For some reason, when I open Microsoft Word the top and bottom margins are non-existent. When I go to File>Page Setup, it says the top and bottom margins are set to 1 inch.

I've tried changing them to a variety of different numbers, and they don't change at all.

Any suggestions?

I had the exact same problem. I looked for ways to fix this problem on the internet. The most common thing you will find is to delete the Normal.dot template or make a new template. however those didn't work. I was getting really frustraged but I finally was able to find a way to fix the margin problem. Here's how: Open word. Then click on help at the top of the screen. Then click detect and repair. A window will pop up that has two options on it. the important one says, "discard my custom settings and restore default settings." make sure that box is checked then hit start. after that just follow the directions and hopefully it will fix your margin problem. It fixed mine. I'm running word 2003. this process could be different on other versions but shouldn't be too hard to figure out. I hope this helps someone.

Go to View and select Print Layout View.

The other views do not show the margins.

Also, you must select the entire region you wish to change the margins in before setting the margins.

I had this issue when I had a picture that was aligned "Behind Text". I noticed that if a picture is aligned in any way other than "In Line With Text" the Margins and other print layout settings will not be available. I guess it is a limitation of the software

In Word 2007 you'd need to get into Word Options/Displayand tick the Show white space box.