A couple years ago, I heard about a campaign to change the margins from the Microsoft default of 1″ on the top and bottom and 1.25″ on the left and right to 0.75″ on all sides. According to the campaign’s website, the potential paper savings is pretty impressive–saving up to 6,156,000 trees per year. Not only can changing the margins save paper, but it can save energy and water as well. Check out the statistics page for all the numbers.
Being a designer, I always hated it when there were only a few lines on the last page of a paper I was writing, or a single word in the last line of a paragraph. I often fiddled with the margins (and the leading and the kerning as well) in order to keep my text looking neat and tidy.
I wish I had thought more about my paper waste back when I was wasting so much of it with all the theology and philosophy papers I wrote (and rewrote) as an undergrad. Imagine if just a few major universities adopted the smaller margins as their standard. If such a change caused each student to save just one piece of paper per class, imagine how quickly the savings would add up!
I challenge you to change your margins. It’s easy!
If you use Microsoft Word 2003, follow these steps. If you use Microsoft 2007, click here for a step-by-step guide on changing the margins.
Open Microsoft Word. Go to FILE, then PAGE SET UP.
On the MARGINS tab, type 0.75 for the top, bottom, left and right margins. If you click OK, this will change the margins for the current document only. To change the margins for all future documents as well, click on the DEFAULT button on the bottom left. You will be asked “Do you want to change the default settings for the page set up? This change will affect all new documents based on the normal template.” Click YES.
Please let me know when you’ve changed your margins. And tell everyone you know to do the same.