Prints resize from customer hard copy

[Customer Service]

Using Office 2001, specifically Excel in Mac OS 9.2.x. We are a print shop
and have received Excel files from clients that they want printed out.

The problem is that like every other MS product, Excel seems to reformat the
size/margins depending on what printer/paper size is selected. Since we need
to use specific drivers for image setters and plate makers, this is a
problem because what we print has different dimensions than the customer's
hard copy.

Common scenario includes setting the print area to print on 1 page within
margins (which do match the .25 inches on customer hard copy.) The document
does match the width, but vertically, there is a lot of extra white space.
The print has basically scaled to 92% both vertically and horizontally, but
to match client hard copy, vertical scaling would be about 100% while
horizontal is 92%. There doesn't seem to be any option to set vertical and
horizontal scaling separately. Turning off the fit on 1 page option results
in several cells dropping off the right side of the page.

How do other service bureaus and print shops deal with documents from MS
Office products not retaining size/position from machine to machine or
printer to printer, beyond the obvious that none of the Office products are
designed for page layout (Even MS Publisher on the PC side has these
problems). We either have to turn down these jobs or give the client
something that looks noticeably different from their hard copy, or start
from scratch and use the proper tools that the clients don't seem to have
and layout the forms/ads within PageMaker, Quark or InDesign.

Is there something I'm missing?

 

[Jim Gordon]

Hi

OOOooo you touched a nerve here!

Please forgive me while I rant, well grouse maybe, about the folks who
expect miracles.

At any given font size and column width, if you type enough stuff it will
eventually go past the margin. There's nothing that can be done about this.
It's a matter of simple addition. Each character that's typed and each
column take a specific amount of space.

I once had a requirement to make a form a minimum of 10 point type, but
client put so much stuff on the form that it would only fit if I either let
Excel scale or I reduced the font size to 7 points or less. I explained that
even if Excel says it is 10 point type, that once it scales it really is
smaller than 10 points. They didn't understand. They insisted that it was
10 point type if Excel said it was. They were very happy that I was able to
make their form 10 point type (even though it really wasn't).

As you have discovered, the only way to fix this is either scale everything
smaller. re-arrange it, or use bigger paper.

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

All responses should be made to this newsgroup within the same thread.
Thanks.

About Microsoft MVPs:
http://www.mvps.org/

Search for help with the free Google search Excel add-in:
<http://www.rondebruin.nl/Google.htm>

----------