Pictures with paragraph spacing offset at top of page

[Eric F]

Pictures that have been assigned paragraph spacing "Before" do not appear
properly at top of pages when following other text paragraphs on previous
pages. The pictures are shifted down by the difference between the "Before
spacing" of the pictures and the "After" spacing of the preceding paragraph.
The document treats the spacing of the remaining document as if the pictures
are properly positioned, so any text following the pictures then cut into the
bottom of the pictures themselves. This occures on-screen and in printing
and in both my 32 and 64 bit Windows XP installations.

Replicate the error in a new document by creating a block of text that fills
most of the first page. Hit return and add an "in-line" picture that then
automatically spills on to the next page. Hit return and add a block of text
after the picture. Finally, go to the paragraph settings of the picture and
assign a "Before" spacing of something large like 100.

Has anybody else seen this? Exhaustive online searches turned up one other
individual having a similar problem, however a responding Microsoft employee
dismissed it as being something wrong with the individual's file. Thanks....

 

[DeanH]

First place I would check is the Compatibility settings, found under Tools,
Options (this is for 2003 and prior - you don't mention the version of Word
you are using).
In this Compatibility listing there are three options that could be
affecting the document.
1. Suppress extra line spacing at the bottom of the page.
2. Suppress extra line spacing at the top of the page.
3. Suppress Space Before after a hard page or column break.

The last one problably is not affecting your problem, as you don't mention
any breaks, but these three can affect documents as you describe.
Not sure about the text cutting into the picture, are the pictures
InLineWithText? From you description I assume they are. Is your line spacing
(Format, Paragraph) set to Exact? If it is try Single or At Least instead.

Hope this helps, and remember that most contributors on this forum are not
MS employees, so don't paint us with the same brush ;-)
DeanH

 

[Eric F]

Thanks for quick reply Dean. Sorry, didn't mean to group anybody (I didn't
mean to sound derogatory towards Microsoft employees either, but upon
rereading, I guess I did a pretty good job of it.... sorry). I was just
trying to aide the troubleshooting process by pointing out that at least one
other person has reported a similar problem in a different forum.

I am using Word 2007. I tried every combinations of the three compatibility
options but with no luck. I am placing the figure InLineWithText, and I've
tried every line spacing option, also with no luck. And no, there are no
page breaks.

Also of note is that if I turn on the paragraph marks, I can see that the
picture is shifted below its own paragraph mark. In other words, the
paragraph mark is where I would expect the picture to end, and where the next
paragraph thinks it ends, but it in fact extends below it by whatever I set
the "Before" spacing to in the picture.

I'm curious if anybody is able to reproduce this error. I've tried it on
three computers so far, each starting a document from scratch and using a
different image, with the same result (however, all three copies of office
were from the same install under a group license, but thats all I've got to
test with).

Thanks.

 

[DeanH]

Not to the employees - sure, but the company .... ;-)
No offence taken.
I cannot replicate the problem except by having the image NOT InLineWithText
but you say it definitely is ILWT, so I am stumped.
Not ILWT also shows the text running under the image as well.

Can you select the offending paragraph, press Ctrl+Spacebar to remove any
manual formatting that may be affecting the image/text. This will revert the
formatting to the underlying style.
Does this help?
The only thing else I can think of doing is deleting the image and the
paragraph marks (as well as some above and below if available, to be sure).
Copy some paragraphs from a good point in the document, paste in the place
you want. Re-Insert the image ensuring ILWT.
And then cross fingers.

DeanH

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

In addition to Ctrl+Spacebar, Ctrl+Q might be needed. But it sounds to me
also very much as if the picture might actually be wrapped, with a position
set relative to the paragraph (and not 0").

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Eric F]

Ctrl-space didn't help, and ctrl-Q got rid of the problem, but only because
it eliminated the necessary paragraph formatting which caused the problem in
the first place. The problem occurs with every new document, and no matter
how many times I delete and reinsert the picture, and regardless of what the
picture is.

I'm trying to set up a strict template of styles for what is going to be a
very long document with a lot of pictures and other added media. Every
picture in the document must be preceded by a large block of space. To make
sure that the space is not present when a picture ends up at the start of a
page, I've included the space by setting a Paragraph-Spacing-Before of 60pt
to the paragraph settings for the picture. The picture is definitely
InLineWithText, or I wouldn't be able to apply paragraph settings to the
figure to begin with.

What then ends up happening instead though is that the space gets added to
the picture when it is at the start of the page anyway, but the text below
the picture treats the picture as if it is _not_ offset. So the picture is
offset from the top, and the text is not offset, so the picture then cuts
into the text.

If nobody can replicate the problem by following the quick steps in my
original post, then something must be wrong with my install copy (is that
even possible?).

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You're definitely doing everything correctly. I would guess there might be
some slight corruption in the document. Try closing the document and using
Open and Repair to see if that makes any difference.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Eric F]

Tried the repair process, still no good. Two new findings though:

I completely uninstalled office on my XP computer and downloaded the office
trial from the Microsoft website, still had the same problem.

I went through the steps to replicate the problem on a coworker's Mac
version of Word 2008, and the problem did not occur. I then took a saved
problem file from the XP computer, and opened it up on the Mac, and the
problem was gone. I saved the file and brought it back to the XP machine,
and the problem was there again. I'd dismiss it as a video card problem, but
it occurs on three different XP machines (with different video cards) and the
problem is still there when I print to a physical printer.

So if all else fails, I just have to ignore the issue on XP, and then move
the final file to the Mac for printing. I'm trying to make the case that I
can type up my dissertation in Word faster than my coworker can learn and
type up his in Latex (using a buggy class file I might add). With the help
of MathType and BibTex-Word integration, I thought I stood a pretty good
chance. My hope is starting to dwindle.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Well, now that just sucks. Can you isolate a small example of this problem
and send me the file to look at?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Eric F]

I sent you an example problem document via email. It just has a block of
text that fills most of the first page, an InLineWithText image with 100 pt
"Before" spacing that ends up at the start of the next page, and then another
block of text. The picture ends up shifted down on my XP computer so that
much of it is covered by the text. Thanks.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

It was a great sample, and I've responded. I can reproduce the issue in a
new Word 2007 document. Interestingly, if I open it in Word 2003, it behaves
itself.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org