PUB2000: Printing to a Custom Size Paper Will Change Page Layout

To print the printing marks from a Publisher 2000 publication, it is necessary to either shrink an existing publication or to print to a larger size paper. Such marks include Crop Marks, Registration Marks, Job Information, Density Bars, and Color Bars.

If a publication is created with an 8.5 inch x 11-inch page size, the publication will be printed on paper of the same size. To print the printing marks mentioned previously will require the publication page size to be smaller than the paper you are printing to, or the paper to be larger than the publication page size. In an attempt to increase the paper size, you may find that the publication will automatically try to resize the page size of the publication to match the newly determined paper size.

For example: If the original publication created was a newsletter using the wizard, by default the page and paper size are both 8.5 inches by 11 inches in portrait view. To increase the paper size to a tabloid paper (11 inches by 17 inches), you will find that the page size will also change in relation to the newly determined paper size. By changing the page size you will cause all the objects on your publication to position themselves equally to fill the newly determined page size.

Publisher enables a feature called page size tracking. With the creation of certain publications using certain wizards, Publisher will automatically attempt to track the paper size and adjust the content within the publication to that new paper size.

The following Publisher wizards use page size tracking:

In most cases the best results would be to print the publication to a paper size that is slightly larger than the publication size usually called:

<Publication paper size> extra

For example: If your original paper size is Letter, selecting Letter Extra.

NOTE: Some PostScript Printers will have an option to print to a page size extra. The option to have this page size extra is a option within the PostScript PPD file for the postscript printer installed and that you are printing to.

If there is not a <page size> Extra available, or if the page size the publication is printing to has to be a specific size, then you will need to use one the following workarounds.

Workaround 1:

NOTE: This workaround works with any publication, not just wizard publications.

1. On the File menu, click Print Setup, and change the paper size to the desired size. This will cause the page size to change as well.
2. On the File menu, click Page setup and click Special Size.
3. Change the page size back to it's original setting.

Workaround 2:

NOTE: This workaround is only practical for very small publications, no more than a few pages in size at most.

1. Select all the items on the publication page.
2. From the Arrange menu, click Group Objects.
3. From the Edit menu, click Copy.
4. Create a new blank publication that does not use paper size tracker like Blank Publication / Full Page.
5. From the Edit menu, click Paste.
6. Setup the desired paper size in Print Setup.

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.