The Regional Shift
Google Docs automatically assigns a default page size (like US Letter or A4) based on the regional settings of your Google account and your physical location. However, if you travel internationally, or if you frequently collaborate on a shared document created by someone in a different region, you might find Docs automatically changing the page size when you create a new file or make a copy. This can completely ruin the layout of a carefully designed resume or a strict legal document, causing paragraphs to wrap incorrectly and pushing carefully placed images off the edge of the page.
Locking the Default Page Setup
To ensure consistency across all your work and stop Google Docs from automatically changing the page size based on regional assumptions, you must explicitly set and lock your preferred format as the global default.
Open any Google Docs document (or create a new, blank one). Navigate to the top menu bar and click on File. Scroll down the drop-down menu and select Page setup. A dialogue box will appear. In this box, look for the Paper size dropdown menu. Click it and explicitly select the size you require (e.g., Letter (8.5″ x 11″) or A4 (8.27″ x 11.69″)). Before you click OK, look at the bottom left corner of the dialogue box. Click the button labelled Set as default. Finally, click the blue OK button. From this moment on, every single new document you create will use this exact page size, regardless of your location or network.