# MS Word's ruler vis-a-vis actual measurements

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-words-ruler-vis-a-vis-actual-measurements/120350>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 23, 2002, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-words-ruler-vis-a-vis-actual-measurements/120350 "2002-07-23T06:55:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\
**Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-words-ruler-vis-a-vis-actual-measurements/120350/1 "2002-07-23T06:55:50Z")

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I sometimes like to rewrite magazine captions (my own copies, of course). To do this I open a new MS Word file, key in the text, and use the margins to accommodate the width of the caption I’m gluing the new one over. But MS Word’s “ruler” doesn’t match…is it an idiosyncracy of individual monitors or is Wor’s ruler just naturally our of sync with real inches and fractions?

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**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-words-ruler-vis-a-vis-actual-measurements/120350/2 "2002-07-23T12:31:15Z")

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AFAIK, Word’s ruler is in synch with the actual printed page; a one-inch margin on the screen is a one-inch margin when printed out.

The screen display has no relation to the printout, though.