Format Changes From One Computer to Another

[Bright Spark]

Hoping someone can help me. I have a document that I'm working on
both on the office computer and on my home computer (I keep the
document on a CD for transportation!) Inexplicably, the formatting
will change slightly from one computer to the other - words that fit
perfectly onto one line on one computer will suddenly slip down to a
new line on the other, columns that line up perfectly on one are all
skewed on the other! Isn't the formatting built in to the document?
What do I have to do to make it stay the same between computers or
versions of MS Word? Do I have to cart my "normal template" around
with me as well (it has been changed from the MS normal template the
program came with).

Thanks for any help.

Bright Spark

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

See http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Formatting/TextReflow.htm

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Bright Spark]

Thank you for responding, Suzanne. The FAQ article does answer a
couple of questions, but leaves me with more. It's not the page
breaks I have trouble with, it appears to be things like tab settings,
margins, etc. The normal template "defaults" are different from one
machine to the other - it's not reading the tabs that were set in the
original document but instead is using the tabs that are set in the
other normal template - in other words, it's overriding my original
formatting. Also, I cannot find a way to add in a printer which is
not attached to my computer (the suggestion of using as default the
printer which it will be printed on seems like a good idea - but I
can't see a way to get there in the print properties window).

Thanks again.

Bright Spark

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

For problem (1), it's best to use a custom template rather than Normal.dot.
If you must use Normal.dot, at least make sure that "Automatically update
document styles" is not enabled in Tools | Templates and Add-ins.

As to (2), go to Start | Settings | Printers and choose Add Printer. Select
the driver for the printer you're ultimately going to be printing from and
install it. When working on a document to be printed from that printer,
choose it in Word's Print dialog. (Word doesn't have to know it isn't
physically attached to the computer).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.