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Cannot change page size of document.

Anonymous
2023-01-04T14:54:58+00:00

When I try to change the page size of a section in a document, I get this error message "Increasing right margin causes last column to become too narrow in some sections having unevenly spaced columns." I'm only changing the length of the page so right margin is not affected. There is only one column in the section and I only want to apply the new page size to that section. I've tried several times. I also decreased the right margin hoping it would resolve the problem but no matter how much I decrease it, the error message still refers to increasing the right margin.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For education | Windows

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  1. Jay Freedman 207.6K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2023-01-04T17:19:07+00:00

    Hi Judy,

    You may have skipped the instructions from Suzanne S. Barnhill that Cliff mentioned:

    First go to the Page Layout tab and, in the Page Setup group, click Columns. From the dropdown menu, choose More Columns... to open the Columns dialog. In the dialog, click on the preset picture for One, even if 1 column is already selected. This will check the box for "Equal column width" (before you do this, you'll probably note that the column width is set for a specific amount; checking this box allows it to be adjusted as you change margins).

    Word sometimes gets confused about its column settings, and although it looks like there's only one column, some internal variable is acting like there are more. Forcing Word to recognize "1 column" resets everything.

    5 people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2023-01-04T17:35:11+00:00

    One more thing I just tried. I opened the page setup window and made no changes and hit ok, I still get the error message:

    4 people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Stefan Blom 339.3K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2023-01-05T01:33:22+00:00

    My suggestion was to try the "Whole document" option in the Columns dialog box.

    3 people found this answer helpful.
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  4. Stefan Blom 339.3K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2023-01-05T20:10:52+00:00

    First, make the change on a copy on the document.

    In the original document, you can go from section to section and check the number of columns in each section. This will be quicker than going from page to page, but it might still be a long process, if the document contains many sections. Use the Go To dialog box (Ctrl+G):

    2 people found this answer helpful.
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  5. Stefan Blom 339.3K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2023-01-04T19:09:52+00:00

    See if choosing "Whole document" in the "Apply to" drop down makes a difference.

    2 people found this answer helpful.
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