Track Changes balloons

[Zeph]

Greets -

A user running OS X 10.3.5 and Office 11.1 is having a problem printing
document changes marked by the track function of Word.

What he wants to do is turn off the balloons, showing the changes
within the document, but not showing them highlighted on the right side
of the page. He's gone to Tools:Track Changes:Highlight Changes,
clicked Options, and has disabled Balloons. When printing, the
balloons do not appear, but the text is still compressed, as the
software is apparently leaving a gap on the right side for those
balloons.

Is there a way to show the changes without the balloons, and without a
gap for the balloons?

I've dumped the prefs, of course, to no avail....

Thanks,
z

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Huh. I just tried to replicate this (as it is the second instance of this
problem recently, I thought, but now I can't find the other one) and it
worked fine for me. So your user's settings seem to be right. I did go into
Print Preview first, though I only know of one bug where that makes a
difference.

Is your user's Print Preview correct? Check for updated printer driver, or
reinstall in case it's corrupted?

DM

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

And...that's what I get for being too lazy to walk down the hall again for
the second test, before posting.

I tracked some changes, turned off balloons, printed directly from Page
Layout *without* going into Print Preview first, and got the text all
scrunched to the left. So try going into Print Preview before printing, and
see if it comes out right.

Can some other people try to duplicate this?

DM

 

[Clive Huggan]

Daiya and Zeph,

I followed Zeph's notes and got the behaviour he noted.

I followed Daiya's suggestion (going to Print Preview before printing) and
didn't get any change in behaviour, either when re-printing the first one or
when I created a new Tracked Changes document, went straight to Print
Preview then Page Layout and printed.

These documents were created using Compare Documents.

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)
============================================================

 

[Clive Huggan]

Daiya,

Following my earlier post: I read your comments in the thread "Printing
Track Changes..." (which I had overlooked) then ran a few more tests,
including using a doc in which changes were done in real time rather than by
doc comparison. Result: no different; text over on left in all printed
copies.

Word 2004, OS 10.3.6.

Cheers,

Clive
========

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Bummer. I was hoping it would be that easy. Okay, intermittent bug then?
I'm at home with a different printer/driver, and I can't get the text to
squash to the left at all, regardless of Print Preview.

One HP LaserJet 5M--got both results, Print Preview seemed to be the only
difference at the time.
One Brother 1440--can't get it to misbehave at all, did same things as did
when I got the error at work.

Thanks for testing. I'll mess around some more at work, see if I can
replicate the error.

My testing procedure, just to make sure:
=rand (4,4). Throw in a few changes. Turn off balloons. Print.
(Have tried different variations of turning on balloons vs. starting up with
balloons already on; and turning off track changes before or after printing;
but doesn't seem to make a difference).

Daiya

 

[Beth Rosengard]

I just tried this and had no problems printing the page normally.

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Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/index.htm>
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[Delfino Rodriguez]

And...that's what I get for being too lazy to walk down the hall again for
the second test, before posting.

I tracked some changes, turned off balloons, printed directly from Page
Layout *without* going into Print Preview first, and got the text all
scrunched to the left. So try going into Print Preview before printing, and
see if it comes out right.

Can some other people try to duplicate this?

I just tried this -- made some changes, compared the doc, turned on
balloons, turned off balloons... When I go into print preview the
document appears fine; but when I print it is still compressed,
regardless. Also, the smaller print preview window in the print dialog
also shows the document compressed, so there must be some difference
between the two previews.

Also, it turns out to be worse than I thought. I attempted to compare
a pair of documents which had never been compared, and ensured that the
balloon feature was off from the start. I was under the assumption
that the error would only creep in after the balloons had been engaged
at least once, but in fact the text of the redlined doc is compressed
just as if the balloons were on, or had been turned on. Seems to be
some general trouble with the compare feature, at least on some setups,
some of the time....

Any other ideas?

Thanks,
z

I did try to reinstall the print driver, to no avail. This is an HP
Laserjet 2300, for whatever that's worth.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I did try to reinstall the print driver, to no avail. This is an HP
Laserjet 2300, for whatever that's worth.

It might be worth something....I had problems with an HP too, and they do
have some known bugs on the WinWord side...

If Clive were using an HP and Beth not...?

Daiya

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Anybody, see if Print to PDF gives you different results than regular
printing?

My office setup with the HP is being totally inconsistent, I can get the
error sometimes but can't force it to happen. (my printer driver was
installed before the 10.3.6 update, haven't tried reinstalling it).

DM

 

[Clive Huggan]

It might be worth something....I had problems with an HP too, and they do
have some known bugs on the WinWord side...

If Clive were using an HP and Beth not...?

Daiya

Mine is an HP 2300 too. Don't have time to experiment today -- just about to
fly out the door -- but will come back tonight (Oz time) and see what I can
do.

Being in / having been in Normal / Page Layout view doesn't affect it, does
it?

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)
============================================================

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Okay, so far no counter-evidence for the HP-related theory....

Being in / having been in Normal / Page Layout view doesn't affect it, does
it?

Not as far as I can tell. I have been switching between the two in my
tests, but nothing systematic.

DM

 

[Clive Huggan]

I have run through again, Daiya, and find nothing different from the
behaviour reported before.

Cheers,

Clive
================

 

[Rob Daly [MSFT]]

Hi Zeph,

Thank you for reporting this issue - it is indeed a strange one. We have had some success in reproducing the issue here at Microsoft and are currently tracking the cause. I think I may be able to provide you with a way to print the document without the irregular scaling - try the following:

1. File | Print (if you still experience the scaling issue, then continue)
2. Click on the "copies and pages" dropdown and choose "Microsoft Word"
3. From the "Print what:" dropdown, choose "Document"
4. Go back to the "copies and pages" pane of the print dialog

The problem should now go away.

Let me know if this works for you,

Rob Daly
Macintosh Business Unit
Word Test

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[Zeph]

Rob -

Thanks for the response. That solution does allow the user to print
the document uncompressed, but without the redlining/strikethroughs.
Is there a way to print it with the redlines and strikethroughs,
without the balloons, and full size?

Thanks,
z

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Daiya,

Sorry, I've been away from the newsgroup for a while.

I was using a Brother printer, not HP like you and Clive. If it's important
enough I'll go back and do some more testing but I've been away so long,
I've almost forgotten what the issue is . Let me know.

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***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org>

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Hi Beth,

Actually, that supports the possibility that HP might be a factor in certain
incidences. But the MacBU is on it, so I think we can let it go here,
unless somebody new manages to come up with some surefire triggers to cause
the squashed effect even when they *don't'* have track changes balloons set
to print.

DM

 

[Ron Taylor]

Daiya and Zeph,

I followed Zeph's notes and got the behaviour he noted.

I followed Daiya's suggestion (going to Print Preview before printing) and
didn't get any change in behaviour, either when re-printing the first one or
when I created a new Tracked Changes document, went straight to Print
Preview then Page Layout and printed.

These documents were created using Compare Documents.

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)
============================================================

My solution was to go into Preferences:View and make sure "Hidden text"
and "All" are unchecked. Then, sometimes on top of that, it may take a
toggle of the chosen printer in the print dialog to snap it out of the
problem.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Hi Ron,

Thanks so much for publicizing your fix. Very helpful to learn that viewing
Hidden Text makes a difference to Printing Track Changes.

DM

 

[John McGhie]

Viewing hidden text makes a difference to ALL kinds of printing.

If I have had adequate coffee that morning, I remember to turn off hidden
text before paginating and printing formal documents. The non-printing text
of course occupies space, and in a book this leads to wrong page numbers in
the index, cross-references, and TOC.

Hi Ron,

Thanks so much for publicizing your fix. Very helpful to learn that viewing
Hidden Text makes a difference to Printing Track Changes.

DM

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