Any background element or image that you wish to bleed off of the edge of the page must extend .125″ beyond that page edge in your document. In point of fact, Microsoft Publisher is not very friendly to document or image bleed. It is awkward at best to create proper bleed.
Some users find it easiest to achieve bleed by setting their documents up to be .25″ taller and .25″ wider than the final trim size. If you decide to do this then it is not advisable to set your document up with facing pages because you will lose .125″ from each page where they meet in the center.
Special Note: Any backgrounds created using Microsoft Publisher page backgrounds will not bleed.
If you are using backgrounds that are created using the following command:
Format > Backgrounds
If you really need to use one of these backgrounds in your document then you have only one option. As we mentioned above, you must make your document .25″ taller and .25″ wider overall than the final trim size to allow for .125″ bleed. Make certain that you do not position any type closer than at least .25″ (we would prefer .375″) to any page edge to ensure that you do not lose anything when the paper is trimmed to final size.