?

If yes, please feel free to let us know.
Eva Manicom 0 Reputation points

2026-04-06T15:04:04.8766667+00:00

I can confirm that is the glitch within word 365. I'm not sure how to fix it I've tried everything that's been sent nothing has worked so far.
Kai-H 18,195 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-04-07T06:23:35.6733333+00:00

Hi again, Eva Manicom

If you can indicate that this is explicitly an issue within Word, then try these troubleshooting steps:

First, reset Word’s user settings by deleting the Word Data registry subkey, because it's a standard troubleshooting step when Word behaves incorrectly.

If that still does nothing, you can try rolling Word back to the previous Office version, since it's commonly recommended when a recent update causes unexpected behavior.

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