Help desperately needed with printing problem

[Chrissie]

I've spent so long trying to work this out that I think I now can't see the
wood for the trees. I created my very first mail merge today in order to
send out 250 letters. All was fine until I went to print it. The first
letter was formatted perfectly on the paper, just where I wanted it to be.
From then on however the text slipped further down the page until it was
completely out of synch; unfortunately I didn't notice until halfway through
the print run after I had used about 100 sheets of expensive headed paper.

I'm thinking it must be a problem with how the original letter was formatted
(I didn't do this part) but I can't for the life of me think how to correct
it so that the letter prints in the same place on every page. As I said, I
have never created a mail merge before, and am only really familiar with
shifting text by using the delete and return buttons; I've never got into
page breaks.

Normally I would take the time to sort this out but time is something I
don't have, I just need somebody to suggest things that I could be doing
wrong and ways of putting them right.

Many thanks in advance, Chrissie

 

[Peter Jamieson]

The first thing I would try is unchecking Tools|Options|Print|Allow Letter
paper/A4 resizing, and verifying that the paper size is correct in both Word
File|Page Setup and the default properties of the current printer.

It is probably worth outputting to a new file rather than printing directly,
at least while you'retesting. Then you can use Print|Preview, which /might/
show up some problems, and check the page setup again before printing
(tocheap paper when testing, I hope).

Best I can suggest for now.

Peter Jamieson

 

[Chrissie]

Thanks Peter, I will give that a go.

I'm sure it is something simple. I am doing this as a favour for my brother
so I have been working on his computer; it's amazing how thrown your thought
processes can be just by being on a different machine. Ugh, who would have a
brother who needs letters sending out to his clients telling them the
business premises are moving on the day before he moves???

 

[Chrissie]

hi Peter - just thought I would let you know that I managed to sort it out,
thanks to you.

Not sure what the problem actually was in the end, because I followed the
steps you suggested and then checked the printer properties which had
settings I had never seen before, frankly!

Anyway, job done, many thanks. Chrissie

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Glad you sorted it out and thanks for the feedback.

Peter Jamieson