Now here’s something that has always annoyed me (which… doesn’t annoy me anymore, because I just figured out Googled a fix)…

Whenever I have formatted an ebook in Word, I’ve always had a problem with the borders when I save to PDF. For instance, I’ll have a nice beautiful ebook cover that will appear to be edge-to-edge in Word, but when I save to PDF, I get a super ugly white border around the edge. (That’s the non-printable area, BTW. It’s where your typical home printer just can’t put ink.)

HOWEVER, when I’m developing an ebook, most people will view it online, so I want the pretty appearance of a bleed. Here’s how you fix it (in Word 2010… I’m sure it’s similar for the Windows version).

  • Select File > Page Setup
  • In the Paper Size dropdown menu, chose Manage Custom Sizes
  • Click on the “+” sign and type a descriptive name, like “Edge to edge”
  • Under Non-Printable Area, choose User Defined
  • Enter zero for all margin values

Wa-la! Fixed!

P.S. – Thanks to Daniel G. Grau (whoever you actually are…) on the Microsoft forum for your post!