Margin Justification issues

[Candace]

I'm a working writer. I'm having a serious issue with Word 2008 that is preventing me from using the program.

When I import a document from Scrivener or Nisus Writer Pro that is supposed to have a left justified margin, I'm getting BOTH a right & a left margin justification in Word 2008. But it's not consistent, either. Every ten or so pages, I will get one page that is justified correctly--that is, only on the left. When I highlight the entire document and attempt to shift it to ANY other justification, it does not work. The erroneous view remains.

How do I fix this?

--Candace

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

A new issue....Questions:

put the cursor in a paragraph showing the wrong justification. Go to
Format | Paragraph. What is the Alignment showing?

How did you import the document?

What view in Word are you using? Draft, Page Layout....

 

[Candace]

On Feb 10, 2008, at 15: 57, Daiya Mitchell wrote:
put the cursor in a paragraph showing the wrong justification. Go to Format | Paragraph. What is the Alignment showing?

Hi, Daiya. Thanks for the help. I did as you suggested & the alignment showing is 'Left'--but as I said, it's not. It's justified on both sides. Also, I looked closer at the doc & the few spots were it is actually left justified involves at most a paragraph or two, not the entire page.

How did you import the document?

It's coming from a exported file on my desktop. The exported file is from Scrivener. I know the issue is with Word 2008 though, because I do not have this issue with using the same Scrivener export for Word 2004--or Nisus Writer Pro or Mellel. Unfortunately, Word 2004 is very unstable on my Mac & not worth the trouble. A shame, because I was a huge Word fan on PC for years. I had such hopes for Word 2008.

What view in Word are you using? Draft, Page Layout....

I'm using Print Layout view, but I just changed the view to Draft & the same issue is there. I really appreciate any help you can give.

Not sure if this helps, but if I save the incoming document in Word 97-2004 format from inside Word 2008, then close the document and reopen it, the margins are okay & I can change the justification back & forth. But this is a huge pain since the conversion process also adds roughly 16 pages to a 500 page manuscript as well. And it means I'm essentially bypassing the new .docx format--which is, of course, one of the touted "improved features" of Word 2008. A long way to say, I think the issue lies in the .docx coding.

--Candace

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Hmm....

It's possible that some sort of corruption occurred in the export/import
process--try saving the .docx as a webpage. Close the documents. Reopen
the HTML version in Word, and save back as a .docx. This rebuilds the
document.

If that doesn't do it--

Did Scrivener export the file to .docx, to .doc, or to RTF, or what?
Would you be willing to send me the file to take a look at?

Does this happen with every single file you bring out of Scrivener, or
just certain ones?

Try a few different fonts and see if they all show the same problem.

 

[Candace]

<<It's possible that some sort of corruption occurred in the export/import process--try saving the .docx as a webpage. Close the documents. Reopen the HTML version in Word, and save back as a .docx. This rebuilds the document.>>

Okay, I tried this--no help at all. Issue remains.

<<Did Scrivener export the file to .docx, to .doc, or to RTF, or what?>>

Scrivener exports it to .doc format. As I said earlier, Word 2004 imported the same files fine. I recently deleted Word 04 when I purchased 08 because it was so unstable & not worth using.

<<Would you be willing to send me the file to take a look at?>>

Sure. I really need this to be resolved & soon since I'm on the verge of sending out a mss my agent is waiting on.

<<Does this happen with every single file you bring out of Scrivener, or just certain ones?>>

Yes. Just tried other files--same issue.

<<Try a few different fonts and see if they all show the same problem.>>

Okay, I did this too & noticed something odd. When I converted the font to Times New Roman inside Word 08, the justification issues went away--but here's the deal. I write fiction. The editor this mss is headed to wants the mss in courier. I also know that eventually I'll have to send disc in & most of NY uses Word on their end--in other words, I really need this to work!

I have no idea why the issue exists just within courier (and New Courier, Dark Courier, etc)--but maybe this will help you troubleshoot?

--Candace

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Good quoting system.

The font thing is a *very* good clue--for instance, this could be caused
by duplicate fonts or Word using the wrong version of a font. Chances
are your editor/agent might not even see this problem--it might be
specific to your machine. Try some font troubleshooting:

1) Quit all Office apps. In your User Account, find the file
username/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office 2008/Office Font Cache
(12) and drag it to the desktop. Restart Word and see if the problem
persists.

2) Open up Font Book in Applications--try the Validate Fonts command on
Courier and friends, and if you see any fonts with a black dot next to
their names, use the Edit | Resolve Duplicates command.

You might also create a new user account in OS X and see if you see the
problem. If you don't, then I'd bet money your editor/agent won't see it
either. But even if you do, it still might just be your machine.

You can send me the document daiya at-symbol mvps period org (translate
as necessary) if none of that works.