Table width changes when printing

[Barry Brown]

I've received a Word doc (probably created in Windows) consisting of two
tables each having two columns. When the doc is printed, something is
causing the width of the columns to change from the dimensions set in Table
Properties, even to the point some text falls outside the table borders!
Both page layout and print preview screens, however, previewing .pdf also
shows the problem.

Any ideas what is causing this and how to correct?

Using Word X for Mac Service release 1 and Epson 960 printer.

 

[Barry Brown]

I've received a Word doc (probably created in Windows) consisting of two
tables each having two columns. When the doc is printed, something is
causing the width of the columns to change from the dimensions set in Table
Properties, even to the point some text falls outside the table borders!
Both page layout and print preview screens, however, previewing .pdf also
shows the problem.

Any ideas what is causing this and how to correct?

Using Word X for Mac Service release 1 and Epson 960 printer.

Sorry, this version was not to be posted. Please see later version.

 

[Clive Huggan]

Barry,

I'm on Word 2004 and skipped Word X, so there might be an update you need --
someone may come along on that soon. They may ask your version of the OS
(it's always good to mention it, because many problems arise from lack of an
upgrade).

Having said that, in Word 2001 I came up against exactly such a phenomenon
in a Windows-originated document that could not be solved by the usual
procedures -- foremost being to select the entire document *except* for the
last paragraph mark, copy it and paste it in a new blank document.

I ended up setting up new tables in the document (after copying the doc w/o
the last paragraph mark) and dragging the text out of the corrupt tables,
then trashing the corrupt tables.

People in Windows had this problem, too -- it wasn't just a Mac thing. The
solution fixed it on the Windows computers too.

If the document has lots of tables and isn't urgent, wait for someone else
to give their views -- but if few+urgent, at least this way works!

If you want more background information on corruption of documents,
including corruption of tables, you can download some notes on the way I use
Word, titled "Bend Word to your Will", free at
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/Bend/BendWord.htm -- then do a "Find"
for "corrup" and particularly "To minimise document corruption" (note the
"s" in "minimise" -- it's an Australian aberration).

Cheers,


Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is at least 5 hours different from the US and Europe,
so my follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
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[Barry Brown]

Clive,

Thanks for the reply. Subsequent to my post I determined that decreasing the
document L/R margins to 1/4" and re-setting width of the tables to original
dimension solved the problem. I think the author of the file somehow placed
table information outside of document margins.



Huggan at (e-mail address removed) wrote on 7/28/04 10:53
PM:

 

[Clive Huggan]

Thanks for getting back, Barry. It turns out, then, that your problem was
quite different from mine -- the tables in my document kept changing width
when something was done (e.g., typing) in another part of the document. I'm
glad yours had a simple solution, and that you took the trouble to give
feedback (which I and the others will remember).

Cheers,

Clive
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