Tab stops moving after saving / emailing file

[Dutchnman]

I have numberous files with headers that contain text separated by multiple
tabs - in other words, 3-4 lines of text appearing like two columns but there
are 3-4 tabs in between the text on each line. When I email the files, the
recipient often sees the text appearing like some of the tabs have been
deleted and the justification is all off. When I open the file again, my
copy still looks fine. Both users, the recipient and I, are using Word 2007
but I'm in Windows XP and the recipient uses Windows 7. Could this be the
cause or does anything else come to mind. I'm trying to produce
production-ready files and can't have text moving on me.
Thanks!

 

[Jay Freedman]

I have numberous files with headers that contain text separated by multiple
tabs - in other words, 3-4 lines of text appearing like two columns but there
are 3-4 tabs in between the text on each line. When I email the files, the
recipient often sees the text appearing like some of the tabs have been
deleted and the justification is all off. When I open the file again, my
copy still looks fine. Both users, the recipient and I, are using Word 2007
but I'm in Windows XP and the recipient uses Windows 7. Could this be the
cause or does anything else come to mind. I'm trying to produce
production-ready files and can't have text moving on me.
Thanks!

I can't imagine how the difference in operating systems could have any
effect on this at all.

It may be that the the Normal.dotm templates on your respective
computers have different settings for the default tab stops, assuming
the document isn't based on some other template. On each computer,
press Alt+O, T to open the Tabs dialog and check the default value.

A more general observation: Don't use 3 or 4 consecutive tabs, based
on the default tab stop settings, to position anything. Set a specific
non-default tab stop in the single paragraph where you want something
positioned, and then use only one tab to go to it.