Pictures inserted with Layout "Centered" not centered

[swg]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I first noticed this when saving a Word 2004 .doc as a Word 2008 .docx. The centered image in the header of the file moved to the right during the save.

To test this, I made an 8.5" wide by 0.25" 300 dpi .tiff image (solid bar), created a new .docx, inserted the picture, made sure it was scaled to 100% by 100%, set layout to "Square" and Horizontal Alignment to "Centered" - it leaves a little white space to the left of the image on the page. In other words, Word is not centering the picture but placing it to the right of center. WHY?

FYI: using Absolute Position of 0" to Right of Page works just fine (for all pictures I've tried at appropriate distance from left). So, yes, we can change all our "Centered" pictures to absolute positions to right of page to get them centered - doesn't seem like the best way to me.

It's not much, but enough to cause items below in our office's standard documents to not align anymore - very frustrating for a firm who makes a living on content AND image.

 

[CyberTaz]

Center Alignment is a Paragraph formatting attribute which does not apply to
objects which have Text Wrapping of any type applied to them. If the object
is formatted as In Line with Text rather than "floating" the Paragraph
Alignment will control it. See this page & its associated links beginning
with the topic: Inline versus floating graphics:

http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/DrawingGraphics.htm

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[swg]

Thanks for the suggestion.

The Picture is "floating". I've tried Text Wrap settings to "Square", "Tight", "In Front Of Text", "Behind Text", "Through", and "Top And Bottom". Each one aligns the image a little differently when "Horizontal alignment" is set to "Center" under "Format Picture">"Layout".

I've never seen this problem before,and have been using Word on both Mac and Windows for over 15 years.

 

[CyberTaz]

Well, I think I see what you're referring to, but only if the object is the
same width as the paper size. If the object ~8.25" wide or less there's no
problem. I'm not certain, but it may have something to do with the
combination of printer driver & the new graphics engine used by 2008.

On a related note, Word 2004 would display the 8.5" object edge to edge in
Page Layout View but it would be clipped when printed due to minimum printer
margins. Gaps on either end display in Print Preview.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[swg]

Thanks for looking into this.

Unfortunately, I only used the 8.5" wide picture as a clear example of the behavior. The image I first noticed this happening with, and the steps I took to confirm the behavior (in several new and converted Word files with several new and previously-used picture files) are as follows:

Set Page Setup to US Letter (8.5" x 11")
Set View to Print Layout
Insert Picture From File (5.5" wide)
Format Picture to Behind text and Horizontal Alignment to Centered.
- Picture now appears close to page center, but is not.

Choose Format Picture, choose Layout>Advanced>Picture Position and in the Advanced Layout dialog box set Horizontal to "Absolute position" to 1.5" to the right of "Page".

8.5" page - 5.5" picture = 3". 3" divided by 2 = 1.5". This absolute positioning should have the same result as centering the picture on the page - both are absolutes. However, as soon as you select "OK" from the Advanced Layout dialog box, the image shift left into the proper centered position. Go back and change it to centered on the page again and it shifts right - off center.

I've also noted a strange behavior that when an image is formatted to be centered (doesn't matter if it is to margin, column, or page as far as I can tell), when you nudge the image down (down arrow), it jumps to the left significantly on the first nudge, then back to centered on the second, and to the left on the third, etc. etc. After it's gone to the left, select Format again and it still says centered, select centered again, and it stays left.

Now, I realize that Word is a word processing application - not a page layout application. I use InDesign for that purpose. But ID is a terrible word processor and very few people have it - whereas Word is ubiquitous and therefore the de facto standard. So, it is important that it work for a simple application as centering a picture on a page. I'm guessing this is a bug in Word 2008 as I've never seen or heard of this in previous versions Windows or Mac - it just seems like the math being used to center an image is faulty. I'll figure out how to report this as a possible bug to Microsoft.

Thanks again for looking at this and being patient with me. I hope this discussion helps anybody else dealing with this issue.

Regards.

 

[CyberTaz]

I haven't had an opportunity to explore the additional "strange behavior"
but I'm seeing what you originally wrote about. It appears to me that the
Centered option is positioning approx 1/32" [possibly less] further to the
right than the "Absolute - Right of" setting.

You can report to MacBU if you follow this link:

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/suggestions.mspx

Or you can use Help> Send Feedback from the program's menu bar.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac