This is WORD.
It is not a layout application, etc, etc.
Lots of other apps if you need huge output.

Also, you can consider a scaled-down page, compose to it, and output
via Acrobat?
Then "scale to page" when printing from Acrobat?

Bear in mind, Word 97 was released for Win 95, which often ran under
4-8 megs of ram.
Not even considering previous versions, Win 3.x, etc....
Are we spoiled, or what?