Hello! I need to know if there is a way to change a publication to a different size but have the text, tables, etc. reflow and reduce to fit on a new page size. This is quite a large document, so my fingers are crossed! Present size is 8.5x11, and I need to reduce to 4.25x5.5.

Try printing two - up. 2 pages per sheet.

Tables and such will automatically scale when you do that. If you actually change the page size in Word text will reflow but will not change size. Nothing else will rescale.

Thanks for the tip! Unfortunately, I need the text to remain readable. When reduced as is in the 8.5x11, it's a little over 6 pt. I need to find a way to actually get the document to reflow - ending up with more pages, of course, but keeping the font at about 8 pt. In the 8.5x11, it is 12 pt. I know I'm probably looking for a miracle, but maybe there's a trick out there! I'm hopeful, instead of having to reformat the entire book (over 100 pages) manually.

So, increase the font size in your 8.5 x 11 so that when you do the reduced print, it is readable.

True - it would still require a reflow of pages for breaks, etc. but I think that would be easier. Thanks! Although the proportion is different going from 8.5x11 to 4.25x5.5, it's definitely a time-saver!

I actually just tried it, and some really odd carriage returns happen, as well as the tables going south, so either way, I guess it's still some work...

Read through all of the pages of this tutorial.
Basic Concepts of Microsoft Word - from Shauna Kelly

Although it's good info, I'm not sure how this helps at this point? I didn't create this publication, someone else did. I'm just trying to fix it!

And, you may be faced with actually recreating it. Sometimes the only cure for a badly-formatted Word document is to copy into a new one as plain text and do the formatting yourself.

A place to start is Showing non-printing formatting marks in Microsoft Word. The thing is, you need to format using Styles and remove all excess paragraph marks.

Yeah, that's exactly what I had to do, unfortunately. I had to redo this same job when it came through last year. I was just hoping there was an easier fix than reformatting since the last time. Oh well! Maybe someday... Thanks for all your help!

You didn't mention whether the creator had used any paragraph styles; my educated guess is that he or she did not and that the entire document is in Normal. If you can get the author to use even a few styles, e.g., headings, a body text, and anything else particularly suited to the document, it will save lots of time in the future: by changing the style, everything with that style in the document will change accordingly, and you can navigate from heading to heading using GoTo, and so forth.