Article ID: 305713 - Last Review: March 1, 2007 - Revision: 3.6

"Margins Do Not Fit Page Size" Error Message After You Switch the Printer Driver

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This article was previously published under Q305713

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SYMPTOMS

When you print a Microsoft Excel 2000 document that has the Fit To [1] page(s) wide by [1] tall option enabled on the Page tab after you changed the printer driver by clicking New Driver on the Advanced tab of the printer properties, you may receive the following error message:

Margins do not fit page size

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CAUSE

When you switch the driver for a printer, the system attempts to merge the device mode settings for the old printer driver with the device mode settings for the new printer driver. This is to try to preserve the device mode settings for the old printer driver so that they can be reinstated if you switch the driver back. However, some settings are not supported by some drivers, and this approach can lead to inconsistencies.

Excel 2000 interrogates the printer's device mode settings to determine whether it should perform its own scaling (relatively slow), or use the printer's built-in scaling capabilities (relatively fast). Excel 2000 uses the printer's scaling capabilities, if present, as this improves performance.

However, if you switch from a PostScript printer with scaling capabilities, to a PCL printer that does not have scaling capabilities, the end result of merging the device mode settings is that Excel 2000 concludes that the PCL printer can perform its own scaling, when in fact it cannot.

This may cause Excel 2000 to submit a page of data to be printed that is too big for the physical page, expecting it to be scaled to fit the page in the printer, and this can cause the symptom that is listed in the "Symptoms" section of this article to occur.

NOTE: Although this article includes Excel 2000, this problem can occur with other programs.

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RESOLUTION

A supported fix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that is described in this article. Apply it only to computers that are experiencing this specific problem.

To resolve this problem, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the fix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services phone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;CNTACTMS (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;en-us;cntactms)

NOTE: In special cases, charges that are ordinarily incurred for support calls may be canceled if a Microsoft Support Professional determines that a specific update will resolve your problem. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for the specific update in question.

The English version of this fix should have the following file attributes or later:

   Date         Time   Version  Size     File name    Platform
   -----------------------------------------------------------
   21-Aug-2001  17:05  0.2.0.0   73,104  Rasdd.dll    Intel 
   21-Aug-2001  17:05  0.2.0.0   75,536  Rasddui.dll  Intel 
   21-Aug-2001  16:59  0.2.0.0  129,488  Rasdd.dll    Alpha 
   21-Aug-2001  17:00  0.2.0.0  140,560  Rasddui.dll  Alpha

NOTE: Because of file dependencies, this hotfix requires Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 6a or Windows 2000 Service Pack 2.

This hotfix is only applicable when Windows NT 4.0 Version-2 printer drivers are in use.

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WORKAROUND

If you have documents that require a specific printer driver (PCL or PostScript), the best solution is to install two printers for the target print device. One printer would use the PCL driver, and the other printer would use the PostScript driver, and you would then select the appropriate printer when you print.

This is a more efficient and effective solution than having a single printer driver for the printer and swapping the printer driver from PCL to PostScript as required.

However, if your print server architecture precludes this approach, download the hotfix that is described in the "Resolution" section of this article.

For pure Windows NT 4.0 installations, install the hotfix on all print servers.

For installations that include Windows 2000 print servers, configure the Windows 2000 print servers to use only Version-2 (Windows NT 4.0) printer drivers, and then install the hotfix on all print servers.

By default, Windows 2000 uses Version-3 (Windows 2000) printer drivers if they are available. However, it is not possible to provide a hotfix for this problem in the architecture that is used to support Version-3 drivers.

Because of this, if you need to address this problem on Windows 2000 print servers and cannot use the preceding workaround, you must force the Windows 2000 print servers to use Version-2 drivers, and then use the hotfix.

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