Formatting changes after upgrading to Office 2003

[qrob99]

Hello...
I would very grateful if this problem is resolvable. We developed
hundreds of templates in Word 2000 that our staff has been using for
years. We have generated thousands of documents and the template has
changed very little. We had just finished updating all of the staffs
computers (300+) to Office 2003 when we found out that a couple of the
templates didn't retain their formatting, furthermore, all of the
documents generated using those templates wouldn't display or print
correctly in Word 2003. Header/footer information has been lost as
well as page orientation and a few other minor issues with text boxes
and table formatting. The staff is livid, and it's looking like I
have to reformat all of them manually. Is there anything that can be
done?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The issue could be merely the view in which documents/templates are opened.
Make sure you have "white space" displayed (see
http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/WhiteSpace.htm) and, if the Reviewing
toolbar is displayed, see if switching to Final view helps (see
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/trackchanges/HowTrackChangesWorks.html).
Also, be aware that documents opened from attachments in Word 2003 will by
default open in Reading Layout view (you can disable this on the General tab
of Tools | Options).

Also, if you have new systems, possibly with a new OS and/or new printers,
you almost certainly have different printer drivers; see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/TextReflow.htm.

Compatibility Options settings should maintain most of your earlier-version
formatting; as for images, make sure you have Word set to display and print
all of them; see http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/DrwGrphcs/InvisibleGraphics.htm.