MS-Word table borders problems - edges not lining up (esp. in PDF) - Is MS-Word up to it?

[lauralevern123]

I consider myself as an advanced Word user and I'm looking to automate
certain documents - but I'm running into problems when using Word
Tables - and now I'm not sure Word's output quality is up to the job.

I've created a simple three row table in MS-Word 2003 which I then
select and setup with a colored background of green and some internal
borders of red.

When you "Hide Gridlines" you can see some suspect right edge to the
borders - the right of the table is not in a straight line - with
nicks missing on the right side of the borders.

This gets worse when you turn the document into PDF (I've tried two
PDF converters to confirm that it's not the PDF converter that's at
fault). In the resulting PDFs, both the left and right sides of the
border lines are indented from the left and right edges of the green
table.

The problems only seem to get worse when you continue to apply
additional borders or play with the Table Properties Cell Margins.
I must use PDF to deliver my documents - but these edges problems are
just not acceptable.

Is there a way around this? Or is MS-Word just not up to the job when
dealing with high-end quality production.

Any assistance would be invaluable at this point.
Many thanks
Lorts

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

How are you creating the green background? Have you confirmed that the table
rows are of equal widths? It is possible to drag cell boundaries for a
single row and entirely too easy to do this inadvertently.

 

[lauralevern123]

I've recorded this VBA macro to demonstrate the table build process
(no more than clicking on the Table toolbar icon to build a 3 row
table - then onto the Format.Borders and Shading to color the
background and add the borders).



{{{
Sub CreateTable()
'
' CreateTable Macro
' Macro recorded 5/15/2007
'
ActiveDocument.Tables.Add Range:=Selection.Range, NumRows:=3,
NumColumns:= _
1, DefaultTableBehavior:=wdWord9TableBehavior,
AutoFitBehavior:= _
wdAutoFitFixed
With Selection.Tables(1)
If .Style <> "Table Grid" Then
.Style = "Table Grid"
End If
.ApplyStyleHeadingRows = True
.ApplyStyleLastRow = True
.ApplyStyleFirstColumn = True
.ApplyStyleLastColumn = True
End With
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Zoom.Percentage = 75
With Selection.Tables(1)
With .Shading
.Texture = wdTextureNone
.ForegroundPatternColor = wdColorAutomatic
.BackgroundPatternColor = wdColorLime
End With
.Borders(wdBorderLeft).LineStyle = wdLineStyleNone
.Borders(wdBorderRight).LineStyle = wdLineStyleNone
.Borders(wdBorderTop).LineStyle = wdLineStyleNone
.Borders(wdBorderBottom).LineStyle = wdLineStyleNone
With .Borders(wdBorderHorizontal)
.LineStyle = wdLineStyleSingle
.LineWidth = wdLineWidth050pt
.Color = wdColorAutomatic
End With
.Borders(wdBorderDiagonalDown).LineStyle = wdLineStyleNone
.Borders(wdBorderDiagonalUp).LineStyle = wdLineStyleNone
.Borders.Shadow = False
End With
With Options
.DefaultBorderLineStyle = wdLineStyleSingle
.DefaultBorderLineWidth = wdLineWidth050pt
.DefaultBorderColor = wdColorAutomatic
End With
End Sub
}}}

Any thoughts?
Thanks (in advance)

 

[Tony Jollans]

It is the case that some slightly odd effects can occur if you have a mix of
border styles but I see no problems with the result of running your code -
either in Word itself or PDF output from it (using Word 2007) - and wouldn't
expect to. Even at maximum magnification (500 in Word, 1600 in PDF) all the
lines are dead straight.

 

[lauralevern123]

It is the case that some slightly odd effects can occur if you have a mix ofborderstyles but I see noproblemswith the result of running your code -
either inWorditself or PDF output from it (usingWord2007) - and wouldn't
expect to. Even at maximum magnification (500 inWord, 1600 in PDF) all the
lines are dead straight.

--
Enjoy,

Tony Jollans
MicrosoftWordMVP








- Show quoted text -

Sorry - did I mention ... this is running in Word2003 (I don't have
access to 2007)

 

[Tony Jollans]

Sorry - did I mention ... this is running in Word2003 (I don't have

access to 2007)

Yes, it does seem as though you have a problem in Word 2003. I do not think
there is a sensible solution. Sorry.