Settings chosen too large for page width

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Every time I go to Page Setup to change the margins, page size, or other settings in my document, I get the error message “Settings you chose for the left and right margins, column spacing, or paragraph indents are too large for the page width in some sections.” But I don’t find that the left and right margins (.5″), column spacing (normal), or paragraph indents (0″) are too large. What might the problem be?

I tried attaching the problematic document, but the problem is it is way too big, and when I try cutting out a section, the problem disappears and so if I post that section, then you won’t see the problem occurring. How can I discover what the problem is?

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Every time I go to Page Setup to change the margins, page size, or other settings in my document, I get the error message “Settings you chose for the left and right margins, column spacing, or paragraph indents are too large for the page width in some sections.”

Try this macro and see whether it turns up any aberrant sections:

Code:

Sub ListSectionWidthsAndMargins()
Dim s As Word.Section, a As Word.Document, r As Word.Document
Set a = ActiveDocument
Set r = Documents.Add
For Each s In a.Sections
    r.Content.InsertAfter "Section " & s.Index & ": Page Width=" & _
        (s.PageSetup.PageWidth / 72) & "in; Left Margin=" & _
        (s.PageSetup.LeftMargin / 72) & "in; Right Margin=" & _
        (s.PageSetup.RightMargin / 72) & "in; " & vbCrLf
Next
Set s = Nothing
Set a = Nothing
End Sub

(I think in inches. For those who think in metric, you can revise the computation.)

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Every time I go to Page Setup to change the margins, page size, or other settings in my document, I get the error message “Settings you chose for the left and right margins, column spacing, or paragraph indents are too large for the page width in some sections.” But I don’t find that the left and right margins (.5″), column spacing (normal), or paragraph indents (0″) are too large. What might the problem be?

I tried attaching the problematic document, but the problem is it is way too big, and when I try cutting out a section, the problem disappears and so if I post that section, then you won’t see the problem occurring. How can I discover what the problem is?

Try this: Select the whole document. Go to Page layout tab > Page setup group > columns and click One (column).

Pam

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I think that Pam is on the right track with the multi-column layout section being the problem. Check specifically on the settings for column widths and whether they are automatic or a fixed width.

The simplest way to fix this is to remove all section breaks from the document but you may need to then do a bunch of work to reinstate the setups you want.

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I think that Pam is on the right track with the multi-column layout section being the problem. Check specifically on the settings for column widths and whether they are automatic or a fixed width.

Word occasionally gets confused and thinks a one column section (or document) has two or more columns and a gutter. Clicking the One column icon–even if it is already selected–usually unconfuses Word. Of course, if the section has multiple columns, the fix is to adjust the column and gutter widths.

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Thank you all. What actually worked was going to my 2-columned TOA and setting the columns to have equal column width.

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