weird spacing between letters in printed text from Word 2004

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benedict.robinson@stonybrook.edu - 27 Oct 2005 17:01 GMT

Has anyone else had a problem with weird gaps between letters in
printed documents from Word 2004? I can print the same documents in
Office X or a text editor and they're fine, so the problem isn't the
printer (an HP LaserJet); but even reinstalling Office 2004 didn't fix
this: when I print, there are huge spaces between some of the letters,
so that it looks as though the document is riddled with typos. I
called the helpline yesterday, but though the guy I spoke to said he'd
encountered something like this before, he couldn't remember how it was
resolved.

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Elliott Roper - 27 Oct 2005 17:44 GMT

> Has anyone else had a problem with weird gaps between letters in
> printed documents from Word 2004? I can print the same documents in
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> encountered something like this before, he couldn't remember how it was
> resolved.

That sounds like the early days of Word X and OS X 10.mumble that came
out the same day and tripped each other up. Then the problem was
confined to postscript type 1 fonts. I suspect that you may have
something similar happening again, since the fonts 2004 prefers are the
unicode versions of things with the same name. I'd bet that something
is screwing up between Word 2004 and the printer. One of them is
mistaken about which font the other is using.

Try this test if you are on Tiger. Print to PDF as postscript, then
open that in Preview.app and see how it looks and prints.
(It will embed the font sent to the printer.)

You might try changing the document font to something the printer
definitely does not have as one of its own and trying to print that.

If that fixes things, and you are happy with the fonts Word is using,
crank out your printer manual to discover how to disable its built-in
fonts.

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Matt Centurión [MSFT] - 28 Oct 2005 22:15 GMT

Hi Benedict, in Word 2004 we modernized our text layout routines which
should not cause bad layout problems. However you might have a special case.

One thing to check is the following:

1. Open your document
2. Choose "Word | Preferences..."
3. Click on Compatibility
4. Choose "Microsoft Word 2000-2004 and X" from "Recommended options
for:" popup
5. Ok dialog

If that doesn't work try toggling the value of the checkbox named "Use
printer metrics to lay out document" in that same preference dialog.

Let us know if either/neither of these steps solves your problem.

Matt
MacWord Testing
Microsoft

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On 10/27/05 9:01 AM, in article
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dannybex - 03 Nov 2005 04:31 GMT

I'm having the same general problem. I have a screenplay I wrote on a
old mac using styles I had formatted in Word 6.0/95. What wa
originally a 111 page script, is now 120 pages, because both the space
between each of the letters is greater, plus the space between the line
are larger. I ran a compatability report, and it suggested as you di
above, that I "choose "Microsoft Word 2000-2004 and X" from th
compatability list. I did, hit "okay", nothing happens -- still 12
pages.

If I run another compatability report on the script, it pulls up th
same advice. I'm wondering if there are other boxes I'm supposed t
check, like "reset ignored issues" or "default", etc., before hittin
"okay"? Or -- do I need to "select all" in the script document, befor
going through the whole compatibility thing.

I'd appreciate any tips on things I must be missing.

Thanks,

Da

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dannybe
macosx.com - The Answer to Mac Support - http://www.macosx.co

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Rob Daly [MSFT] - 03 Nov 2005 17:27 GMT

I defer to Matt's earlier post on this. The options for fixing this are not
in the Compatibility report, but are in the Compatibility Options sections
of the preferences dialog. Simply set the overall compat options to
"Microsoft Word 2000-2004 and X" or as Matt suggested, check/uncheck printer
metrics.

If none of that works, I have two further suggestions:
Uncheck every single option selected in the full list of compat options in
that dialog.
Do the same in Windows Word and save the document. Then open again on
MacWord.

Please let me know how that goes.

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Rob Daly
Macintosh Business Unit
Word Test

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> I'm having the same general problem. I have a screenplay I wrote on an
> old mac using styles I had formatted in Word 6.0/95. What was
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
>
> Dan

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Daiya Mitchell - 08 Nov 2005 18:53 GMT

Dan's problem discussed in great detail on this thread:

<http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.word.docmanagement/browse_f
rm/thread/18cae8b160a45283/0ac6cc7770653ddd>

> I'm having the same general problem. I have a screenplay I wrote on an
> old mac using styles I had formatted in Word 6.0/95. What was
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
>
> Dan

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Mac Forum / Applications / Word / November 2005

weird spacing between letters in printed text from Word 2004