The default paper size in Microsoft Word might be fine for many of the documents that you create for work or school, but you may discover that you need to change that setting for some other documents.
Whether you’re making a banner or graphic that needs some more room, or you are writing something that needs to go on legal paper, it can be useful to know how to change paper size in Word for Office 365.
Luckily this option can be changed with just a few steps, by adjusting an option found on the Layout tab.
How to Switch Page Size in Microsoft Word
- Open your document.
- Choose the Layout tab.
- Click the Size button.
- Choose the desired paper size.
Our guide continues below with additional information on how to change paper size in Word, including pictures of these steps.
Once you have chosen your default paper size you can read our article about how to change default font in Office 365 so that you can use a preferred font.
When you create a new document in Microsoft Word using the Normal template, the page size is going to be whatever the default size is for your geographic region.
In the United States, this means that your default paper size is probably Letter, while other places in the world may use A4. But every document that you create may not require that paper size, leaving you looking for a way to change the setting.
Our guide below will show you how to change paper size in Word to whatever type of paper you need.
If you always make the same changes to your documents, then read our Microsoft Word template tutorial and learn how to make your own templates.
How to Set a Paper Size for a Word Document (Guide with Pictures)
The steps in this article were performed in Microsoft Word for Office 365, but will also work in most other versions of Word.
Step 1: Open your document in Word.
Step 2: Select the Layout tab at the top of the window.
Step 3: Click the Size button.
Step 4: Choose the desired paper size from the list of options.
If the paper size you need isn’t listed, you can choose the More Paper Sizes option, where you will be able to set custom paper sizes as well.
Now that you know how to change the paper size in Word for Office 365 you can easily switch between different page sizes for your documents, depending on the type of document that you are editing.
If you need to switch from single spacing to double spacing, then our how to double space in Word Office 365 guide will show you how.
Note that changing the paper size can result in your data being moved to different locations or page numbers in your document. Be sure to go back and check everything after changing the paper size to make sure your document layout hasn’t changed negatively.
If your document has a lot of formatting that is either difficult to remove, or simply tedious to remove, then find out how to clear all formatting in Word using a tool that makes the process much faster.
Matthew Burleigh has been a freelance writer since the early 2000s. You can find his writing all over the Web, where his content has collectively been read millions of times.
Matthew received his Master’s degree in Computer Science, then spent over a decade as an IT consultant for small businesses before focusing on writing and website creation.
The topics he covers for MasterYourTech.com include iPhones, Microsoft Office, and Google Apps.
You can read his full bio here.