Printing labels from Microsoft Word (Office365 version on Windows 10) always messes up the margins

Question

This is a frustrating issue that I have when trying to print address labels from Microsoft Word.

Allthough I set the margins and grid for the table containing the lables perfectly, when printing the margins are always screwed up, thus I have to print in trial and error to find somehow a way to get the printed text inside the labels.

I've had to throw away many label sheets because of this issue.

How is my document setup?

1. Page size: A4
2. Top, left, right, bottom margin set to the margin of the label sheet
3. Added a table with row and column size to match the label sizes

This way on the screen the labels look perfect and I would expect the printer to print out the labels exactly as set.

However...

When I print the labels, the margin at the top is never correct and this makes them shift so for most labels the text is spread across labels, not nicely centered, ...

What did I observe?

Well, if I in the print options, go to the printer options and then advanced, the paper size somehow always seems to reset to Letter, where the page setup of the document page size is A4, the print settings from Windows are also set to print on A4.

If I set the paper size to A4, click OK. Reopen it shows correct.

I print, see it screwed up again.

Click again to check the paper size and it is again Letter in stead of A4.

My assumption therefore is that somehow Word doesn't want to remember I am using A4 paper size in both the document and in the printer settings for the printer driver and keeps wanting to use the Letter format.

Where the heck is that Letter format coming from?

Answer 1

To add to what Charles has said, the document and table set up by the Labels dialog play some tricks that aren't available when you create a document and table without the dialog. For one thing, it overrides the minimum margin settings that come from the printer driver and it ignores the usual header and footer heights.

If the physical labels you're printing on aren't listed in the Product Number box or come from a vendor that isn't listed, you can click the New Label button in the Label Options dialog and enter the measurements manually; they'll be saved as a Custom label (the "Other/Custom" entry will be added to the Vendor list). It will probably take some trial and error to get the measurements exactly right, so try printing a sample on plain paper and holding it and a sheet of labels up to a strong light to check the positioning.

Answer 2

Hi Jean-Marie,

As you've observed, labels, in Word, are tables. That said, it is usually best to use one of the preset layouts under Mailings > Labels > Options (button).

**There are settings there for most commercial labels based on A4 as well as Letter-sized paper.**Have you tried that?

Sometimes, experimentation is required. In those cases, start by printing a couple of sheets on plain paper rather than label stock. See how they match up to the label stock.

This forum is a user-to-user support forum. I am a fellow user.

I hope this information helps.

Please let me know if you have any more questions or require further help.

You can ask for more help by replying to this post (Reply button below).

Regards