Display differs from printed page

[karenthewriter]

Version: 2004
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)

My office computer has Mac OSX 10.4.11 and Excel 2004 11.0.
I am attempting to create a template worksheet for billing invoices, and I'm using border lines between the columns. I'm doing sample invoices to print and see how they look.

I type lines of words in the "description of services" columns, and by looking at what's displayed on the monitor my words are all within the lines bordering that column. But when I print out the sample invoice the words are "over the lines", covering up the border line and extending into the next column, which makes for a sloppy looking invoice. The printed font size is a little bit larger then how it looks on the display monitor.

Do I just need to remember that I have to leave a half inch of blank space at the edge of the column to prevent "run over" words, or is there a way to have the monitor show what the printed page will look like.

Also, when using Excel is there any way to have word processing automatically jump down to the next row in the same column, and not run over into the next column? I work for an attorney who sometimes has lengthy "descriptions of services" (I tried to come up with an invoice using a Table in Word, but the calculations that are necessary for our invoices were too much for a Table document.)

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I type lines of words in the "description of services" columns, and by
looking at what's displayed on the monitor my words are all within the lines
bordering that column. But when I print out the sample invoice the words are
"over the lines", covering up the border line and extending into the next
column, which makes for a sloppy looking invoice. The printed font size is a
little bit larger then how it looks on the display monitor.

Try changing the Print Quality setting (File/Page Setup, Page tab).

 

[karenthewriter]

Dear Mr. McGimpsey,
I'm not sure what to change in Print Quality setting. The scaling was set at 100%. I tried changing it to 95% and then to 105%. The overall size of the sheet changed, but my words seemed to "fit" into the column then printed out "over the line" the same as before.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Dear Mr. McGimpsey,
I'm not sure what to change in Print Quality setting. The scaling was set at
100%. I tried changing it to 95% and then to 105%. The overall size of the
sheet changed, but my words seemed to "fit" into the column then printed out
"over the line" the same as before.

Print Quality has nothing to do with scaling. With my printer driver I'm
offered the options of Normal, High and 300dpi in the Print Quality drop
down.

 

[karenthewriter]

Dear Mr. McGimpsey,
I had been printing my "problem" invoice on High print quality.
I changed the print quality to Normal but got the message "Margins do not fit page size". My right column no longer fit on the printed page.
I then changed the print quality to 300 dpi and that appears to be the same as High. When I printed the invoice I had the same problem of one of my words covering up the border line.
I apologize for being so dense, but I still can't figure out how to solve the problem of the monitor view differing from what is printed.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I had been printing my "problem" invoice on High print quality.
I changed the print quality to Normal but got the message "Margins do not fit
page size". My right column no longer fit on the printed page.
I then changed the print quality to 300 dpi and that appears to be the same
as High. When I printed the invoice I had the same problem of one of my words
covering up the border line.
I apologize for being so dense, but I still can't figure out how to solve the
problem of the monitor view differing from what is printed.

Since XL uses information from your system's selected printer driver,
it's hard to tell why this problem is occurring. Perhaps your printer
has a built-in font that's overriding the driver metrics.

What happens when you change to a different font with Print Quality set
on High?

 

[karenthewriter]

Once again - Dear Patient Mr. McGimpsey,
Our invoices are always done in san serif fonts so I was using Helvetica Neue, which was narrower than some of the other fonts and I could get more on one line. (Arial is also fairly narrow but it tends to leaves spaces after the w's which makes it look as though I hit the space bar in the middle of the word)
I tried Verdana, a wider font which allows 10 fewer characters to fit into the "description of services" column. With Verdana I can't type clear up to the dividing line, but I can type within a couple of characters of the line before the line gets covered up on the printed page.
The solution may be to use Verdana and remember I have to leave myself a little room at the end of each line.
Thank you for your patient help with this problem. Now comes the real challenge, seeing if it's possible to prepare 50 invoices a month in the same workbook. Brace yourself for the bizarre questions I may come up with once I try to do a couple of "pretend" invoices at one time.