Pages re-flow when printer changed

[MJ]

My problem is that if I change printers my Word document reflows the text.
This is a big problem if I am not the creator of the document and have to
print the document so that it appears as the original. Is there a way to
stop Word re-flowing when you change printers?

Thanks in advance

MJ

 

[Margaret Aldis]

Hi MJ

Word will always reflow the text to suit the current printer driver.

It's really only the document creator who can address this issue. If you are
creating documents for printing elsewhere, the best advice is to save in PDF
format. If you are creating documents to be edited and printed by another
user, you need to work with the target printer driver selected (you do not
have to own the physical printer to install the driver).

If you need to maintain the page layout as far as possible over a number of
different printers, then choose a common font, and make sure the
compatibility option 'use printer metrics' is not checked. Another trick is
to make sure you make use of the line and page breaking rules. Often this
will keep the pagination the same, and if not at least the flow will still
be 'pretty'. Conversely, attempting to 'fix' the layout with hard page
breaks and spacing will tend to produce the worse messes.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

For some suggestions on creating a layout that will avoid reflow problems
(that is, not avoid reflow altogether but avoid bad page breaks), see
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Formatting/TextReflow.htm

--
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.