Character spacing in justified text when printed

[Munango-Keewati]

We've been experiencing a problem since moving from Windows 98/Office
97 to Windows 2000/Office XP:

Some lines of full-justified Word text display properly on screen, but
when printed have improper spacing, along these lines:

S ome l ines o f f ull-justified t ext d isplay p roperly on screen,

The problem only occurs when the lines are of a specific length, as if
the spacing algorithm is broken. We use Times New Roman for almost
everything, so I can't be certain if the problem occurs in other fonts
as well as TNR. (Changing the font changes the spacing, and the
problem goes away for that line.) Our standard printer is an HP 8000.
If we use the postscript driver for this printer, everything is fine,
but the standard driver gives us this error. Test printing on other
machines shows that the text also prints incorrectly on a 4500 but
correctly on a 5m. (Convincing IT to upgrade the print drivers for all
600+ people will be a difficult undertaking, so I need to gather
information before taking that route.)

Is this a recognized problem? Has anyone here experienced it? Has
Microsoft addressed it? Has a solution been found?

Thanks!

 

[Bob S]

We've been experiencing a problem since moving from Windows 98/Office
97 to Windows 2000/Office XP:

Some lines of full-justified Word text display properly on screen, but
when printed have improper spacing, along these lines:


The problem only occurs when the lines are of a specific length, as if
the spacing algorithm is broken. We use Times New Roman for almost
everything, so I can't be certain if the problem occurs in other fonts
as well as TNR. (Changing the font changes the spacing, and the
problem goes away for that line.) Our standard printer is an HP 8000.
If we use the postscript driver for this printer, everything is fine,
but the standard driver gives us this error. Test printing on other
machines shows that the text also prints incorrectly on a 4500 but
correctly on a 5m. (Convincing IT to upgrade the print drivers for all
600+ people will be a difficult undertaking, so I need to gather
information before taking that route.)

Is this a recognized problem? Has anyone here experienced it? Has
Microsoft addressed it? Has a solution been found?

Thanks!

There have been dozens of posts about this problem over the past few
months. The answer given every time has been "this is a printer driver
problem, get an updated printer driver".

Nobody has ever posted back to say whether it worked or not...

Bob S