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Delete or disable a paper size

Hi. This might be a weird question. I'm from Mexico, I'm an IT support specialist at a law firm which does a lot of printing. Most of the legal work is printed on a paper size called Oficio, which is an inch shorter than Legal paper size (13" former, 14" latter). Oficio paper size is a standard size in Mexico, but some of the users misuse the Legal paper size, with the obvious printing problems. What I'd like to know is if there is a way to disable or block the Legal paper size in order to stop the users from selecting it.

Thanks to you all!

The templates that users are using should have the paper size correctly defined. You may also want to make this the default paper size for the printer (and hence for the Normal template) if no other size is generally used.

 

It may also be that the setting "Scale content for A4 or 8.5 x 11" paper sizes" (File | Options | Advanced: Print) would also affect the switch from Oficio to Legal.

Microsoft MVP (Word) since 1999
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://ssbarnhill.com
http://wordfaqs.ssbarnhill.com
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The thing is that, even though we have templates, most users do their documents from scratch. And some of them tend to use the Legal paper size because... well... you know... they are lawyers and think that this is the right paper size ("Legal should work for me, right? I'm a lawyer"), even if we have told them countless times that it is not a standard size in Mexico. We can't even get that paper size here!

So that's why I'm looking for a way to disable/eliminate/make it impossible for them to choose that paper size within Word.

On our printer drivers there is no problem, all the correct paper sizes are configured. But even then, those few users that print their Legal-based documents onto Oficio paper. Well, it does print, but that inch short makes the text printed to be almost at the bottom border, hence making angry users.

I know it is mostly (well... completely) a learning issue regarding those users, but when words are not working, you have to be more "restrictive".

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I understand your problem, but, as you say, it is an education issue for those users, and I don't believe there's any solution from within the Word UI.
Microsoft MVP (Word) since 1999
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://ssbarnhill.com
http://wordfaqs.ssbarnhill.com
Screen shots captured with TechSmith's Snagit

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"You may also want to make this the default paper size for the printer..."

As it is well known, Office products completely ignore and override the default printer settings.

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That has not been my experience. In my experience, the paper size set as the printer default becomes the default for new documents (based on the Normal template) in Word.
Microsoft MVP (Word) since 1999
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://ssbarnhill.com
http://wordfaqs.ssbarnhill.com
Screen shots captured with TechSmith's Snagit

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Last updated February 17, 2025 Views 8,644 Applies to: