gridlines on some table pages do not print

[cayce]

I am using Word 97. I have a table that spans 3 pages. The table has been
defined with a 3/4 pt black grid border applied to the entire table. On the
1st page, the bottom most row of the table above the footer has a printing
problem. The bottom row of the grid border for this row does not print out on
the hard copy. In print preview, it appears, but it will not actually print
out on the hard copy. The 2nd and 3rd pages of the table are fine; all
gridlines are printing. There is adequate space between the bottom row of the
table on the 1st page and the footer, so footer space "interference" does not
seem to be involved.

Any ideas on how I can fix this? My table rows are defined to "auto" for
height size and to not allow breaks across pages. I have also tried removing
all borders and then reapplying them; I tried removing the table after
copying into Excel, then bringing in the table from Excel back into Word and
reformatting; no luck. Further, I tried shifting the table upwards on the
page to see if the trouble followed to what would then become a different
bottom most row. The trouble DID follow; no bottom grid line will print.

I'm out of ideas.

Suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

This is a longstanding problem in Word. The only thing I can suggest (and
obviously, this is a solution that is helpful only when editing is complete
and repagination is unlikely) is to make sure that the bottom row on the
page has a Bottom border. It seems that Word may think of an Inside
Horizontal Border as really being a Top or Bottom border and then omits the
Outside border on portions of the table. So the single border between rows
will appear as a Top border on the next page, leaving the last row on the
given page without a Bottom border.

 

[cayce]

This is a longstanding problem in Word. The only thing I can suggest (and
obviously, this is a solution that is helpful only when editing is complete
and repagination is unlikely) is to make sure that the bottom row on the
page has a Bottom border. It seems that Word may think of an Inside
Horizontal Border as really being a Top or Bottom border and then omits the
Outside border on portions of the table. So the single border between rows
will appear as a Top border on the next page, leaving the last row on the
given page without a Bottom border.

Thanks for pointing this issue out. Now I can explain to my mgr's mgr that
this is a bug that can only be fixed at the end of the publication cycle, and
the starting document that I manage for others to customize is accurately
defined.

I have a final question: Is there any understanding of WHEN this is likely
to occur? I have other mulipage tables in this and other documents that do
not have this happen. If there is a way to anticipate it, this would be
helpful. (These tables appear in customer facing documents, so this has
become a high profile issue for me.)

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

With any luck, perhaps someone else with more experience will weigh in here.
I've noticed this problem and dealt with it on an ad hoc basis but not
approached it analytically. It's possible that some of the more analytical
users (the ones who like to do detective work--Beth, are you listening?)
will be able to provide more information on what causes this, as my analysis
is mostly a guess.