Page Layout unavailable

[JGM]

Hi there,

I have a 3-page document that consits of a very, very, very, very busy
table. Did I say it was busy? Just in case... it is extremely busy. Lots of
rows, cells, merged cells, columns all over the place... and a few graphics
as well. I had to follow a nightmarish design done by a design firm that
knows nothing about Word, much less about templates (Oh yeah, it is a
template)... it was done originally in Quark Express. So I did the template
from scratch trying to follow the "nice" design and ended up with this very
busy table and a bunch of form fields.

Here is the problem:
It was done in Word XP and it works fine under XP (There are a few macros as
well)
When I open it in Word 2000 however, the Page Layout option is not
available, I mean, it is there, but nothig happens if I click on it. My
template is stuck in the Normal View mode. I can switch to Web Layout, then
back to Normal, but that is it. If I click on the little Page Layout icon in
the bottom left corner, above the status bar, the button ends up depressed,
but so is the Normal view button and the document is in Normal view! And if
I try to go to Print Preview, Word crashes every single time.

????

Thanks!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Took me a while to realize you meant Print Layout view (yeah, used to be
Page Layout) because I read "Page Layout" as "Page Setup," and if you
couldn't access that you would really be in deep doo-doo. <g> I would say
there are two possibilities here:

1. The document is corrupt. Not unlikely given your "very busy" tables. It's
also possible you've applied formatting that's not available in Word 2000,
but I can think of only one such feature that would apply to tables: in Word
2002, a "wrapped" table can extend beyond one page; in Word 2000 it can't.
So, like any other object that extends beyond a page, you can see it in
Normal view but not in Print Layout. This feature is enabled by default. If
you open the document in Word 2002 and check the box for "Don't break
wrapped tables across pages" in Tools | Options | Compatibility, what
happens to the table? That might be your clue. If this is not the answer,
then proceed to http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm

2. The printer driver is damaged. Given that your problems are arising in
trying to switch to Print Layout view or Print Preview, this could point to
a problem with the printer driver. What happens if you switch to another,
similar driver?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[JGM]

Hi Suzanne, thanks for the input.

1. The Compatibility option you mentioned was already checked.

2. Very possible. When I upgraded to XP, I had a heck of a time finding an
appropriate driver for my HP Laserjet 1100. Once in a while when leaving the
page Setup dialog I get a message that my margins are wrong and Word wants
to set the bottom margin to 2.5 inches... If I close the document and reopen
it, the problem is gone... very strange.
Any way, that is in XP, and the problem I have is in 2000 (the same printer,
but a different driver). Could it be that Word 2000 freaks out if I set the
page size to 17" x 11" while the printer accepts a maximum of 8.5" by 14"?
(I do not intend to print, I am doing this for someone else) Maybe XP let's
me do that, but not Word 2000?!?

Thanks again.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I can see that setting the paper size to something larger than the printer
will print could be a problem. My suggestion would be to find out what
printer the "someone else" is using, install the driver for that, and select
that printer when you work on the document.

As for the margin problem generally, if it's 2.67", it's a known (but more
or less unsolved) conflict between Word 2002 and the HP drivers for certain
LaserJets. There are "margin fix" drivers at
http://www.hp.com/pond/ljbeta/index.html, but none for the 1100. Someone
else with an 1100 posted here recently (IIRC) saying that a driver from that
site had solved his problem, so I guess he must have tried one of the others
(not specifically designated for margin fixing).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[JGM]

Thanks Suzanne,

That:s right, it is 2.67", I just could not remember the number...
I'll contact my client if it becomes neccessary (to get the driver) because
so far I have been able to Work in 2002 and the client has not complained.

I'll have a look at that website and see if I can find something. ( I looked
once, and as you mentionned, I did not find a driver specific to the
1100....)

Thanks again.