Cannot change page size of document.

Dear Judy,

Welcome to the forum here.

From the information "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.'", may I know whether the issue only happen in the file you are using? If you do a test in a newly created file, what's the result?

Please first check whether you locate the section of the document and adjust the column width.

Meanwhile, I also suggest you try the steps Suzanne mentioned and renaming the Normal.dotm template Dave mentioned in the thread to see if they help you solve the issue in your environment.

Moreover, I'd like you to open Word>click on File>Account and upload a screenshot of the Account page for our reference as well.

Note: Remove any private information before uploading the screenshots.

Thanks for your effort and time!

Sincerely,

Cliff | Microsoft Community Moderator

Hello Cliff,

I didn't mention that I did in fact try renaming the Normal.dotm file yesterday with no success.

Screenshot:

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.

My apologies for not metioning this. I did try this yesterday as well, although these were the settings when I opened the columns setup window I did click on the "one" again. As you can see from my screen shot, this does not resolve my issue. I tried to change the page size from 7.5" to 7.75"

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:

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

No difference:

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

Thank you. By selecting whole document did allow me to change the page length. However, it does create a problem because this is a 96 page classified document supplied to me from a customer. I did not create the document so I don't know if there may be some sections that do have more than one column. I only want the changes applied to the section I want to edit. If I select whole document, I'll have to check each page to make sure nothing has been affected? Why doesn't it allow me to just make changes to the section I'm editing?

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):