Character spacing changes while typing at the right margin?

[Denzel]

Word 2002, in print layout view, arial font, and left justified - While
typing a paragraph and nearing the end of the right margin, instead of what
I expect (as the word exceeds the right margin, it automatically jumps to
the next line) the character spacing on the current line will start
condensing (the words get closer together) to try to fit the last word on
the same line (until some point that it will jump to the next line). For
example, if the last word is "will" and the "w" reaches the right margin, as
I type "ill" (which are all very skinney letters in arial font), I can see
the spacing of the other words on that line getting closer together to allow
the whole word to fit on that line rather than just putting it on the next
line.

Is this an option that I can turn on and off, or an enhanced feature that
I'll just have to live with.

TIA.

 

[Anne Troy]

Sounds like you're using full justification, which will try to fit a certain
amount of letters on a line. Once you exceed that amount, it'll instead push
the word to the next line. If you want full justification, but this feature
drives you crazy while typing, use left justification and reapply full
justification when you're done typing it.
************
Hope it helps!
Anne Troy
www.OfficeArticles.com

 

[Denzel]

Nope, that's not it.

I'm left justified (per my original post). I agree that I would expect that
to happen if it was full justified, but it's not. Left justified is
selected, Reveal Formatting shows left justified, and the actual text on the
print layout shows left justified (right edge is jagged).

 

[Anne Troy]

Sorry, Denzel. I missed that. But I expect this to occur anyway. It's called
wrapping text...
************
Hope it helps!
Anne Troy
www.OfficeArticles.com

 

[Denzel]

No, I believe you are wrong. Try it. Start a new document (left justified)
and start typing. With either mono-spaced or proportional spaced fonts,
characters will continue to appear on the line you are typing until you get
to a point near the right margin where suddenly the entire word will jump to
the next line.

However, in my document, instead of jumping the entire word to the next line
at this point, the character spacing for the other words on that line will
decrease as you type the next couple of letters (depends on how 'wide' the
letters are) without jumping to the next line. The point where you are
typing doesn't move to the right any longer, but the words to the left
condense until the point that the word finally jumps to the next line. Just
as you would see when you are full justified, except I'm not and it does
leave the right margin jagged. I can start a new left justified document
and it behaves as expected. But not in the current (+100 pages) document I
am using.

I guess I can live with this, but it seems strange and I wonder what kind of
setting has done this and whether or not it's screwing up something else
that I'm not noticiing. So I'm not really looking for a work around, but if
there's a setting or default that has been changed that I didn't intend.

 

[Anne Troy]

The only thing I can think, Denzel, is to check the compatibility options
and make sure it's the default Word 2002. Otherwise, perhaps its a known
issue with which I'm not familiar. Or perhaps you just need to do Word
troublehsooting?
http://www.officearticles.com/word/steps_to_troubleshooting_microsoft_word.htm

************
Hope it helps!
Anne Troy
www.OfficeArticles.com