upgrading to Microsoft Word 2004

[jlmail27]

I recently upgraded from Word X to Word 2004. Everything works okay,
but I have a problem with preserving original formatting. Word 2004
changes things a bit. For example, things that fit on one page in Word
X (with a page break) will extend into a second page in Word 2004. I
am a teacher with thousands of pages of worksheets. It would take me
months to go in and reformat all my old documents. So, I am not using
Word 2004 for now. Any fix to this problem?

 

[Elliott Roper]

I recently upgraded from Word X to Word 2004. Everything works okay,
but I have a problem with preserving original formatting. Word 2004
changes things a bit. For example, things that fit on one page in Word
X (with a page break) will extend into a second page in Word 2004. I
am a teacher with thousands of pages of worksheets. It would take me
months to go in and reformat all my old documents. So, I am not using
Word 2004 for now. Any fix to this problem?

The good news is that you can keep both flavours of Word on one machine.

The bad news is that if you are getting a lot of unwanted repagination
it is because your v.X documents were broken to begin with. You must
have carefully avoided "keep with next" and "keep lines together" and
done great armfuls of manual breaks with margins too close to the edge
of what Word 2004 thinks your printer thinks is the edge of the
printable area on the page.

If the worksheets are pretty static, you might use v.X to print to PDF,
and hand those out in class. Then as changes occur, update your
worksheets with the best practice you will find in "Bend Word to Your
Will" by Clive Huggan at
http://word.mvps.org/Mac/Bend/BendWordToYourWill.html

It will tell you how well defined styles co-operate with "keep with
next" and generous margins to minimise unexpected page breaks.

It is what every professional, with thousands of worksheets in his
control, should know before starting on them.