Mirror margins don’t work in multisection document with mixed orientation

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Hi there,

In our research, we’ve come across the following:

http://word.mvps.org/faqs/apperrors/mirrormarginsnotwork.htm

In a document with multiple sections, with the following Page Layout options activated:
– Odd/Even pages
– Different First Page
– Mirror margins

If one of the sections is formatted wit a different paper (landscape) orientation, that section does not have mirror margins. Currently there is no known workaround.

Is this still true? I swear I’ve seen a document with sections and correctly working mirror margins.

Regards,

CharlB

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The page does not have to do with a document just with multiple sections, but with one or more landscape sections.

In Word 2010 you can have mirrored margins with a landscape section, sort of. The way they work is the left and right margins, if set for the document, act in all pages, mirroring. In a bound book (or loose-leaf) printed on both sides this is not what you want, though. You would want the top and bottom margins of a landscape section mirrored. That is not a possible so far as I know.

In Word 2007 you can have the same kind of mirrored margins but you will need to set the margins for the landscape section(s) separately.

In Word 2003 mirrored margins work differently. The margin which applies to the left edge in an odd portrait page applies to the top on all landscape pages; that for the right margin applies to the bottom of all landscape pages. There is no mirroring for the landscape page. If, though, a left margin is set in the landscape page different from the right margin in the landscape page, they will mirror. You can change the top margin to what you want in the landscape page. Again, in a bound book (or loose-leaf) printed on both sides this is not what you want.

I do not know which version of Word you are using.

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First, mirrored margins work fine in documents with multiple sections. It is in documents with a landscape section and a portrait section that there is a problem.

The purpose of mirrored margins is generally for duplex printed documents to provide a binding gutter for the binding or loose-leaf holes. Landscape sections do not do this properly. I am assuming that the binding edge is still the long edge. In that case, you would want to mirror the top and bottom margins of the landscape pages. That cannot be done. A workaround might be different odd and even headers/footers.

36179-2010MirrorMarginsLandscapeSection3
Above is a workaround using space-before and space-after paragraph formatting in headers and footers. More at
Mirrored Margins with Landscape Sections

The way mirrored margins behave in landscape sections is different in Word 2003, Word 2007, and Word 2010. I haven’t checked Word 2013. I do not know which version of Word you are using.

Have you tried to do what you want to do? It won’t hurt to try. What is it you are trying to accomplish?

The attachment below is a demonstration using textboxes in headers and footers.

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I was mistaken in saying it was different in different versions. That was because of me testing in different ways on the different versions. When you start a document out completely in Landscape orientation and apply mirror margins, you get a mirrored left and right rather than top and bottom but the mirroring works. This would be fine if you are binding or the short side of the paper.

When you add a landscape section in a portrait document the Inside margin remains the Inside margin, but will apply to the top of the page. It really becomes the Top margin and the Outside margin becomes the bottom margin for all pages in the Landscape section.

It is the same from Word 97-Word 2010 at least. The method with textboxes works in all of those versions, as well.

Using the textbox workaround means that headers and footers in landscape and portrait versions, though, cannot be linked to previous.

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Hi CharlB,
You need to make the first section portrait.

I have experimented with both Word 2007 and Word 2010.
I think we have uncovered a bug where the mirrored margins fail to act.
If you set a portrait only document to mirrored margins (eg 5cm inside; 1 cm outside), it works perfectly.

If you add a landscape section BEFORE the portrait section, it kills the portrait section. The PORTRAIT sections PRINTS 5 cm left on all pages whatever the “mirror” “odd and even” “diff first page” settings are.

I then experimented with putting another portrait section before the landscape section, so the document is portrait – landscape – portrait. Both the portrait sections print correctly.

So I’ve narrowed it down. In a document to be duplexed with a wide binding margin, you cannot start the document with a landscape section. The first section must be portrait.

I didn’t experiment with margins in the landscape section. That’s covered in the replies from Charles.

Hope this helps,
Judith

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Hi CharlB,

So I’ve narrowed it down. In a document to be duplexed with a wide binding margin, you cannot start the document with a landscape section. The first section must be portrait.

This is true if the binding edge is the long edge. Take a look at Mirrored Margins with Landscape Sections.

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Hi CharlB,
You need to make the first section portrait.

I have experimented with both Word 2007 and Word 2010.
I think we have uncovered a bug where the mirrored margins fail to act.
If you set a portrait only document to mirrored margins (eg 5cm inside; 1 cm outside), it works perfectly.

If you add a landscape section BEFORE the portrait section, it kills the portrait section. The PORTRAIT sections PRINTS 5 cm left on all pages whatever the “mirror” “odd and even” “diff first page” settings are.

I then experimented with putting another portrait section before the landscape section, so the document is portrait – landscape – portrait. Both the portrait sections print correctly.

So I’ve narrowed it down. In a document to be duplexed with a wide binding margin, you cannot start the document with a landscape section. The first section must be portrait.

I didn’t experiment with margins in the landscape section. That’s covered in the replies from Charles.

Hope this helps,
Judith

Judith, you’ve fixed it! 😀

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