For the first problem, just select A4 in the Page Setup dialog, click
Default..., and answer yes. It helps to also have A4 set as the default in
your printer Properties.

The error messages, however, suggest another problem. Go to Format | Columns
and click on the One icon (even if it appears to be already selected),
making sure that "Whole document" is selected under "Apply to." If this
solves the problem in one document, you'll need to make the same change in
Normal.dot; see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/...ocNotBlank.htm

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Julia" wrote in message
...
My computer refuses to make A4 the default for documents and converts
everything to Letter size even when i start over from a blank document.
It's
complaining about uneven column spacing and margins being too big.

It's driving me round the bend!!!