Avoiding formatting changes when moving documents between computer

[Robert]

I am currently tasked with producing a large (500+ page) software manual
using Word 2000 on Windows XP SP2. The finished document will need to be
converted into a full-featured PDF using Adobe Acrobat before being sent out
to clients.

My machine, which I will use to create the source Word document, does not
have a licence for Adobe Acrobat. The only available machine with an Acrobat
licence is shared with a number of colleagues and is in high demand. To avoid
tying up the shared machine I will need to author the source Word document on
my machine and later convert it to PDF using the shared machine. From my
limited knowledge of Word and what I have read on http://word.mvps.org/ I
anticipate a potential problem that I’m keen to discuss.

I’m led to believe that because Word is a WYSIWYG editor it will always
attempt to display on the screen how a document will print if it were printed
at that moment in time using the current default Windows printer? I believe
that to do this Word queries the current default printer to determine
supported paper sizes, page layout parameters etc. and uses this information
to adjust the document’s page layout / formatting accordingly? I have read
that this is often the cause of a document’s page layout / formatting
becoming disturbed when it is created on one machine are later opened on
another computer attached to a different default printer?

I would like to avoid the possibility of editing and formatting 500+ pages
on my machine, only to discover that when I open the document on the shared
machine that the page layout / formatting has all been altered!

Would the best way to avoid this problem be to install the Adobe universal
PostScript Windows driver on my machine and configure this to be the default
Windows printer before I start to create the source document? Then once the
source document is finished I could output it using ‘print to file’ as a
PostScript file and transfer that to the shared machine to convert into PDF
using Acrobat?

Any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,

Robert.

 

[macropod]

Hi Robert,

Your observations are essentially correct - Word formats the document to suit the capabilities of the selected printer & driver
combination.

If you set Word up to use the Adobe Universal PostScript Windows driver when you're doing the final layout work for your document,
that should be enough to ensure it'll be formatted the same when you load the document onto the PC with Adobe Acrobat. Indeed, the
same should be true of any postscript printer driver. That's because postscript engenders a high level of device independence.
Printing to file, then converting the resulting postscript output to PDF shouldn't be necessary.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

As macropod says, this should do the trick. Alternatively, you could install
the driver for the default printer on the other machine (being sure it is
really the same driver; if the other machine uses a different OS, then the
driver will be different) and make it the active printer when you are
working on the document. The PostScript driver is probably a better bet,
though.

 

[macropod]

Hi Suzanne,

Installing the driver for the default printer on the other machine won't help unless it's a postscript driver - the OP's reason for
using the other machine is that it has the Adobe license.

 

[Robert]

Thank you both for your comments, its nice to know that I was thinking along
the correct lines. Macropod’s comment that I should simply switch printers
before doing any final formatting got me thinking that it would be nice if
Word could automatically select different printers on a template – by –
template basis.

For anyone else who might be interested I came across this article on
word.mvps.org called ‘Changing the selected (current) printer in Word without
changing the system default printer’
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/macrosvba/ChangeCurPrinter.htm, which included the
following VBA code fragment…

With Dialogs(wdDialogFilePrintSetup)
.Printer = "HP DeskJet 670C Series v11.0 on LPT2:"
.DoNotSetAsSysDefault = True
.Execute
End With

I’ve not used any VBA before but the articles
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/CreateAMacro.htm and
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/DocumentEvents.htm, coupled with a little
experimentation, yielded a document template with properties such that when
any document that is based on said template is created or opened, the current
Word printer is automatically switched to my installed Adobe universal
PostScript Windows driver. To achieve this I used Document_New() and
Document_Open() document events to wrap the above fragment. I reason that
this will enable me to do two things.

Firstly, provided the operating system is the same and I have installed the
exact same Adobe universal PostScript Windows driver (as per Suzanne’s
warning), I should be able to open documents created with this template on
other machines without encountering problems. The printer will be switched as
the document is loaded and so the page layout and formatting should be
unaffected.

Secondly, as a convenient side effect I believe this does not affect the
system default printer on my or the shared machine. As a result I won’t be
forced to constantly remember to switch printers, while myself and other
users should be able to continue to work on other documents based on
Normal.dot, which will still go to the usual default printer.

I’m testing this out now. Any comments on whether this is a good method to
use would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,

Robert.

Hi Suzanne,

Installing the driver for the default printer on the other machine won't help unless it's a postscript driver - the OP's reason for
using the other machine is that it has the Adobe license.

--
Cheers
macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]

As macropod says, this should do the trick. Alternatively, you could install the driver for the default printer on the other
machine (being sure it is really the same driver; if the other machine uses a different OS, then the driver will be different) and
make it the active printer when you are working on the document. The PostScript driver is probably a better bet, though.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I'm not sure I follow this. I thought the whole point of PDF was to create a
document that looks like what you would print from your default (or
selected) printer. It is when you open a document on another machine using a
different printer driver that you see changes; the conventional advice is
therefore to install the driver to be used on the other machine.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Hi Suzanne,

Installing the driver for the default printer on the other machine won't
help unless it's a postscript driver - the OP's reason for using the other
machine is that it has the Adobe license.

--
Cheers
macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]

As macropod says, this should do the trick. Alternatively, you could
install the driver for the default printer on the other machine (being
sure it is really the same driver; if the other machine uses a different
OS, then the driver will be different) and make it the active printer
when you are working on the document. The PostScript driver is probably a
better bet, though.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

 

[macropod]

Hi Suzanne,

When you use Adobe Acrobat (or any other pdf distiller, for that matter), to convert a document to PDF, it uses its own printer
driver, not that of any other printer attached to the PC. This somethimes means that a document formatted on the same PC using, say,
a PCL driver for the current printer, will change its layout when you switch to Adobe Acrobat for the PDF creation. In other words,
you need to treat Adobe Acrobat as if it's a different printer.

--
Cheers
macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]

I'm not sure I follow this. I thought the whole point of PDF was to create a document that looks like what you would print from
your default (or selected) printer. It is when you open a document on another machine using a different printer driver that you
see changes; the conventional advice is therefore to install the driver to be used on the other machine.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Hi Suzanne,

Installing the driver for the default printer on the other machine won't help unless it's a postscript driver - the OP's reason
for using the other machine is that it has the Adobe license.

--
Cheers
macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]

As macropod says, this should do the trick. Alternatively, you could install the driver for the default printer on the other
machine (being sure it is really the same driver; if the other machine uses a different OS, then the driver will be different)
and make it the active printer when you are working on the document. The PostScript driver is probably a better bet, though.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

I am currently tasked with producing a large (500+ page) software manual
using Word 2000 on Windows XP SP2. The finished document will need to be
converted into a full-featured PDF using Adobe Acrobat before being sent out
to clients.

My machine, which I will use to create the source Word document, does not
have a licence for Adobe Acrobat. The only available machine with an Acrobat
licence is shared with a number of colleagues and is in high demand. To avoid
tying up the shared machine I will need to author the source Word document on
my machine and later convert it to PDF using the shared machine. From my
limited knowledge of Word and what I have read on http://word.mvps.org/ I
anticipate a potential problem that I'm keen to discuss.

I'm led to believe that because Word is a WYSIWYG editor it will always
attempt to display on the screen how a document will print if it were printed
at that moment in time using the current default Windows printer? I believe
that to do this Word queries the current default printer to determine
supported paper sizes, page layout parameters etc. and uses this information
to adjust the document's page layout / formatting accordingly? I have read
that this is often the cause of a document's page layout / formatting
becoming disturbed when it is created on one machine are later opened on
another computer attached to a different default printer?

I would like to avoid the possibility of editing and formatting 500+ pages
on my machine, only to discover that when I open the document on the shared
machine that the page layout / formatting has all been altered!

Would the best way to avoid this problem be to install the Adobe universal
PostScript Windows driver on my machine and configure this to be the default
Windows printer before I start to create the source document? Then once the
source document is finished I could output it using 'print to file' as a
PostScript file and transfer that to the shared machine to convert into PDF
using Acrobat?

Any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,

Robert.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I guess I've just been lucky, then, that PDFs I create look just the same as
the document formatted for LaserJet 4100!

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Hi Suzanne,

When you use Adobe Acrobat (or any other pdf distiller, for that matter),
to convert a document to PDF, it uses its own printer driver, not that of
any other printer attached to the PC. This somethimes means that a
document formatted on the same PC using, say, a PCL driver for the current
printer, will change its layout when you switch to Adobe Acrobat for the
PDF creation. In other words, you need to treat Adobe Acrobat as if it's a
different printer.

--
Cheers
macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]

I'm not sure I follow this. I thought the whole point of PDF was to
create a document that looks like what you would print from your default
(or selected) printer. It is when you open a document on another machine
using a different printer driver that you see changes; the conventional
advice is therefore to install the driver to be used on the other
machine.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Hi Suzanne,

Installing the driver for the default printer on the other machine won't
help unless it's a postscript driver - the OP's reason for using the
other machine is that it has the Adobe license.

--
Cheers
macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]


As macropod says, this should do the trick. Alternatively, you could
install the driver for the default printer on the other machine (being
sure it is really the same driver; if the other machine uses a
different OS, then the driver will be different) and make it the active
printer when you are working on the document. The PostScript driver is
probably a better bet, though.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

I am currently tasked with producing a large (500+ page) software
manual
using Word 2000 on Windows XP SP2. The finished document will need to
be
converted into a full-featured PDF using Adobe Acrobat before being
sent out
to clients.

My machine, which I will use to create the source Word document, does
not
have a licence for Adobe Acrobat. The only available machine with an
Acrobat
licence is shared with a number of colleagues and is in high demand.
To avoid
tying up the shared machine I will need to author the source Word
document on
my machine and later convert it to PDF using the shared machine. From
my
limited knowledge of Word and what I have read on
I
anticipate a potential problem that I'm keen to discuss.

I'm led to believe that because Word is a WYSIWYG editor it will
always
attempt to display on the screen how a document will print if it were
printed
at that moment in time using the current default Windows printer? I
believe
that to do this Word queries the current default printer to determine
supported paper sizes, page layout parameters etc. and uses this
information
to adjust the document's page layout / formatting accordingly? I have
read
that this is often the cause of a document's page layout / formatting
becoming disturbed when it is created on one machine are later opened
on
another computer attached to a different default printer?

I would like to avoid the possibility of editing and formatting 500+
pages
on my machine, only to discover that when I open the document on the
shared
machine that the page layout / formatting has all been altered!

Would the best way to avoid this problem be to install the Adobe
universal
PostScript Windows driver on my machine and configure this to be the
default
Windows printer before I start to create the source document? Then
once the
source document is finished I could output it using 'print to file' as
a
PostScript file and transfer that to the shared machine to convert
into PDF
using Acrobat?

Any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,

Robert.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Definitely. (And when I'm set to my LJ my PDFs pretty much match as well.)
With the printer set to my inkjet, I have one multi-column document where
all of the columns are full but in PDF the last column has room for a couple
more entries.

<shrug>

Dan

I guess I've just been lucky, then, that PDFs I create look just the
same as the document formatted for LaserJet 4100!

Hi Suzanne,

When you use Adobe Acrobat (or any other pdf distiller, for that
matter), to convert a document to PDF, it uses its own printer
driver, not that of any other printer attached to the PC. This
somethimes means that a document formatted on the same PC using,
say, a PCL driver for the current printer, will change its layout
when you switch to Adobe Acrobat for the PDF creation. In other
words, you need to treat Adobe Acrobat as if it's a different
printer. --
Cheers
macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]

I'm not sure I follow this. I thought the whole point of PDF was to
create a document that looks like what you would print from your
default (or selected) printer. It is when you open a document on
another machine using a different printer driver that you see
changes; the conventional advice is therefore to install the driver
to be used on the other machine.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Hi Suzanne,

Installing the driver for the default printer on the other machine
won't help unless it's a postscript driver - the OP's reason for
using the other machine is that it has the Adobe license.

--
Cheers
macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]


As macropod says, this should do the trick. Alternatively, you
could install the driver for the default printer on the other
machine (being sure it is really the same driver; if the other
machine uses a different OS, then the driver will be different)
and make it the active printer when you are working on the
document. The PostScript driver is probably a better bet, though.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

I am currently tasked with producing a large (500+ page) software
manual
using Word 2000 on Windows XP SP2. The finished document will
need to be
converted into a full-featured PDF using Adobe Acrobat before
being sent out
to clients.

My machine, which I will use to create the source Word document,
does not
have a licence for Adobe Acrobat. The only available machine
with an Acrobat
licence is shared with a number of colleagues and is in high
demand. To avoid
tying up the shared machine I will need to author the source Word
document on
my machine and later convert it to PDF using the shared machine.
From my
limited knowledge of Word and what I have read on
I
anticipate a potential problem that I'm keen to discuss.

I'm led to believe that because Word is a WYSIWYG editor it will
always
attempt to display on the screen how a document will print if it
were printed
at that moment in time using the current default Windows
printer? I believe
that to do this Word queries the current default printer to
determine supported paper sizes, page layout parameters etc. and
uses this information
to adjust the document's page layout / formatting accordingly? I
have read
that this is often the cause of a document's page layout /
formatting becoming disturbed when it is created on one machine
are later opened on
another computer attached to a different default printer?

I would like to avoid the possibility of editing and formatting
500+ pages
on my machine, only to discover that when I open the document on
the shared
machine that the page layout / formatting has all been altered!

Would the best way to avoid this problem be to install the Adobe
universal
PostScript Windows driver on my machine and configure this to be
the default
Windows printer before I start to create the source document?
Then once the
source document is finished I could output it using 'print to
file' as a
PostScript file and transfer that to the shared machine to
convert into PDF
using Acrobat?

Any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,

Robert.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I'll definitely keep this in mind. For some bizarre reason, my most recent
Rotary District newsletter created a perfect PDF on this end that actually
also looked perfect when the District Webmaster looked at it, but when he
posted it online, it had a blank page. I resent it--same result. So
ultimately I sent the doc, and he was miraculously able to create a PDF on
his end that was right. Go figure.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Definitely. (And when I'm set to my LJ my PDFs pretty much match as well.)
With the printer set to my inkjet, I have one multi-column document where
all of the columns are full but in PDF the last column has room for a
couple more entries.

<shrug>

Dan

I guess I've just been lucky, then, that PDFs I create look just the
same as the document formatted for LaserJet 4100!

Hi Suzanne,

When you use Adobe Acrobat (or any other pdf distiller, for that
matter), to convert a document to PDF, it uses its own printer
driver, not that of any other printer attached to the PC. This
somethimes means that a document formatted on the same PC using,
say, a PCL driver for the current printer, will change its layout
when you switch to Adobe Acrobat for the PDF creation. In other
words, you need to treat Adobe Acrobat as if it's a different
printer. --
Cheers
macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]


I'm not sure I follow this. I thought the whole point of PDF was to
create a document that looks like what you would print from your
default (or selected) printer. It is when you open a document on
another machine using a different printer driver that you see
changes; the conventional advice is therefore to install the driver
to be used on the other machine.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Hi Suzanne,

Installing the driver for the default printer on the other machine
won't help unless it's a postscript driver - the OP's reason for
using the other machine is that it has the Adobe license.

--
Cheers
macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]


As macropod says, this should do the trick. Alternatively, you
could install the driver for the default printer on the other
machine (being sure it is really the same driver; if the other
machine uses a different OS, then the driver will be different)
and make it the active printer when you are working on the
document. The PostScript driver is probably a better bet, though.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

I am currently tasked with producing a large (500+ page) software
manual
using Word 2000 on Windows XP SP2. The finished document will
need to be
converted into a full-featured PDF using Adobe Acrobat before
being sent out
to clients.

My machine, which I will use to create the source Word document,
does not
have a licence for Adobe Acrobat. The only available machine
with an Acrobat
licence is shared with a number of colleagues and is in high
demand. To avoid
tying up the shared machine I will need to author the source Word
document on
my machine and later convert it to PDF using the shared machine.
From my
limited knowledge of Word and what I have read on
I
anticipate a potential problem that I'm keen to discuss.

I'm led to believe that because Word is a WYSIWYG editor it will
always
attempt to display on the screen how a document will print if it
were printed
at that moment in time using the current default Windows
printer? I believe
that to do this Word queries the current default printer to
determine supported paper sizes, page layout parameters etc. and
uses this information
to adjust the document's page layout / formatting accordingly? I
have read
that this is often the cause of a document's page layout /
formatting becoming disturbed when it is created on one machine
are later opened on
another computer attached to a different default printer?

I would like to avoid the possibility of editing and formatting
500+ pages
on my machine, only to discover that when I open the document on
the shared
machine that the page layout / formatting has all been altered!

Would the best way to avoid this problem be to install the Adobe
universal
PostScript Windows driver on my machine and configure this to be
the default
Windows printer before I start to create the source document?
Then once the
source document is finished I could output it using 'print to
file' as a
PostScript file and transfer that to the shared machine to
convert into PDF
using Acrobat?

Any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,

Robert.