Did you know that the world doesn’t agree when it comes to paper formats?
We may use letter and legal in the US, but the rest of the world print and write on a slightly different paper format called A4.
Why should you care about A4?
What seems to be a detail can actually become a major hassle for prospective international students trying to print your nicely formatted PDF application forms and admission documents. Because the A4 is a bit longer and not as wide as our letter format, there is a big change that your documents won’t fit as they should or worse that some part will go missing.
I’ve recently redesigned the web section of our International Services Office. His director who deals on a daily basis with international students requested that all PDF forms be available in A4 format with good reasons.
How do you switch between letter and A4?
Very simple in MS Word (as it should be in any other Word processor of your liking):
- Change the paper format under Page Setup from letter to A4
- Check and adjust your document to the new format (MS Word will actually do some of the work by itself)
- Print to your PDF application and voila!
If you take the time to provide A4 documents targeted to international students, I’m sure you’ll make friends all other the world.