How do I print a background on the entire page?

[Chris_07]

I have put a background on my document, but when it prints, it leaves a white
border across the top, bottom and down the right side. How can I fix this?

 

[Jay Freedman]

I have put a background on my document, but when it prints, it leaves a white
border across the top, bottom and down the right side. How can I fix this?

The border is caused by the printer driver, not by Word. Many printers
can't print all the way to the edge of the paper because of the way
the paper-moving mechanism works.

If your printer is able to print to the edges -- a trick that many
"photo" printers can do -- there will be some way to turn that on in
the dialog you get by going to the Print dialog in Word and clicking
the Properties button next to the printer's name. That dialog is
provided by the printer driver, not by Word, so it will be different
for each manufacturer and even for different models. Look for a
checkbox or dropdown item that says something like "borderless
printing".

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

 

[JoAnn Paules [MVP]]

Your printer may not be capable of full bleed. You need to read the
documentation that came with your printer.

--

JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]

~~~~~
How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375

 

[Chuck Davis]

Some printers that do have full bleed capability, will only do so when Photo
paper is selected.

 

[JoAnn Paules [MVP]]

That's why I suggested reading the documentation that accompanied the
printer.

--

JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]

~~~~~
How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375

 

[Dan Freeman]

And even when they do that, they often crop the original image in some
undesireable way.

Dan

 

[Julian Griffin]

I accept the points raised in the replies above, but there does seem to be a
bug in Word 2007.

I have just purchased the Lexmark X2670 which clearly states it can print
‘Borderlessly’.
• If I print text from ‘MS NotePad’ it does print borderlessly,
but
• If I print text from ‘Word 2007’ it does not.

To print ‘Borderlessly’ from NotePad:
1) I set the printer-driver to ‘Borderless A4’
2) I set NotePad’s margins to 0mm.
The text will print without any ‘borders’.

To print ‘Borderlessly’ from Word 2007:
1) I set the printer-driver to ‘Borderless A4’
2) I set Word 2007’s margins to 0mm.
However, ‘Print Preview’ still shows a small border around the text and
quite a large border (just under 3 lines of 12pt text) at the bottom of the
page. And when printed, the borders are still there around the text; the
printout still has borders – a particularly large at the bottom of the page.

It should be noted that:
• If I set Word 2007’s margins to 0mm before setting the printer-driver,
Word 2007 warns that “One or more margins are set outside the printable area
of the page.†and offers to fix it.
• But, if I set the printer-driver first, no warning is displayed.

Whichever order of setting and whether or not a warning it displayed, ‘Print
Preview’ and ‘Print’ ignore the settings of the printer-driver and seem to
use the default borders.

Regardless of setting-order or warnings, when the text is printed, Word 2007
always displays a dialog box containing the warning “The margins of section 1
are outside the printable area of the pageâ€.

So the bug seems to be within Word 2007. It seems to reading the
printer-driver settings when setting page-margins, but not reading the
printer-driver when previewing or printing the text.

Can you suggest a work-around?

Thanks Julian.

 

[Graham Mayor]

Not necessarily. Word interrogates the printer driver and will only format
as the printer driver allows. Some other applications address the printer
firmware directly. The issue is thus more likely that the printer driver has
been derived from earlier drivers and does not allow printing directly to
the edge. You *may* be able to work around the issue by outputting to PDF
and print the PDF.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP


<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[Julian Griffin]

Thank you for your comments Graham.

I have tried the suggested workaround i.e. ‘Save as’ PDF, and this gets it
right. In fact it scaled the page to match the printer-driver settings. If
the printer-driver is set to borderless, then the whole page is scaled up to
be printed borderlessly, if not, the page is scaled down to be printed with
borders, in both preview and print.

However, in Word 2007, if I create a document with 0mm borders (ignoring any
warnings) and enumerates the last few lines of the page i.e.
line 5
line 4
line 3
line 2
line 1
Whatever the printer-driver is set to, the ‘Print Layout’ view shows all
five lines. But ‘Print Preview’ and ‘Print’ insist on forcing a border
regardless of the printer-driver settings. ‘Print-Preview’ and ‘Print’ do not
include lines 1 & 2 and print only the top few pixels of line 3 (11pt)
leaving a 13/14mm border at the bottom of the page. But if the document is
saved as a PDF file, all five lines are included. Word 2007 knows the lines
are there, it just ignores them when previewing and printing.

I have also created a document in ‘MS WordPad’, this correctly prints
borderless text.

Your suggested workaround does work:
1) In a Word 2007 document, set all margins to ‘0’, ignore suggested fix
2) Create your document, ‘Page Layout’ view will show the page correctly
3) Save the document as a Word 2007 file – if you wish to be able to edit
it latter
4) Save the document as a PDF file
5) Print the PDF file – with or without borders
Like most workarounds it is a bit cumbersome but it does work.

As 'NotePad', 'WordPad' and 'PDF' all print borderlessly, if the
printer-driver is set to ‘Borderless’, it would therefore seem that the
problem really is with Word 2007.

Are other people getting the same problem with other makes or versions of
printers?
Or is it only Lexmark X2600 series?

Regards Julian.

 

[Graham Mayor]

The fact that the workaround works tends to confirm that it is a printer
driver issue. Lexmark drivers have produced some oddities in the past,
though I don't recall this particular issue. See if there's an updated
driver available. Do however check that there is no scaling set in the print
dialog and that the document page size matches the page size set in the
driver properties.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP


<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>