Format Changes From One Computer to Another

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bright Spark
  • Start date Start date
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Bright Spark

Hoping someone can help me. I have a document that I'm working on
both on the office computer and on my home computer (I keep the
document on a CD for transportation!) Inexplicably, the formatting
will change slightly from one computer to the other - words that fit
perfectly onto one line on one computer will suddenly slip down to a
new line on the other, columns that line up perfectly on one are all
skewed on the other! Isn't the formatting built in to the document?
What do I have to do to make it stay the same between computers or
versions of MS Word? Do I have to cart my "normal template" around
with me as well (it has been changed from the MS normal template the
program came with).

Thanks for any help.

Bright Spark
 
Thank you for responding, Suzanne. The FAQ article does answer a
couple of questions, but leaves me with more. It's not the page
breaks I have trouble with, it appears to be things like tab settings,
margins, etc. The normal template "defaults" are different from one
machine to the other - it's not reading the tabs that were set in the
original document but instead is using the tabs that are set in the
other normal template - in other words, it's overriding my original
formatting. Also, I cannot find a way to add in a printer which is
not attached to my computer (the suggestion of using as default the
printer which it will be printed on seems like a good idea - but I
can't see a way to get there in the print properties window).

Thanks again.

Bright Spark
 
For problem (1), it's best to use a custom template rather than Normal.dot.
If you must use Normal.dot, at least make sure that "Automatically update
document styles" is not enabled in Tools | Templates and Add-ins.

As to (2), go to Start | Settings | Printers and choose Add Printer. Select
the driver for the printer you're ultimately going to be printing from and
install it. When working on a document to be printed from that printer,
choose it in Word's Print dialog. (Word doesn't have to know it isn't
physically attached to the computer).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
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