Formatting changes when documents are emailed

[Bert Coules]

I sometimes send Word documents to a friend. He uses Word 2003, I have
2000. The documents are relatively straightforward, using a single style
and an uncomplicated layout, with only two sections, the second of which has
different margin and tab settings to the first, and also page numbering.

If my friend prints a document directly from the email attachment, my
formatting is reproduced exactly. If, though, he saves the attached file to
his hard drive and then prints it from there, the formatting goes awry.
Specifically, the section break is ignored and the section two layout,
complete with numbers, is applied to whole document.

Is there anything that can be done to prevent this?

Many thanks.

Bert

 

[Stefan Blom]

Are you saying that this happens with *all* documents that you send to your
friend?

 

[Bert Coules]

Are you saying that this happens with *all* documents that you send to
your friend?

Yes, indeed. But it could be significant that the documents all use the
same basic formatting.

I've tried emailing them to myself as attachments, then going through the
process of saving the attachment and printing from the saved version. It
works perfectly for me: no changes whatsoever.

Bert

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

All of the (apparent) changes you're seeing *could* be attributable to a
different printer driver (especially if you've used a font your friend
doesn't have installed); see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/TextReflow.htm

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Bert Coules]

All of the (apparent) changes you're seeing *could* be attributable to a
different printer driver (especially if you've used a font your friend
doesn't have installed)...

Thanks for that; the font throughout is Courier New, 12pt, so I doubt if
that's the problem. A few more experiments today have suggested that it
might be the section break (there's only one in each document) which isn't
being recognised at the far end. Is that a known problem?

Bert

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If a section break at the end is the issue, then it could be that the
document is becoming broken in transmission. Have you tried zipping it
before sending? You might also want to remove the section break, leaving the
formatting of the last section in the final paragraph mark; this is fairly
easily done (see the last portion of
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/WorkWithSections.htm

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Bert Coules]

If a section break at the end is the issue, then it could be that the
document is becoming broken in transmission. Have you tried zipping it
before sending?

I haven't, and I'm not sure that it's practical, but I'll look into it,
thanks for the suggestion.

You might also want to remove the section break, leaving the formatting of
the last section in the final paragraph mark; this is fairly easily done
(see the last portion of
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/WorkWithSections.htm

The more I read articles like that, the more I realise that I really don't
understand this software at all.

Bert